U.S. Unable to Put Best Foot Forward
With a chance to slam the door Saturday on Honduras’ World Cup qualifying hopes, the United States got its foot stuck in the door instead.
More specifically, Earnie Stewart’s right foot. The U.S. forward scored two goals but it was his missed penalty kick in the first half that was the turning point as the Americans were beaten, 3-2, by Honduras in front of a raucous and occasionally unruly crowd of 54,282 at RFK Stadium.
The result means t Honduras remains in the hunt for a World Cup berth and that the U.S. still needs at least one victory in its final three qualifying games to be assured of reaching Korea/Japan 2002.
The first of those games is Wednesday night at Costa Rica. “The play of the game, from my perspective, was the missed penalty kick,” said U.S. Coach Bruce Arena. “We go in at halftime [leading] 2-1 and Honduras has to chase the game, it’s a different game.” But Stewart’s spot kick from 12 yards was not well struck and Honduran goalkeeper Noel Valladares flung himself low to his left and deflected the ball away with his left hand.
Stewart was asked what happened. His reply was sharper than his shot. “I missed it,” he said.
Had he struck the ball the way he wanted to hit it? “No. Because if I had, it would have been a goal.” Stewart, who has scored a record nine goals for the U.S. in qualifying play, said he originally wanted to aim for the left corner of the net but changed his mind.
“I made a choice at the last moment to hit to the other corner,” he said. “Stupid. Your first thought, they always say, is your best thought.”
It wasn’t thoughtlessness that cost the U.S. the game, however, it was the Honduran players’ speed of thought and quickness of movement. Had striker Carlos Pavon not squandered at least three excellent scoring opportunities when he had only goalkeeper Brad Friedel to beat, Honduras might easily have enjoyed a 6-2 victory.
But the player they call “La Sombra Negra”--the Black Shadow--was only a shadow of himself and time and again let the U.S. off the hook by stumbling over the ball or shooting wide.
The loss ended a string of qualifying streaks for the Americans.
* It was the first time in almost 41 years the U.S. had yielded three goals at home. The last time was in a 3-3 tie with Mexico in Los Angeles in November 1960.
* Coming on the heels of a 1-0 loss to Mexico in Mexico City in July, it was the first time in almost 20 years the U.S. had lost back-to-back qualifying games. The last time was in November 1980, when Canada and Mexico were victorious.
* It was the first qualifying loss at home in 16 years, the last one being a 1-0 defeat by Costa Rica in Torrance in 1985. The U.S. had gone 14-0-5 during that streak.
* It was the first loss in five years at RFK Stadium, where blue-clad Honduran fans slightly outnumbered the red-clad U.S. fans and where the Americans had a 7-2-3 record coming into the game.
*
The Americans started out brightly, with Redlands teenager Landon Donovan--starting up front alongside veterans Stewart and Cobi Jones--showing no sign of nerves in his qualifying debut. The 19-year-old great dyed-blond hope of American soccer later described the experience as “great,” despite the outcome.
The U.S. took the lead in the seventh minute when Jones sent a pass out to overlapping defender Steve Cherundolo on the right wing and Cherundolo floated a cross into the goal area.
Valladares made a mess of it, diving to punch the ball away only as far as Stewart, who threaded his shot through a crowd and into the back of the unguarded net.
The closest Honduras came to scoring in the early going was when Julio Cesar De Leon, who had scored in Honduras’ 2-1 loss to the U.S. in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, in March, hit a line drive toward the upper-right corner of the U.S. net that Friedel tipped over the crossbar.
It was a sign of things to come.
Honduras tied the score in the 28th minute on a quick counterattack down the right flank, where U.S. defender David Regis had an uncomfortable afternoon.
The move ended with Milton Nunez firing the ball beneath Friedel’s dive to make it 1-1.
The U.S. could have regained the lead on Stewart’s penalty kick, awarded by Canadian referee Mauricio Navarro after Honduran defender Milton Reyes upended forward Jovan Kirovski, but it was not to be and the Americans then turned over control of the game to their guests.
Arena called the U.S. team’s play in the last five minutes of the first half and the first 15 of the second half “atrocious.”
“It’s why we lost the game,” he said.
It might also have had something to do with a horrible call by Navarro, who whistled defender Jeff Agoos for a penalty kick for an innocuous shoulder charge on Reyes, who fell to the ground long after the contact.
Pavon scored just inside the left post and Honduras had the lead after 53 minutes. It increased it to 3-1 in the 77th minute on Nunez’s second goal--courtesy of weak defending by Tony Sanneh--before Stewart scored again.
*
Munich dispatch: England hands rival Germany a monumental 5-1 defeat in World Cup qualifying. Netherlands at a low point. D9
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
World Cup Qualifying
Top three teams qualify for Korea/Japan 2002
Today
Mexico at Jamaica
Wednesday
United States at Costa Rica
Jamaica at Honduras
Trinidad and Tobago at Mexico
