Real Work Begins for U.S. After 1-0 Loss

Ready or not, the World Cup is upon Bruce Arena.

The next time the coach of the U.S. national soccer team steps onto the field it will be for real--no more friendlies, no more exhibitions--and if Saturday proved anything it is that the Americans have a rough road ahead of them if they are to qualify for Japan/South Korea 2002.

Colombia defeated the United States, 1-0, in front of 14,169 fans at the Orange Bowl in Miami in a physical game that was dominated by the South Americans. The final score did not accurately reflect Colombia’s superiority, especially in the second half.

And so Arena, who suffered his seventh loss in 31 games as U.S. coach, has three weeks left in which to contemplate his lineup for the Feb. 28 qualifying game against Mexico, the first of 10 this year.

“I think we did some very good things for some long stretches of the game, but we didn’t have the ability to break down their defense in the last third of the field,” Arena said.

The U.S. team had only two decent scoring opportunities, both coming in the same sequence of play in the 62nd minute. First, Clint Mathis unleashed a powerful left-foot shot that Colombia’s goalkeeper, Farid Mondragon, did superbly well to block, diving to his left.

The rebound fell to Chris Albright, but the forward hooked his shot over the crossbar with the net at his mercy.

Colombia, by contrast, had taken full advantage of its best scoring opportunity nine minutes earlier.

Forward Nestor Salazar, guarded by Jeff Agoos, took the ball into the right corner before cutting a pass back into the path of Freddy Grisales, who had been left unguarded when Greg Vanney moved to help Agoos.

“I think we fell asleep a little bit on the goal,” Arena said, “but overall we did a good job defensively.”