U.S. Nears World Cup Berth Ramos Connects In 79th Minute Of 1-0 Triumph Over Costa Rica

In soccer, scripts don’t come much better - a dramatic 1-0 United States victory, a wildly enthusiastic crowd and Tab Ramos the hero.

“A magical finish,” he said.

The veteran of the 1990 and 1994 World Cups celebrated his return to World Cup qualifying 10 months after a severe knee injury, scoring in the 79th minute against Costa Rica Sunday to put the U.S. in prime position to advance to World Cup ‘98.

“‘I said this was a must win for us because we don’t want to go down to the last game having to win,” Ramos said. “This is so important a win for U.S. soccer, the most important game in the last six or seven years.”

Ramos, prone to overstatement, connected from 22 yards out, moving the Americans (2-1-3) into second place in the final round of qualifying in soccer’s North and Central American and Caribbean region, two points behind Mexico (3-0-2).

Costa Rica (2-3-2), with two losses and a tie in its last three games, is a point behind the Americans in a third-place tie with Jamaica (2-2-2), which beat Canada 1-0.

The top three teams advance to next summer’s 32-nation tournament in France. The Americans’ next game is Oct. 3 against Jamaica at RFK Stadium in Washington.

Playing in front of a loud, sellout crowd of 27,396 at old Civic Stadium, where giant strips of grass were laid over the artificial turf, the United States dominated play throughout but failed to turn its advantages into clean shots on goal.

“It was getting a little scary because Costa Rica is a good team,” Ramos said. “But we have to be positive about the fact we were creating chances.”

U.S. coach Steve Sampson, trying to stir up the offense, sent Major League Soccer star Preki Radosavljevic and Cobi Jones into the game with about 16 minutes to go.

“When Cobi and I came into the game, I felt something should happen,” Preki said.

Five minutes later, the moves paid off. Ernie Stewart lofted a pass across the field to the right side, where Preki won the ball and knocked it into the penalty area. Marcelo Balboa knocked it to Ramos near the arc, and Ramos rocketed a shot past goalkeeper Erick Lonnis into the right corner of the net, the sixth goal in his 76 international appearances.