More than a year of frustration ended when Joe-Max Moore scored twice against Jamaica to lead the U.S. into the World Cup.
For a player who flies about the field in a controlled fury, Joe-Max Moore can be stunningly stoic.
A brief training session one day before the crucial qualifier against Jamaica had been completed. On the same Foxboro Stadium field on which he had scored 27 goals for the U.S. national team and the New England Revolution, Moore quietly assessed what lay ahead for him and his teammates.
“This team has a history of meeting challenges head-on,” he said. “We know Jamaica is a dangerous team. Defensively, they’re big and strong but not that well organized, and we think there will be spaces that we can take advantage of.”
With a roster shorn of forwards by injuries, Coach Bruce Arena gave Moore only his third start in the Hexagonal. It was a gamble.
Moore had tweaked his hamstring in training the previous day.
“It was Joe’s decision, and we knew he would say he wanted to go,” said Arena. “I just told him I didn’t want a situation where I was going to have to take him out 30 minutes into the game.”
Moore’s 22 goals for the United States put him second on the all-time U.S. list, but he hadn’t scored for Arena in more than a year. It had been nine games since he netted twice at Foxboro against Barbados on Aug. 17, 2000.
At English club Everton, the drought was even longer: 18 months and six days. He had played 31 games – 26 Premier League games, three League Cup games, two FA Cup matches – since scoring twice against Watford on April 1, 2000.
DARK VOIDS. Three months earlier, before the qualifier at Foxboro against Trinidad & Tobago, Moore had spoken of the dark voids into which every attacker must venture.
“Game after game, it’s getting frustrating, and I haven’t had a clear opportunity to score in a long, long time,” he said. “I’m just trying to fight through it and hope things turn around.”
He had nearly turned it around in a Premier League match against Blackburn in late September, but U.S. teammate Brad Friedel robbed him.
Moore swiveled to belt a deflected shot toward the bottom corner and watched in agony as Friedel dived to parry it onto the post. Everton lost, 1-0.
“Watching him play the last six weeks with Everton, he has been very good and very fit,” said Arena. “Joe is a fighter, and besides his skills of being a forward and a danger to score goals, sometimes these games are about rolling up your sleeves and fighting.”
Fate had further trials in store for Moore after he dived to head home a crucial early goal from a Claudio Reyna free kick.
The specter of frustration and failure returned early in the second half when his first-time volley from point-blank range ricocheted off goalkeeper Aaron Lawrence’s shoulder. The score remained 1-1.
“I absolutely thought I had scored there,” said Moore. “It was a good save.”
UNBEARABLE TENSION. The loneliest player on the soccer field is usually the goalkeeper, but not when the ball sits on the penalty spot. Everyone – except perhaps the keeper – expects the ball to wind up in the net.
When Landon Donovan’s slick pull-back earned a penalty kick, Moore stepped forth after a brief three-way debate with Earnie Stewart and Jeff Agoos.
Stewart deferred. He’d been stopped on a penalty by Honduran keeper Noel Valladares in the 3-2 loss at RFK Stadium five weeks earlier.
Moore knew the feeling. At the Confederations Cup two years ago, Brazilian keeper Dida smothered a Moore penalty that would have tied the score. Instead, the Americans lost, 1-0.
But resiliency is one of Moore’s traits. Two nights after missing that penalty, he bent a superb free kick into the net as the U.S. rolled over Germany, 2-0.
Agoos couldn’t bear to watch as Moore prepared to face Lawrence. The U.S. defender faced the opposite end of the field and stared into the massive red block of Sam’s Army.
“I watched for their reaction,” said Agoos. “I didn’t see it go in. After the game in the locker room, I had to ask Joe which way he went.”
Moore drove it low as Lawrence went the wrong way, to his right. So well was it placed it rippled along the side netting.
“I just picked my corner,” said Moore with a broad smile that reflected his delight. “It means a lot to me.”
In 90 minutes, he’d exorcised a personal curse and swept his nation into the World Cup.
by Soccer America Senior Editor Ridge Mahoney