U.S. Finally Gets in Its Kicks in a 7-0 Victory Over Barbados

They drove from Toronto, this happy group of Barbadians. They waved blue and yellow flags and parked their bus in a prominent place at Foxboro Stadium so that they could playfully taunt American fans.

“Last place, last place, USA in last place,” John Goodage said to anyone carrying anything red, white or blue.

Yes, indeed, the United States men’s soccer team was in last place in their four-nation group after two games of qualifying for the 2002 World Cup. Behind Barbados, even, and so the Barbados fans who came from Canada, from Montreal, from New York City and Washington, D.C. could be allowed their bragging rights.

And then the U.S. defeated Barbados, 7-0, Wednesday night.

So never mind.

Maybe it was silly but confidence in the U.S. men’s soccer team is not great. Women, yes, they are winners. Men, they are losers. They finished 32nd out of 32 teams in the 1998 World Cup. The women finished first.

This year the men have tied Guatemala, 1-1, and lost to Costa Rica, 2-1. Both games were on the road and weird things happened, which led U.S. Coach Bruce Arena to say that the U.S. should be undefeated.

But they weren’t. They were last. Until Barbados came to town.

Now they trail only Costa Rica in Group E.

Thank you Barbados.

It might seem as if the U.S. team were bullies beating up on a little, island nation. And two Barbadians, Augustus Hurdle (in the 38th minute) and Eric Lavine (in the 41st minute) were red-carded out of the game so the U.S. got to play with a two-man advantage.

This left Barbados Coach Horrace “Tobacco” Beckles angry.

The officiating was “atrocious,” Beckles said.

“Very, very poor,” he said. “The red cards, I’m still wondering what they were for.”

Well, Hurdle’s was for punching Cobi Jones, in front of one of the referees. That will get you every time.

“It was a critical thing and the ref didn’t even speak English,” Beckles said. “He didn’t understand what the players were saying to him.”

Coach Beckles also called the Americans out. Wait until the Nov. 15 rematch in Barbados, he said.

“It will be a different game,” Beckles promised. “No intimidation from us and we’ll be on a level playing field. Then we’ll see. We’ll see then. No card was given to the American team tonight. Come on. Look at the tape, make your own assessment.”

Then it was off to the bus for Beckles. He was cheered by the busload of fans from Toronto.

This is what makes international soccer so great. Honesty.

Everybody thinks everybody else cheated and they all say so. Honestly.

Arena was pretty vocal about how poor he thought the officiating was in Costa Rica. So Beckles wasn’t getting much sympathy from the U.S. side.

But back to reality.

Irvine’s Joe-Max Moore had last played for the national team in November. He had joined England’s Everton team in the Premier League and had scored eight goals in 19 games for the Liverpool-based team before suffering a season-ending knee injury on April 8.

The knee seemed pretty healthy against Barbados. Moore scored two goals, giving him 22 in 80 international matches for the U.S. and moving him into second all-time, 11 behind Eric Wynalda.

“It’s been an unbelievable experience,” Moore said of playing in the Premier League. “It’s a really great level of play and an atmosphere like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Every week there is a great game in front of an incredible crowd. I love it.”

Moore also acknowledged that there was some nervousness on the U.S. team. Sure, it expected to beat Barbados, but if it didn’t, there would most likely be no World Cup appearance.

“This was a big relief,” Arena said.

Beckles wasn’t convinced of anything except that his team had been jobbed. U.S. fans won’t be convinced of anything until the men threaten to win the World Cup. But at least the men aren’t last now. They are second in Group E, ahead of Barbados.

So there John Goodage.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

2002 World Cup Qualifying

Top two countries advance

GROUP E

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Country W-L-T P G+/- Costa Rica 2-1-0 6 +1 United States 1-1-1 4 +6 Guatemala 1-1-1 4 +1 Barbados 1-2-0 3 -8

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