SOCCER : Moore’s Four Goals Power U.S. Past El Salvador

The recent schedule of the U.S. national team is fast becoming problematic. The few games the team does play pit it against such weak opponents that the matches become less a test of ability and more a chance to boost the U.S. team’s poor goal-scoring average.

Sunday’s match against El Salvador was such a game. Joe-Max Moore scored four goals and the United States--which had been averaging less than one goal per --won by 7-0.

U.S. Coach Bora Milutinovic could find nothing to learn from the game.

“I am proud with the score and nothing more,” Milutinovic said. “We do not play a good game.”

One positive note was the return of veteran sweeper Marcelo Balboa. Balboa, who suffered a severely injured right knee April 17 and was not expected to recover from surgery until sometime next year, came on in the 61st minute.

Sunday’s game, coming on the heels of a 8-1 victory over the Cayman Islands last month, leaves the team with only a match against a Norwegian club team next week to prepare for its Dec. 18 game against defending World Cup champion Germany. Games against weak opponents probably won’t provide the U.S. team with the experience it will need to play the world class teams that loom on the horizon.

In this game before 7,618 at the Coliseum, the U.S. team took advantage of a patchwork team that had only two players from its World Cup qualifying team and the rest from its under-21 team.

Moore, who was playing for only the third time at center forward, was able to pick apart a loose defense and scored nearly every time he had a shot.

“I don’t think they were too organized in the back,” Moore said.

Moore was effective working with Dominic Kinnear, who scored two goals. Hugo Perez, who was born in El Salvador, scored the other U.S. goal.

Balboa is tied with goalkeeper Tony Meola with 75 international appearances, second on the U.S. all-time list. “It felt fine,” he said of his knee. “I had butterflies, but it was fun. Great.”