Moore, U.S. Send a Message to the World

One of soccer’s flashiest plays, the back-heel pass in close quarters, set up midfielder Joe-Max Moore’s goal in the 88th minute and gave the U.S. national men’s team a scintillating, 1-0 victory over world-power Argentina on Sunday.

Moore, who had entered the game in the 60th minute, took the slick, short pass from veteran Dutch-raised American Ernie Stewart near the top right of Argentina’s penalty box and put a rising shot to the left-top corner past diving goalkeeper German Burgos.

“I saw Joey in the back of my, er, lens,” said Stewart, struggling for the right English word, “and heard Joey calling for it, so I back-heeled it to him.”

The goal gave the Americans their second consecutive win over Argentina, this one before 40,119 at RFK Stadium. Even though the game was a friendly, the win, coupled with the team’s 3-0 defeat of Germany earlier this year, reinforced an unmistakable message to world soccer that the United States is back after going three-and-out in last year’s World Cup.

“We’re not going to blow this thing out of proportion,” said a smiling U.S. Coach Bruce Arena on a warm homecoming to RFK, where he led D.C. United to the first two Major League Soccer championships. “But it was a good win. That game could have gone either way. It was two teams competing for 90 minutes. I thought it was a great game.

“We’re back in the right direction, yes, but it doesn’t say a whole lot more than that,” said Arena, who added that he still needs to see more players before deciding on an optimal mix. “We’re about a year away from being a pretty good national team.”

The game, offensive in tenor throughout, was loaded with chances for both sides as the Argentines, who started six players from world-regarded European club teams, outshot the Americans, 17-14, and created more dangerous chances, but not by a lot.

Said Argentina Coach Marcelo Bielsa, for whom the game had more importance given his club’s nearing participation in Copa America, the South American national-team championships, “The way we played, we deserved this result.”

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Johnny Torres and Edwin Gorter each scored in the final six minutes of regulation to lead the New England Revolution over the Miamia Fusion, 4-3, in front of 19,069 at Foxboro, Mass.

New England tied the game, 2-2, on Torres’ goal in the 85th minute. Miami’s Diego Serna scored two minutes later to make it 3-2, but Gorter scored with 1:51 remaining to send the match into a shootout.

The Revolution (6-6) won their third straight and extended Miami’s winless streak on the road to 11 matches, including eight this season.

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Jaime Moreno and Marco Etcheverry hooked up on two goals and D.C. United goalkeeper Tom Presthus had two saves in a two-minute span late in the game to lead the United past the Columbus Crew, 2-1, in front of 17,386 at Columbus, Ohio.

Columbus (7-5) was held under two goals for the ninth time this season.

Moreno, who scored his fourth and fifth goals, took a pass from Etcheverry, sprinted about 40 yards past three defenders and fired a shot from about 15 yards past Mark Dougherty to give United a 1-0 lead in the 34th minute.

In the 66th minute, Moreno split Michael Clark and Robert Warzycha and sent a shot across the box into the left corner.