Two freak plays made Sunday’s U.S.-Mexico World Cup qualifying match an entertaining no-decision, but flukes don’t usually decide a 10-game tournament. It’s now clear that something truly wacky would have to occur to keep the U.S. out of World Cup ’98.
The regional rivals went at each other with claws bared in a game that featured non-stop attacking and wound up scratching out a 2-2 draw before a sellout crowd of 57,407 at Foxboro Stadium.
The cream of the Americas has collected in the neck of the milk bottle. Mexico (2-0-2), the U.S. (1-1-2) and Costa Rica (1-0-1), who sit in that order in the CONCACAF qualifying standings, have little to fear from Canada, Jamaica and El Salvador, who are winless and scoreless in a collective total of five games. Three teams advance to France. The math speaks for itself.
“There’s such a clear difference in ability between the top three teams and the other three teams that I wasn’t worried about today’s result,” said U.S. Soccer Federation President Alan Rothenberg. “The important thing was the kind of effort we showed.”
The U.S. plays just one qualifier–June 29 in El Salvador–between now and September. The players consider that game winnable and count on beating Canada away and Jamaica and El Salvador at home.
Discounting a tough match at Mexico, the Sept. 7 game against Costa Rica in Portland, Ore., is the only real question mark. Unless Hale-Bopp is hiding a spaceship full of superstars for CONCACAF’s lower lights, the U.S. should have enough points to advance.
The effort Rothenberg spoke of had to be stepped up after a lapse by U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller just 39 seconds into the game. Alexi Lalas sent a routine back-pass to Keller, who tapped it twice to control it despite the presence of onrushing Mexican forward Carlos Hermosillo.
Keller hammered his punt directly into Hermosillo’s head at close range. The ball rebounded high over Keller’s reach and dribbled into the net, where he fished it out with the disgusted amazement of a gourmet chef plucking a cockroach from his soup.
“It’s nice, as a goalkeeper, to make a mistake and not lose,” said Keller, who took responsibility for the play. But U.S. coach Steve Sampson said the fluke might have been averted had any of his defenders come back to receive a pass from Keller.
“I’m not satisfied with a tie–we played to win,” Sampson said. “But we played our best brand of soccer . . . with poise and confidence. We came back twice and created numerous opportunities.”
Visibly rattled, the U.S. looked tentative for much of the game’s first half-hour, but recouped in the 35th minute on a goal directed in by defender Eddie Pope from the left side. Mexico went ahead again early in the second half when midfielder Luis Hernandez beat a U.S. attempt at an offside trap.
With 21 minutes remaining in the game, the U.S. gained a man advantage when Hernandez was red-carded after tripping Lalas–a penalty Sampson later said he did not think was justified. The U.S. sent in its fleet Bundesliga reserves, forward David Wagner and midfielder Michael Mason, but it was a Mexican own-goal that evened the score as Thomas Dooley’s back-flick header glanced off the head of substitute defender Nicolas Ramirez and hopped into the goal.
“We played at a 50 percent faster tempo than any game we’ve played recently,” said Harkes. “We were tackling, winning balls in midfield. It’s just unfortunate that we didn’t win.”
