The U.S. national team’s 4-3 win over Saudi Arabia was as stunning as the three-goal lead the Saudis mounted after only 29 minutes.
Few players follow the international game as closely as Tab Ramos. The eight-year U.S. national team veteran can recite all sorts of soccer trivia, but even he says he’s never seen anything quite like the U.S. comeback against Saudi Arabia.
Down 3-0 after only 29 minutes, the United States recovered to beat Saudi Arabia 4-3 at RFK Stadium Oct. 8.
“I think our team did a great job of coming back,” said Ramos, who scored the tying goal and set up the first U.S. goal and the winner. “At the international level to come back from 3-0 down, I don’t think I’ve seen it before.”
Only once before had the U.S. national team rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win.
The date: Oct. 20, 1968. The place: Port-au-Prince, Haiti. After trailing Haiti 3-0 at the half in a match intended to serve as tuneup for 1970 World Cup qualifying, the U.S. got a pair of goals from Willy Roy, Peter Millar and Dietricht Albrecht to win 6-3.
This time, it was Ramos and fellow N.C. State product Roy Lassiter, who capped the comeback with second-half goals.
The U.S. was able to pull one goal back before the half, but it took some adjustments by coach Steve Sampson at the break to put the Copa America semifinalists on their winning way.
First, he told sweeper and captain Paul Caligiuri — who tied Marcelo Balboa for the most international appearances with 105 caps — to stay at home.
Caligiuri was often stepping up into midfield, lining up like many liberos do in Germany, where he now plays for St. Pauli. Unfortunately, that left the two marking backs, Alexi Lalas and Steve Trittschuh, isolated in the back to mark man on man against the skillful Saudis.
“This is the problem you have when you have guys that play overseas and they play in a different system,” said Sampson.
His second adjustment was to give Mike Sorber more help in midfield.
“Mike Sorber too often was two against one, where he was defending against two in the middle of the field,” Sampson continued.
The third and most important change had already been made minutes before the end of the first half. Sampson put Lassiter in for the invisible Roy Wegerle.
“He gave us mobility,” Sampson said of Lassiter. “He gave us speed. He was a threat that the Saudis had to respect and mark.”
Saudi Arabia was showing all the speed and mobility in the first half.
World Cup veteran Sami Al-Jaber opened the scoring in the eighth minute. Midfielder Khalid Al-Tenawi was able to turn Lalas around and send Al-Jaber through on his right. Al-Jaber beat goalie Brad Friedel, putting a right-footed shot off the near post and into the net from nine yards out.
Just three minutes later, it was 2-0 when Fahad Mahelel took advantage of a defensive blunder. Caligiuri intercepted a Saudi throw-in and bounced the ball to Jeff Agoos, who headed the ball toward Trittschuh in the box. Mahelel intercepted the weak pass and beat Lalas to get off a left-footed shot from 10 yards out that left Friedel no chance.
Trittschuh, the 1990 World Cup veteran who hasn’t played for the national team since the 1991, had no chance to get to the ball that Agoos should have cleared, but he was responsible for the third goal. Al-Jaber beat the Montreal Impact defender to Fuad Amin’s through ball, forcing Friedel to take Al-Jaber down for a penalty.
Saeed Owairan, the 1994 Asian Player of the Year, took the spot kick and celebrated in the same corner that he did after his World Cup “goal of the tournament” against Belgium last year.
“What was happening on the field in the first 10-15 minutes was an embarrassment for us,” Ramos said. “We didn’t come out as strong as we should have.”
Lalas summed it up: “We played like crap in the first half to let those three goals in.”
Then Lalas sparked the Americans’ turn in fortune with the critical first goal.
Agoos sent a beautiful long ball up the right side to a breaking Ramos, who was brutally taken down by Jamal Rashid Al-Ruwished, and Lalas beat Saudi keeper Abdul Hadi Al-Hadad to Ramos’ ensuing free kick from close range in the 36th minute.
“The first goal that we got before half was the key to the game,” Ramos said, “because that gave us the opportunity to come out in the second half and go forward with everything we had.”
The U.S. was not without its opportunities before the Lalas goal. The Padova defender had already grazed the crossbar with a header.
“The guys came out and were incredibly confident they could win this game,” Sampson explained. “And I was too, because we were creating opportunities. If we weren’t creating those opportunities, like Alexi Lalas hitting one off the [crossbar], then I would be very concerned.”
Joe-Max Moore quickly made it 3-2 after the break when he beat Al-Hadad to the near post and pounced on a tight cross from Claudio Reyna after a superb run down the right wing.
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Ramos tied the score with a 21-yard blast in the 63rd minute. The beautifully orchestrated setup started with a through ball from Moore to Sorber, who was breaking to the left side of the box. He sent a delicate pass over to Lassiter directly in front of goal. With his back to the net and a Saudi defender all over him, Lassiter sent the ball back out toward the top of the box, where Ramos met the ball with his right foot and cracked a screaming volley.
“I think it was an excellent setup from Roy Lassiter,” Ramos said. “He knocked the ball back so it was perfect for me to hit it first time.”
Lassiter enrolled at N.C. State two years after Ramos left, so they never got to play together for the Wolfpack, but he knew that Ramos prefers to shoot with his right foot.
“He knew that — he told me after the game,” Ramos said, “so it was good that he made the perfect layoff.”
Lassiter got the gamewinner off another picture-perfect combination between the three U.S. front men.
Reyna started the setup with a lovely flick to Ramos, who broke free on the right side of the box and sent a soft cross over the charging Al-Hadad for the easy two-yard header by Lassiter into the empty Saudi net.
“It was an excellent pass,” Lassiter said. “I didn’t want to rush in real fast. I wanted to time my run and get in there on time and to head the ball. The goalie had already committed and I couldn’t miss.”
Ramos, who had played against Sorber two nights before in a Mexican First Division game, came off soon thereafter.
“The ability of Tab Ramos and Claudio Reyna to hold the ball under pressure is a big advantage for us,” Sampson said. “I think you noticed that when Tab Ramos left the field we lost some of that rhythm.”
Fortunately, the demoralized Saudis, playing with eight World Cup veterans, were in no shape to ruin the U.S. comeback. Their most serious chance to tie the score came when they pressured the U.S. defense in the box and Amin sent a shot over the bar from 11 yards out in stoppage time.
By Soccer America correspondent Jerry Hawkins