He Strikes Blow for His Family

The ball lay just outside the penalty area, less than 19 yards from victory, and over it stood the two American strikers, Eric Wynalda and Joe-Max Moore, trying to strike a deal.

“OK, it’s mine,” Wynalda declared, knowing exactly what a successful free kick at this juncture would mean.

Probably, a 3-2 Gold Cup triumph over Trinidad and Tobago.

Certainly, the third hat trick in the history of the Gold Cup.

Consequently, a share of the all-time United States’ goal-scoring record in international competition.

There was a lot resting outside the line, and a good striker is a greedy striker, but Moore was playing in front of family and friends who wanted to see the local kid win it for home and country, so he stepped up quickly and staked his claim.

“Hey, c’mon, Eric,” Moore protested, “you’ve got two goals already.”

The debate lasted half a minute before Wynalda shrugged, relented and tapped the ball to Tab Ramos, who teed it up for Moore.

A blink of an eye later, the ball was in the upper right corner of Trinidad’s net, completing an indefensible curl around the Trinidad wall.

Was Moore happy?

His ensuing double cartwheel is also believed to be a U.S. Gold Cup record.

Wynalda’s 21st international goal, which will tie him with Bruce Murray on the all-time list, will have to wait for another day. Just as well. The timing and placement was perfect for Moore, playing at Anaheim Stadium, just up the freeway from his Irvine home.

Moore was the only player on the field Saturday evening with ties to Orange County, not counting Trinidad striker Dwight Yorke, who, according to the press notes, plays professionally at Villa Park--the English soccer grounds, home of the club team Aston Villa, not the community that borders Anaheim Hills.

At this point in Moore’s career, however, Orange County is just another stop on the world tour. For the past two years, Moore has played in Germany, in the Second Division, where he has developed from just another fringe American holding his hat in his hand to a headline-grabbing import. Last season, Moore led FC Saarbruecken in goals with 13 and this season, he already has scored eight for Nuernberg.

Over the same period of time, Moore has gone from a never-used reserve on Bora Milutinovic’s U.S. World Cup team in 1994 to a starter for Steve Sampson, helping deliver victories over Mexico in the ’95 Copa America and, now, over Trinidad in the tournament that determines the champion of North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

“Joe-Max is such a competitor, has been all his life,” Sampson said Saturday. “Every time he’s been put into a competitive situation, where people have said he might not be ready, he has gone in and surpassed that level.

“Right now, he’s playing very well in the German Second Division and I’m sure that in a short time, he’ll be getting offers from First Division teams. And I’m sure he’ll do well there, too, and that’s one of the best leagues in the world.”

Sampson believes the experience in Germany has toughened Moore as a player, physically and psychologically.

“I think he sees himself now as more than just some little guy,” Sampson said. “He’s much more mobile now--he can play on the right side, the left or in the center--and he’s able to get his shots off much more quickly in tight spaces.

“He has the ability to take a situation that looks as if nothing possibly can come of it and find a way to score. That’s a coach’s dream.”

Especially for Sampson, who has his team playing a far more attacking style than Bora’s bore ‘em to death, bring-back-nine-to-defend strategy. Sampson’s is more fun to watch, but it comes with a price tag: When you press forward you make yourself vulnerable in the back, and if that means giving up two goals, you better find a way to score three.

That means finding strikers who can find the back of the net, a perennial void on the U.S. team. By now, the refrain could be set to music: If only the U.S. had a pure finisher . . .

Sampson, of course, defends the shooters he has at the moment.

“Joe is a pure finisher,” he said. “Eric is a pure finisher. We have people who can do it; what we need is a broader base of those people. Right now, we just don’t have the depth at that position.”

Actually, Moore considers himself more a natural midfielder than forward, allowing that, “I’m not a strong enough player to hold off a defender with my back to the goal. I’m better playing straight ahead with the ball at my feet. Eric is a better pure striker than I am.”

But, Moore has the striker’s mentality--taking goals whichever way he can, even if it means taking them away from the other striker and delaying an assault on the record book.

“I’m sure he knows where he is on that list,” Moore said of Wynalda. “He likes to keep track of all that.”

And Moore? Someone informed him that Saturday’s goal was his 12th for the U.S., tying him for fifth place with Rick Davis.

That was good to know, Moore replied.

“When I get up there,” he said, smiling as he envisioned the day, “I’ll keep track of them, too.”