U.S. Is Humbled by Bolivia
Dusan Draskovic walked up to the microphone Wednesday night, removed a piece of gum from his mouth, stuck it beneath the podium and faced the first question.
Are you about to lose your job?
Such is life if you are the Yugoslav coach of the Bolivian national soccer team and your players have just beaten the United States, 2-0, in front of 19,350 flag-waving fans at RFK Stadium.
And the news doesn’t get any better for the U.S. team. On Sunday at the Rose Bowl, it plays another national team coached by another Yugoslav, in this case Mexico under Bora Milutinovic.
Bora, at least, doesn’t chew gum, but he and Mexico would be more than happy to stick it to the United States in other ways.
This is what it comes down to: If the U.S. team beats Mexico, it wins U.S. Cup ’96. If Mexico wins or ties, it wins the four-nation tournament.
That much was assured by the results of Wednesday’s two games. A 70th-minute penalty kick goal by Luis Garcia salvaged a 2-2 tie for Mexico against Ireland at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
The United States, meanwhile, beat Ireland, 2-1, at Foxboro Stadium on Sunday, but could use a striker such as Garcia. Its main woes Wednesday night, however, were defensive, not offensive.
Bolivia, rated 40th in the world compared to the United States’ 14th in the FIFA rankings, thoroughly deserved its victory, which is not the same thing as saying the U.S. team deserved to lose.
It did so for two reasons: the lack of speed of left back Jeff Agoos and the failure of goalkeeper Brad Friedel and sweeper Marcelo Balboa to communicate at a crucial moment.
Bolivia scored its first goal two minutes into the game and its second two minutes from the end. For the other 86 minutes, the United States played as well or better than its opponent.
Still, the statistics are grim on this rivalry. The countries have met five times, starting in 1993, and the Americans have yet to win. They tied the first three and lost the last two.
Agoos was taken to the cleaners by the youngest of the Bolivian players, Jaime Moreno, whose 60-yard dash down the right sideline in the game’s second minute left the defender and the rest of the U.S. team far behind.
He cut in, and, as Friedel moved out to close the angle, slipped the ball between the goalkeeper’s legs and into the net at the far post.
An estimated 80,000 Bolivians live in Washington. Judging by the response to the goal, almost a quarter of them must have come to the game.
“I was tired, but at that time I didn’t think about that,” Moreno, who plays for Middlesbrough in the English first division, said of his run and goal. “It didn’t surprise me. That’s my job and I have to do it.”
The second goal came on a quickly taken free kick in the game’s dying minutes. The ball was played long by Freddy Cossio to Milton Coimbra, who found himself with only Balboa and Friedel to beat.
Coimbra got the shot off before Balboa could tackle him, and Friedel, who had come well out of his net to help, managed to get only his fingertips on the ball, not enough to prevent it looping into the net behind him.
The loss was only the second in seven games for the United States this year, the other a 1-0 defeat by Brazil in the semifinals of the Gold Cup in January.
