WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : Colombia Grabs Only the Thorns : Group A: Hagi, Raducioiu spark Romania’s 3-1 victory at the Rose Bowl as Colombian goalkeeper gets burned.

Goalkeeper Oscar Cordoba was not supposed to cause hearts to pound wildly or faces to flush among Colombian soccer fans. No, this was no clone of the brazen Rene Higuita, who would cockily saunter out 20 yards from his goal and flirt with danger.

But Saturday, the normally reliable Cordoba caused Higuita-like reactions from the huge Colombian fan contingent among the crowd of 91,856. He committed two significant miscues that led to goals, and Romania stunned Colombia, 3-1, in the first World Cup game to be played at the Rose Bowl.

Romanian forward Florin Raducioiu scored twice and the often brilliant midfielder Gheorghe Hagi had a hand in every goal, scoring once and setting up both of Raducioiu’s goals. Goalkeeper Bogdan Stelea was nearly flawless, stopping 18 shots, including a point-blank effort by Colombian midfielder Freddy Rincon from six yards out in the 23rd minute with Romania ahead, 1-0.

For the moment, one of the pre-World Cup favorites, Colombia, is looking less than formidable, ranking last in Group A. It plays the United States at the Rose Bowl on Wednesday.

“We made mistakes we haven’t made before,” Coach Francisco Maturana said. “We were pressured and maybe a little overwhelmed by being in the World Cup. It was a good experience for us, a wake-up call.”

“Too much individualism by our players contributed to the defeat. We showed a lack of mobility in the midfield, a lack of coherence in the defense and a disconnected offense, especially in the second half.

“We still played well in the first half, but in the second half we fell apart.”

Hagi, who briefly left the game in the first half with an injured left leg, referred to the pre-tournament hype about Colombia.

“Colombia should not forget Romania has good players,” he said.

Romanian Coach Anghel Iordanescu praised his team for its intelligent attack, but its tenacious and compact defense was the key. Colombia was permitted to pass the ball around at will in the non-threatening parts of the field, but the Romanians opened with a 5-3-2 alignment and, holding a 2-1 lead, switched to a 6-2-2 in the 68th minute when defender Tibor Selimess replaced midfielder Ilie Dumitrescu.

Additionally, Colombia’s star forward Faustino Asprilla could not seem to go anywhere in the second half without seeing the shadow of defender Daniel Prodan or feel a tug on his shirt. And playmaking midfielder Carlos Valderrama was a non-factor save for a few showy first-half moves.

Although Colombia had near complete control of the ball in the opening 15 minutes, as it often happens, Hagi seemingly burst out of nowhere and created his magic to set up Raducioiu’s first goal in the 16th minute.

Hagi launched a 25-yard pass and Raducioiu threaded through the maze of defenders and cut over, beating Cordoba with a shot inside the right post to make it 1-0.

Cordoba had a near scare in the 24th minute with a long-range Hagi shot, but he was able to tip it away. There was no such luck in the 34th minute when Hagi converted what almost looked like a short punt, a looping shot from an angle off the left flank. Caught out of position, there was no way Cordoba could move back and Hagi’s shot went in just inside the right post and slightly under the bar.

“Everybody made a mistake,” Cordoba said of Hagi’s goal. “It was a team mistake.”

Fittingly, Hagi was not on the field when Colombia scored its only goal to cut Romania’s lead to 2-1. After getting fouled by Gabriel Jaime Gomez in the 41st minute, Hagi left the field on a motorized cart. He returned after Colombian forward Aldolfo Valencia scored off a header in the 43rd minute when defender Wilson Perez sliced a pinpoint corner kick from the left side.

Stelea had no chance on the goal. For his part, he thought the biggest play of the game was his save on Rincon in the first half.

“I felt had that not happened, the game would turned differently,” Stelea said.

On the final goal, which came in the 89th minute, even Cordoba could not blame anyone else. Cordoba came out and misplayed the ball, looking as if he took his eye off it in concern about a potential collision with Raducioiu. Raducioiu dribbled around him and punched the ball into an open net.

Maturana defended his goalkeeper--sort of--when asked whether there would be a change for Wednesday’s game.

“Absolutely not,” Maturana said. “Although today’s game requires analysis.”

Sort of the same way everyone in Colombia has been analyzing Higuita’s performance in the 1990 World Cup. Four years later, little seems to have changed for Colombian soccer fans.