Colombia Eliminates U.S.

With the sun dipping behind the rim of the Orange Bowl, with the game clock showing 9:12 left to play and with the scoreboard reading United States 2, Colombia 1, all seemed well.

If the U.S. could preserve its advantage for another few minutes, it would advance to the semifinals of soccer’s Gold Cup tournament.

Then the sun and the Americans disappeared at the same time Saturday.

Gerardo Bedoya unleashed a 23-yard shot that found the back of the U.S. net to tie the score, 2-2. Time ran out. Thirty minutes of overtime was played without change and, after two draining and dramatic hours, the game ended in a tie.

Penalty kicks were used to decide which team advanced.

To the astonishment of the crowd of 32,972, Eric Wynalda booted his attempt over the bar. Afterward, he said he was tired.

Claudio Reyna’s shot hit the crossbar. Eddie Lewis scored. Chris Armas’ shot was saved and so was Ben Olsen’s. In five attempts from 12 yards, the U.S. put the ball in the net once.

“It’s just a total crapshoot,” Coach Bruce Arena said of the penalty kick decider. “Both teams were tired. We didn’t do well. Give their team credit. I don’t lose any sleep over losing on penalty kicks.”

But that’s what happened. Even though John Wilmas Perez lofted his attempt over the bar and even though U.S. goalkeeper Brad Friedel saved Mayer Candelo’s effort, Gonzalo Martinez and Andres Mosquera scored to put Colombia through, 2-1.

That not only gave Colombia a spot in Wednesday night’s all-South American semifinal against Peru at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, it produced a congratulatory phone call from Colombian president Andres Pastrana in Bogota.

So, is Major League Soccer to blame for foisting four years of the shootout on U.S. players while the rest of the world was using penalty kicks to settle ties in cup play?

“MLS and shootouts had nothing to do with it,” Arena replied.

It was a game of high drama throughout. The U.S. took the lead in the 20th minute when Brian McBride headed in a cross from Cobi Jones, extending the winger’s points streak to five games.

Four minutes later, Faustino Asprilla tied it, off a pass from Hector Hurtado.

Arena was forced to take Jovan Kirovski out of the game in the 27th minute when the midfielder broke a bone in his foot. It cost Arena one of his three substitutions and proved costly.

A long clearance kick by Friedel six minutes into the second half was headed forward by McBride and Armas hit the ball on the volley, sending it inside the left post past surprised goalkeeper Miguel Calero to restore the U.S. lead.

The Americans were visibly tiring but hanging on to the lead. Arena replaced Jones with Olsen after 77 minutes. Four minutes later, he sent defender C.J. Brown on in place of McBride.

“McBride was dead and had to come out,” Arena said. “Jones, I thought, was tired.”

Colombia reacted to the removal of the best two U.S. attacking players by pressing forward itself. The reward came when Bedoya, who later was ejected for constant fouling, hit his game-tying shot.

“Well, we didn’t lose the game,” Arena began in his postmatch summation. “It’s disappointing, obviously, to lose on penalty kicks. Today we lost two leads. We should be able to protect a lead with 10 minutes left.”