WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : The Day U.S. Soccer Grew Up : Americans Stun Colombia, 2-1, Face 2nd Round
No one thought they could do it. Few believed they would have even been there, on the same field with one of the best soccer teams in world, had the team not qualified automatically as World Cup host. If they were going to win, few would have guessed they could have done it this emphatically.
The U.S. soccer team is used to it, waiting at the back of the line and hearing the laughter from the front waft back. Always waiting, ever promising and frequently embarrassed, the earnest American men who represent their soccer-speck of a country had barnstormed a skeptical world predicting something would happen, something they all would see.
And something did happen Wednesday, something so improbable and so unexpected that even the hysterically screaming fans bobbing up and down in the Rose Bowl stands checked and rechecked the scoreboard to make sure the numbers didn’t go away: U.S. 2, Colombia 1, and take that everyone.
“We have struggled for years and today we showed we can play with any team in the world,” midfielder John Harkes said. “We knew we could do it, we could see it in their eyes after we scored the first goal.”
That first goal came in the 35th minute on an own goal by Colombian defender Andres Escobar. Forward Ernie Stewart, the forgotten man in the 1-1 tie with Switzerland, scored the eventual game-winner in the 52nd minute when he took a chip shot from midfielder Tab Ramos and tapped the ball into a unguarded net.
Long after all the flag-bedecked celebrations on the field and sweaty embraces in the locker room, the U.S. players began to assess what they had done. The win, coupled with the tie in last Saturday’s opening game, gives the United States four points and a strong likelihood of advancing past the first round for the first time since being invited to take part in the inaugural World Cup in 1930.
“It’s an indescribable feeling to be part of such an historic day,” exulted U.S. defender Alexi Lalas, his orange mane and long goatee drenched in sweat. “It’s incredible, it’s historical, it’s very cool.”
After being laughed out of the 1990 World Cup with the derisive label of “college boys,” the American team came into this tournament with all the scrutiny traditionally leveled on hosts. Their tentative point earned in the first game did not lead many to project a victory against Colombia, a team experts considered to be one of the strongest in the world.
That made the U.S. team’s dominance of the South Americans all the more remarkable. It was the United States, not Colombia, that held the ball at midfield and exploited defensive mistakes. It was the U.S. defense that shut down a clutch of the world’s most dangerous forwards. And it was U.S. players who performed with confidence while Colombia, under incredible pressure at home, found its players reduced to bickering and pouting.
The only change Coach Bora Milutinovic made at the start of the game was to replace right back Cle Kooiman with veteran Fernando Clavijo. The seldom-used Clavijo was inserted for his speed but also for his knowledge of the South American style; Clavijo was born in Uruguay and, next to Milutinovic, is the most knowledgeable about the tendencies of the Colombians.
While the U.S. defense quashed the Colombian attack--which stubbornly probed the middle of the field and repeatedly ran into Lalas, Marcelo Balboa and Thomas Dooley--the U.S. offense found itself flying freely into the attacking third of the field.
The U.S. team created scores of dangerous chances in the opening minutes with wingers Ramos and Harkes free to support the forwards, Stewart and Eric Wynalda. Wynalda let go with a sharp left-footed shot from an impossible angle that went just wide of the goal to launch the scoring chances.
The U.S. defense had only moments before fended off Colombia’s best chance of the first half. Herman Gaviria’s shot hit the chest of Mike Sorber and bounced off the post. It rebounded to Anthony de Avila, whose shot bounced off Sorber again and was cleared by Clavijo.
In the 35th minute, Sorber launched the U.S. scoring run. Sorber pushed the ball to Harkes who raced up the left side and veered in toward the goal. He spotted Stewart crashing in on his right. So did Colombian goalkeeper Oscar Cordoba, who moved to his left to cover Stewart.
Escobar slid in to knock the ball away and inadvertently kicked it into his own net.
The U.S. took that lead into the locker room at halftime, where, on a chalkboard, Milutinovic had written the Latin dictum, “Carpe Diem,” seize the day. With unexpected poise and confidence the players came out in the second half and continued to press and work hard.
Colombian Coach Francisco Maturana had seen enough and took out star forwards Faustino Asprilla and da Avila. Carlos Valderrama--the heart of the team--was ineffective and spent most of his time complaining to the referee or to his teammates.
Colombia finally scored, on a goal by Adolfo Valencia in the 90th minute, but it was not enough and it didn’t stop the U.S. players, so maligned and so underestimated, from skipping about the field with American flags draped around their shoulder like shawls against the oncoming night.
They wanted to keep going, they didn’t want to leave the field that had brought them such joy. And they wanted the world to see they had done it, that they had seized the day.
