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Closer Look Wynalda's penalty kick was difference against Haiti
Posted: Sunday February 13, 2000 08:53 AM
By Jeff Diecks, CNNSI.com MIAMI -- The U.S. held a 1-0 lead on Haiti and clearly dominated possession in the first half of the Gold Cup opener on Saturday night, but the tide began to shift early in the second half. Then Eric Wynalda quickly slammed the door on Haiti's hopes of a comeback with his 55th minute penalty kick. Backed by an Orange Bowl crowd of 49,591 that was clearly not in favor of the home team (often cast as the visiting team on its home turf, the U.S. had not won in 14 international matches it played in Miami prior to Saturday's 3-0 victory), Haiti started stringing together its passes and earned a pair of dangerous free kicks. The best sign that the U.S. was in jeopardy came when defender Jeff Agoos tangled himself up and crashed to the turf as Haiti stormed down the right flank in the waning moments of the first half. The rest of the U.S. defense scrambled to clean up Agoos' mess, but suddenly the 1-0 lead appeared in danger. Claudio Reyna helped put an end to the mounting threat. In a play that symbolized much of the dominant ball control the U.S. displayed in the match -- but with an all-too-rare flurry through the last line of Haiti's bunker defense -- Reyna capped off a passing sequence by bursting into the right side of the penalty area and leaving Haiti's Jean Roland Dartigeunave no choice but to take down the U.S. playmaker from behind near the endline. Referee Olger Mejias awarded a penalty kick for the foul, and Wynalda converted what amounted to the clinching goal. "It was important to get that second goal," Reyna said. "A team that's down by one goal is always going to believe they have hope, so that second goal kind of killed them off a bit." Don't think Wynalda's conversion of the penalty kick was automatic -- the U.S. striker needed to use one of the tricks he has learned while earning 104 caps and becoming the U.S. national team's all-time leading scorer with 34 goals. Wynalda used a brief hesitation before taking the penalty kick to outwit Haiti goalkeeper Didier Menard. "I'm not going to give it away, but I was going to go to the other corner," Wynalda said with a smile. "He took off early and I had to change my mind. I just kind of made up my mind what I was going to do, and he changed it for me. He left a little bit early, and I had to at the last second go back the other way. It wasn't a very good shot. All I could do was put it the opposite way he was going." The goal gave Wynalda the distinction of being the only U.S. player to have scored in each of the five Gold Cup tournaments. Wynalda has started each of the 19 tournament games played by the U.S. since the competition began in 1991, and he has scored nine times in those matches. On paper, Wynalda's strike served as the second goal in a 3-0 rout of an opening-round match. He certainly has found the back of the net in much more dramatic fashion -- including his last-minute game-winner for the San Jose Clash in 1996 that also served as the first goal in Major League Soccer history -- but the score against Haiti had its significance too. Wynalda, who has struggled with a series of knee injuries the past two years, scored the goal at the Orange Bowl, the site of his first U.S. national team goal on Feb. 4, 1990 against Colombia. He also now plays for the Miami Fusion in MLS, after a trade last season from San Jose. His penalty kick on Saturday night sealed the win against Haiti. Did it also signal his return to form as a top striker? "Absolutely not," Wynalda said. "I think I can play a lot better. There were some times out there where I didn't hold the ball as well as I should. ... I think I've got a long way to go. Physically I'm OK, but I'm going to get better playing some more games."
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