Victory slipped away — quite literally — in the first U.S. game of the year: a 2-2 tie with Uruguay cut short by a violent Texas storm.
As one Texan put it: “When the sky turns green, it’s either a tornado or all hell’s about to break loose.”
It turned green in the 82nd minute of the U.S.-Uruguay game. As if offended by U.S. goalkeeper Juergen Sommer’s extraordinary blunder — which gave Uruguay a 2-2 tie — the heavens dropped enough hail and rain to make the termination of the game an easy decision for referee Antonio Marrufo.
Seven minutes earlier Uruguay had pulled within a goal and lightning — two miles away — struck spectacularly along the horizon.
Storms had ripped through the Metroplex earlier in the day but had avoided the Fair Park, site of the Cotton Bowl. If you watched TV earlier in the day, you had in the top corner of your TV screen, in red letters: “Tornado Watch.” That’s not as bad as “Tornado Warning,” but combined with flash flood and violent storm warnings it seemed enough to make the attendance figure of 12,242 impressive.
Storms down here, in the unpredictable spring, fly through hard and fast. Sometimes they come in gangs. They’re gone before you can name them like hurricanes.
There would be no tornado. But after Sommer dropped an innocuous cross and Poyet blasted home the rebound, pellet-sized hail reached golf-ball size. The public address announcer urged spectators to leave slowly. Half the lights had gone out. Sideboards tumbled across the field as winds reached 60 mph.
Opportunistic boys from the crowd rushed the field and made sliding tackles on the soaked grass against imaginary opponents. Security guards grimaced when their superior called on the walkie-talkie: “Security to the field immediately.”
Poor Juergen. There would be no chance now for the U.S. to win this game, which had looked so much like a victory because of the 2-0 lead the U.S. had with 15 minutes left. Yes, the ball that he got both gloves to was wet. But the man plays in England, for heaven’s sake. Land of saturated fields and slippery soccer balls.
Uruguay’s equalizer came from a mishap — Poyet came sliding to score from four yards — but the two U.S. goals were masterpieces.
Cobi Jones and John Kerr have been languishing on the benches of their respective English clubs, Coventry and Millwall. But reserve games must be a good way to stay sharp.
Jones lined up wide left in midfield while Kerr, usually a frontrunner, was wide right. Jones didn’t restrict himself to runs on the flank, as he has in the past. He often journeyed through the middle and even ventured to the right on occasion.
In the eighth minute, he brought the ball downfield and faced Ernie Stewart, who looked ready to take central defenders Luis Diego Lopez and Alvaro Gutierrez to the races. Jones waved Stewart back, and fed him.
“That’s the game,” Stewart said. “You’ve got to check in and talk to each other. I checked in and gave it to somebody else.”
Stewart quickly knocked it to Jeff Agoos on the left while Jones charged forward.
A perfectly lobbed Agoos pass met Jones in time for him to knock the ball past keeper Oscar Ferro and toward the endline. But Jones got there in time, hooked it across the goalmouth and Kerr blasted the ball high into the goal from 12 yards out.
“I had a lot of time to think about,” Kerr said. “First I thought I would chest trap it. But I waited for it and hit a half-volley.”
Kerr, who turned 30 earlier in the month, played 11 times for the U.S. between 1984 and 1988 before being called up for England-U.S. match last September. His first U.S. action after sitting out 143 U.S. internationals came in October in a 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia.
“Bora asked me what I play,” Kerr Jr. said. “In England we play 4-4-2 and I’m on top. He wanted me in the midfield. It’s not my favorite position, but I can still in get in good scoring positions.”
The second goal, in the 67th minute, also came from the left side, although it started from the right. Right back Zak Ibsen’s 60-yard cross-field pass found Agoos’ chest near the sideline.
Agoos passed to Jovan Kirovski, who chipped a nice ball to Jones, again racing toward the end line. Jones pulled the ball back to Stewart near the penalty spot, and Stewart struck it on the bounce, sending it high into the left side of goal past a defender and Ferro.
Two minutes later, Jones almost created a third. Released again by Agoos down the wing, Jones this time fed Kirovski in fine scoring position. Kirovski connected well but Ferro tipped the shot over the bar.
“We scored two goals,” U.S. coach Bora Milutinovic said. “To score against Uruguay is not so easy.”
Numbers in attack
With Kerr and Jones playing wide, Stewart played alone up front — shadowed by Lopez and Gutierrez. Kirovski, who turned 19 a week before the game, played in the most offensive midfield position and did well to ensure Stewart would not be stranded.
Chad Deering played in the central midfield, but a bit deeper than Kirovski and to his left. Deering, the Texan who has been playing in Germany since leaving Indiana University after his sophomore year in 1990, found increased time with ball as the first half went on, but could not return in the second half because of a knee injury. He was replaced by U.S. newcomer Ante Razov, a junior at UCLA.
Mike Burns played defensively in the midfield, sweeping in front of the flat four back. He did well to contain playmaker Marcelo Tejera.
With Agoos at left back, Lawrence Lozzano picked up his fifth cap at right back and was replaced at halftime by Ibsen.
Paul Caligiuri, 31, the most experienced member of this day’s U.S. team and usually used as an outside back by Milutinovic, played alongside Alexi Lalas in the central defense. That is Marcelo Balboa’s usual spot, but Balboa, like the other three U.S. players in Mexico — Tab Ramos, Dominic Kinnear and Mike Sorber — was unavailable.
Caligiuri looked comfortable in the middle, and made several decisive tackles when Uruguayans broke in from the wing.
Especially in the first half, the U.S. did well to work the ball out of its half. “We played well, especially under pressure,” Lalas said. “They started pressuring in our half. That’s been our downfall many times.”
And the U.S. managed to get more players into the attack than in past performances.
“That was one of the better things we did today,” Stewart said. “When we did counterattack, it was well organized. That has something to do with the fact that Chad is pretty offensive, Jovan is pretty offensive, Cobi’s offensive, Kerr’s offensive. That makes a difference.
“That definitely makes it a lot easier for me.”
On defense, the U.S. contended with speedy frontrunners Omar Otero and Osvaldo Canobbio.
Otero beat Caligiuri to a high through pass when Caligiuri hesitated and Sommer made a foot save in the resulting one-on-one.
Otero volleyed from 20 yards in the 23rd minute and Sommer tipped it over the bar. Sommer had misjudged a corner kick in the 15th minute, setting up a close-range volley for Otero. Lalas interfered just in time.
But in the 75th minute Otero snuck between Lalas and Caligiuri to run onto a header from Canobbio. As U.S. players appealed for offside, Otero shot past Sommer from close range.
“We were all looking at him and saying, ‘OK, he’s offside,'” Lalas said. “It doesn’t matter if it goes to him because he’s offside…. It was going on all day. We should have actually realized that they weren’t going to call it.”
When Sommer fumbled a cross from Canobbio, Uruguay got its equalizer and the game ended.
Uruguyan coach Hector Nunes said, “We were always going for the win, but the U.S. played stronger than we did.”
Thanks to a Columbo-type raincoat, Milutinovic looked unscathed by the storm.
“The public saw very good game,” he said.
by Soccer America Senior Editor Mike Woitalla