The USA has defeated Kuwait 2-0 in their friendly match at Civic Stadium in Portland, Ore. Eric Wynalda replaced Roy Wegerle at halftime. In his first appearance since suffering a knee injury in an MLS match in April, Wynalda appeared rusty from the layoff, but he was in the middle of a couple of U.S. chances. In the 50th minute, Chad Deering sent Claudio Reyna free down the left side, and Reyna’s cross found Wynalda at the far post, where he headed the ball back across the goalmouth for Ernie Stewart, but the onrushing Stewart was not quite in time to meet the ball. In the 63rd minute, Stewart took the ball into the box and passed it back to Deering, who beat two defenders with some excellent approach work before shooting straight to the Kuwaiti keeper. Thomas Dooley appeared to have given the U.S. a 2-0 lead with a header off a corner kick in the 68th minute, but the goal was disallowed because the corner kick apparently swerved over the endline. It was Tab Ramos, who replaced Brian Maisonneuve in the 75th minute, who scored the final U.S. goal in the 82nd minute. Fellow sub Preki Radosavljevic juked a defender and pushed the ball up the middle of the field before sending a fine pass over to Ramos on the left. The MetroStars midfielder took the ball diagonally into the box from the left outside corner, cut to his right and blasted a shot to the far post. Ramos’ last international goal was the gamewinner against Costa Rica in September of 1997, also at Civic Stadium. Although Kuwait had a little more possession in the second half, they created very few scoring opportunities, the closest being a header off the crossbar in the 62nd minute. The U.S. has now shut out three straight opponents and has not allowed a goal since a 2-2 draw with Paraguay in March. The victory gives the U.S. more momentum as it prepares for France ’98. The Americans meet Scotland at RFK Stadium on May 30 in their “send-off” match. A game summary will be posted shortly.