Tie Puts U.S. in Must-Win Situation : Soccer: Americans get caught in 0-0 deadlock against winless El Salvador in World Cup qualifying match.

To qualify for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the United States must win 13 days from now in Trinidad. But in order to win, the United States must score a goal.

As one U.S. Soccer Federation official muttered under his breath here Sunday, “That’s a frightening thought.”

He had just watched the United States play its second consecutive scoreless tie in the North and Central America and Caribbean region (CONCACAF) qualifying tournament, this time flailing away against an aimless and winless team from El Salvador in front of a capacity crowd of 8,500 at St. Louis Soccer Park.

In six qualifying games, El Salvador (0-4-2) has made four coaching changes. For this game, it recalled its second coach of this season, Yugoslav George Kiril Dojcinovski. He drafted most of the players from his own club team, which is named Luis Angel Firpo in honor of the Argentine boxer.

Since the Salvadorans have long been eliminated from contention for a berth in next summer’s World Cup in Italy, they did not waste much time preparing for the game. They did not even arrive in St. Louis until 10 p.m. Saturday, then stayed four to a room at a nearby Holiday Inn to save money.

“We came here today expecting to lose,” Dojcinovski said later.

With another coach and virtually a different team, El Salvador did lose, 1-0, when the teams met in September at Tegucigalpa, Honduras. But the lone goal scorer in that game, Hugo Perez, has missed the last two with a groin injury.

That is the only goal the United States has scored in its last three games. For those who are counting, that is its only goal in the last 293 minutes of the tournament.

The last goal before that actually was scored for the United States by a player from the opposing team, but the Americans can hardly afford not to count it. Considering that they have scored only five goals in seven qualifying games, it may even be included in their highlight film.

In their previous scoreless tie, which came last month at Guatemala, they at least created a number of opportunities that they were unable to convert. In this game, despite 12 shots and 13 corner kicks, there were not more than two or three thrusts that caused Salvadoran goalkeeper Carlos Rivera much concern. He had to save only five shots.

It was easily the United States’ most feeble offensive effort in the qualifying games, begging the question of whether the team is getting worse instead of better as the tournament proceeds.

It no doubt was a better team in 1988, when it not only qualified from CONCACAF for the Summer Olympics but also tied games in South Korea against the host team and Argentina. The coach of that team, Lothar Osiander, quit to return to his full-time job as a restaurant waiter in San Francisco, which speaks volumes about the importance of the sport in the United States.

Whatever the deficiencies are of the American players and their new coaching staff, and the problems are too numerous to list here, they have only two weeks to solve them before playing perhaps the most important game in the history of U.S. soccer.

With the tie Sunday, the United States moved into a second-place tie with Trinidad and Tobago. Two teams qualify from the region, but one berth already belongs to Costa Rica (5-2-1).

For the United States (3-1-3) to earn the second berth, it must win on Nov. 19 against Trinidad and Tobago (3-1-3) at Port of Spain, Trinidad. But if the United States had won Sunday, it would have had only to tie at Trinidad in order to advance to the World Cup for the first time since 1950.

Asked how disappointed he was after Sunday’s tie, U.S. Coach Bob Gansler asked, “How is it a disappointment?”

Even he seemed to sense that his was not the right response.

“I’m not elated,” he said after starting over. “Our players aren’t elated. Obviously, we wanted to get a victory today so we’d only need a tie in Trinidad.

“This is a pressure-packed situation, and we didn’t meet the challenge as well as we wanted.”

Actually, the defense played as well as usual. In seven games, the United States has given up only three goals.

Tony Meola, the University of Virginia sophomore, had his second consecutive shutout, although it should be noted that El Salvador did not put much pressure on him. He had to save only two shots.

Considering that the Salvadorans appeared less than hungry offensively, the United States might have been too defensive-oriented. Gansler tried to change that early in the second half, substituting an extra forward, Frank Klopas, for a defender, Desmond Armstrong.

But defender Brian Bliss said that sweeper Mike Windischmann, the captain, was still pulling the team back on defense with less than 10 minutes remaining. Windischmann said he turned the team loose with five minutes remaining.

By then, it is doubtful that the United States could have scored with 22 players attacking.

“Maybe it’s subconscious,” Bliss said. “Maybe we’ve convinced ourselves that we’re not going to score a goal.”

Perhaps Perez can convince his teammates otherwise. He is expected to rejoin the team Friday at training camp in Cocoa Beach, Fla., and should be able to play in Trinidad.

Whether he will make a difference remains to be seen. The U.S. players remember that the last time they faced a must-win situation, needing to beat Canada by three goals to qualify for the Olympics, they did it.

But El Salvador defender Jaime Rodriguez was not encouraging.

“It will be very difficult for the Americans to win at Trinidad,” he said. “Not impossible, but difficult.”