WORLD CUP ’94 : Historic Event for the United States : Group A: Stewart provides the decisive goal as Americans stun Colombia, 2-1.

Hey, USA, Americans really can play soccer.

On an afternoon when everything went just about perfectly, the Americans shocked Colombia, 2-1, Wednesday at the Rose Bowl, putting the United States in commanding position to advance past the tournament’s opening round for the first time since 1930.

“It’s incredible, it’s historical, it’s very cool,” defender Alexi Lalas said. “If there is one thing this World Cup has shown, it’s that any country can beat any country.”

It was the first World Cup win for the United States since the 1-0 shocker over England in 1950, and now only a one-sided loss against Romania on Sunday can prevent the Americans from advancing to the round of 16.

“This proved to the world today against Colombia -- they have a great team -- that it is not important that you win all the games,” said Ernie Stewart, who scored the winning goal in the 52nd minute. “It is important you don’t lose any of them.”

The United States, coming off Saturday’s 1-1 tie with Switzerland, caught a break when Colombian defender Andres Escobar kicked John Harkes’ crossing pass for Stewart into his own net with 10 minutes to go in the first half.

Then, seven minutes into the second half, Stewart collected a through pass from Tab Ramos and beat goalkeeper Oscar Cordoba with a right-footed shot. From then on, the Americans outplayed Colombia, whose only goal came in the final minute, when Adolfo Valencia put a shot over goalkeeper Tony Meola.

Colombia, one of the pre-tournament favorites, is in danger of elimination because of this defeat and Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Romania. The Colombians may have been shaken by a death threat against midfielder Gabriel Gomez that was sent earlier Wednesday by fax to the team’s hotel in Fullerton.

Colombia coach Francisco Maturana said the person who sent the fax threatened to blow up Gomez’s house in Colombia. Maturana, who said he considered resigning before the game, replaced Gomez with Herman Gaviria.

With the San Gabriel Mountains serving as a majestic backdrop and a full house of 93,194 in the Rose Bowl, the United States scored two goals against Colombia for the first time. The Americans had been 1-6 against the Colombians, losing six straight since 1984.

“We wanted three points out of this game,” Meola said, “and people didn’t think we could do it and we did it.”

U.S. players feared the crowd would be against them and cheer for Colombia, but at the game’s start it appeared 60-40 for the Americans. By the end of the game, the mountains echoed with chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” as the players jumped on each other in triumph and Meola danced across the field with an American flag over his head.

Marcelo Balboa left the field draped completely by an American flag.

Of the 24 teams in the World Cup, 16 advance to the second stage, when the knockout phase begins. Those 16 are the top two teams in each group and the four third-place teams with the best records.