Work Pays for Moore
Eric Wynalda will get the credit for the goal he scored, the goal he created and even the perfectly legitimate goal he had that was disallowed.
Roy Wegerle will get the kudos for his fourth goal in his last three games.
But Joe-Max Moore, rain-soaked, mud-spattered and exhausted, was the real key to the United States’ 3-0 victory over Cuba on Sunday in the first international soccer match between the countries in almost half a century.
In front of an Oakland Coliseum crowd of 11,234, the U.S. won its CONCACAF Gold Cup opener, but the victory was far less impressive than the play of Moore, one of five former UCLA Bruins on the field Sunday.
If this sort of effort does not earn him a starter’s role on Coach Steve Sampson’s World Cup team in France, nothing will.
Moore, 27, of Irvine was everywhere, tracking back on defense, roaming the midfield as a creator of chances and even joining forwards Wynalda and Wegerle as an offensive threat.
He was rewarded for all this industry in the 76th minute when he slammed a penalty kick past Cuban goalkeeper Alexi Reve-Aviles after Preki had been tripped inside the penalty area.
“I feel great, I feel real sharp,” Moore said. “There’s positions I prefer, but I really feel at this point that I’m fit enough to play wherever Steve puts me. I’m willing to do the work every game.”
Moore, who plays for Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution, did not take an off-season like most MLS players. Instead, he went to Ecuador to hone his game.
In the U.S. team’s first game of the year, a 1-0 victory over Sweden in Orlando, Fla., Moore played alongside Wegerle on the forward line. In this game, he served more as a combination withdrawn forward/creative midfielder.
“I like playing high as an attacking midfielder, but I feel very comfortable as a forward as well,” he said. “Either one of those positions I think I can fill and do a halfway decent job.”
Cuba did a halfway decent job. Known primarily as a baseball country and positioned 62 places below the United States in the FIFA world rankings, it held the Americans in check for almost an hour.
True, Wynalda lost a goal in the fifth minute when linesman Merere Louis Gonzalez of Trinindad and Tobago made an offside call that brought Sampson off the bench in a fury.
Perhaps that “grave error,” as Sampson termed it, affected the U.S. team. Whatever the reason, it struggled to put away the chances it created. It was not until the second half that the goals finally came.
“The first goal that was taken away from us did affect us for 15 or 20 minutes,” Sampson said. “I think that was an exceptional goal.
“But putting that behind us, it is important that we do a much better job finishing our chances. I think we had 20 or 30 very clear [scoring] opportunities.
“It wasn’t until the second half, when things opened up a bit, that we were able to capitalize.”
Indeed, some in the small crowd booed the teams off the field at halftime, but the second 45 minutes was much more lively. Even Cuba got into the act, once with a fierce shot from close range that was brilliantly tipped onto the crossbar by goalkeeper Brad Friedel and once slamming a shot against the right post.
“Our main goal in this tournament is to show just how much Cuban soccer has improved in the past few years,” Cuba’s coach, William Bennett, said through an interpreter. “This [qualifying for and playing in the Gold Cup] is a very important step for us.”
There were no political ramifications to the game, no signs of protest, no signs of defection. As Bennett said, “This was not a political contest, it was a football contest.”
The U.S. finally won it on three goals in a 21-minute span, beginning with Wegerle’s goal in the 55th minute off an excellent back-heel pass from Wynalda.
Three minutes later, Eduardo Cebranco hammered a shot against the foot of the right post that, had it gone inches to the left, would have tied the score and perhaps changed the complexion of the game.
Instead, Wynalda made it 2-0 in the 59th minute, slamming a shot into the empty net after the Cuban goalkeeper had rushed out to thwart Cobi Jones, only to see the ball bounce free to an unmarked Wynalda.
Wynalda also looped a shot off the underside os the crossbar, but it bounced harmlessly away.
Preki, who had come in as a substitute, twisted the Cuban defense in knots on several occasions, and when he was upended in the 76th minute, Moore scored on the resulting penalty.
But the midfielder missed an open net moments later, crumpling to the ground in disbelief.
“It [the penalty-kick goal] was all right,” Moore said, “but the other one I missed is something I’ll never forget the rest of my life. I couldn’t believe it. It was just a sitter. That’s harder to miss [than to score].”
Still, Moore and the four other former Bruins--Jones, Friedel, Chris Henderson and Frankie Hejduk--were able to leave the Coliseum knowing none of them had hurt their chances for France ’98.
The last time Cuba and the U.S. played each other was in 1949, during qualifying play for the 1950 World Cup.
In that tournament, the U.S. scored one of the great upsets in World Cup history, defeating England. Perhaps this year, the Cuba game will serve as a prelude to an upset of Germany.
Then again, maybe not.
Soccer Notes
The U.S. lineup: Goalie Brad Friedel; defenders Mike Burns, Eddie Pope, Gregg Berhalter (Thomas Dooley, 46), Jeff Agoos; midfielders Frankie Hejduk, John Harkes, Joe-Max Moore, Cobi Jones (Chris Henderson, 71); forwards Eric Wynalda, Roy Wegerle (Preki, 59).
* DIFFERENT VIEW: Martin Machon and German Ruano went from rivals to teammates. C10
