Clark’s goal lifts U.S. World Cup hopes

The teams were mediocre — lousy, even — and so was the match. Except for one crackling moment in the second half when Atlanta’s own Ricardo Clark pounced on a loose ball just outside the penalty area and thumped it in the net.

The shot by the former AFC Lightning and St. Pius X star proved to be the only goal of the game as the U.S. improved its World Cup chances Wednesday with a 1-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago.

Associated Press

If you need your player ratings fix, here you go. Clark, Landon Donovan and Tim Howard won’t get many detractors as men of the match.

The meme coming out of Port-of-Spain, and one that sums up how the Yanks look overall, is that three points are three points. Another World Cup berth is virtually in the books as the U.S. has a slim lead at the top of the CONCACAF qualifying table.

In the coming weeks and months, there will continue to be much that is written about the mediocrity of the U.S. team, and how just getting to the World Cup isn’t good enough any more. I do largely agree with this thesis, but for the time being some proper perspective is needed. Beyond accepting the reality that the Americans are who they are, and that they grow up in a country that develops players quite differently than the world powers of the sport. That is a subject for another time.

It was nearly 20 years ago at the very same Hasely Crawford Stadium that a goal by Paul Caligiuri — the so-called Shot Heard ‘Round the World — ended a 40-year World Cup drought for the Americans. Clark’s goal was strikingly similiar in many ways, and perhaps years from now we’ll look at his shot as important in its own way: That it likely has kept alive a World Cup streak vital to the continued development of the game in America. Such as it is.

It sure beats what Argentinians are thinking this morning.