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Russians rule U.S. men fall 2-0 in Moscow
Posted: Wednesday April 26, 2000 02:49 PM
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's soccer team extended its unbeaten string over the United States on Wednesday, winning 2-0 in the first match played by an American national squad in Russia. Russia's Igor Titov scored in the 72nd minute on a pass from his Moscow Spartak teammate Andrey Tikhonov, and Valery Karpin added an insurance goal two minutes into the second half's stoppage time at Dinamo Stadium. Russia has now won three of four matches with the United States and tied one. The Americans had several scoring opportunities in the first half. In the 24th minute, midfielder Claudio Reyna found himself one-on-one with Russian goalkeeper Ruslan Nigmatullin, who left the goal to clear the threat. Midfielders Eddie Lewis and Cobi Jones both missed clear scoring chances in the 33rd minute after a goal-mouth scramble. Seconds later, Russian striker Vladimir Beschastnykh hit the right post of the U.S. goal with a header. Russian goalie Nigmatullin made his first appearance with the national team and was named best player of the match by American coach Bruce Arena. Arena said his team had played well but done a poor job of finishing its chances. "We were missing some of our strikers and a couple of other good players, but that's not an excuse," he said. Russian coach Oleg Romantsev said his players started slowly but eventually met the challenge. "Unfortunately my players didn't share my opinion before the game that the U.S. has a powerful team," he said. "Only after we scored the first goal did we start to show the game we played to win six consecutive games last year." It was the third exhibition game this year for Russia, and the first win. Each time the team tried different lineups before Wednesday's winning mix.
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