Last-gasp goals mark soccer

Press, 7 June 1983, Page 40

Last-gasp goals mark soccer

NZPA Mexico City Australia, South Korea and the United States all won yesterday in World Youth Cup soccer matches marked by last-gasp goals and red cards for three Ivory Coast players. The roughest match of the tournament so far, between the United States and the Ivory Coast, ended with only eight Africans on the pitch. The others were sent off for wild tackling and arguing with the Peruvian referee, Pagano. George Gelnovatch scored the only goal of the game with 10 minutes to go, keeping alive American hopes of S”'ying and ending Ivory ’s interest in the 16nation cup. The Ivory Coast hardly deserved to lose as it had overwhelmed the U.S. youngsters for most of the group “B” match played in the central city of Puebla. But their finishing was poor and the frustrations appeared to get the better of them. Their play deteriorated into crunching tackles and back-chat to the referee. In the capital, Mexico went down, 1-2, to a lively South Korean side which scored the winner in the

dying seconds of the game. Although Mexico has yet to win a match in the cp it still has a chance of advancing into the next round, but it must beat Scotland and wait for the result of the Australia-South Korea game, the last matches in group “A.” The European champion, Scotland, crumbled to Australia yesterday despite having most of the play and creating far more clear scoring chances. Again the game was decided in the last few minutes. A 1-1 draw looked certain until Jim Patikas broke through the stretched Scottish defence in the 88th minute to score after easily beating the ’keeper, Bryan Gunn. The Mexican fans in the Toluca Stadium west of Mexico City went wild at the final whistle, knowing the unexpected Australian win gave their own team a better chance of qualifying. The spate of last-minute goals added weight to suspicions that the high altitude of many of the stadiums — up to 2600 metres — exhausts the young players, increasing the chances of slip-ups towards the end of the 90 minutes.