2000 U.S. Cup - June 6: United States Vs. Ireland

June 6: United States Vs. Ireland

Ireland and the United States played to a 1-1 draw in front of another disappointingly low turnout. Only 16,319 fans, from a heavily Irish immigrant community, came to see the game which was played in a driving rainstorm in Foxboro Stadium. Once again, the USSF blamed local promoters for the poor numbers. On the field, Ireland's Dominic Foley scored first, taking a feed from Stephen McPhail before slipping past United States defender C.J. Brown and beating United States goalkeeper Brad Friedel. The Irish retained their lead until Ante Razov evened the match with a controversial goal. Earnie Stewart hit a clearly off-side Razov who scored as the Irish players stood still anticipating that the referee would whistle the ball dead. Instead, the referee and linesmen, all from Mexico, allowed the goal. Three minutes later, the stadium lost power for ten minutes. The game was delayed a further ten minutes as the lights warmed up. The low turnout, off-side goal and power outage merely added to the sense that this was a poorly run tournament.

After the game, the Irish hinted at a conspiracy between the United States and Mexico as an Irish victory would have won the tournament. Whatever the reason the Mexican officials allowed the goal, the USSF secretary general Hank Steinbrecher denied it was a conspiracy, saying, "I wish we were that sophisticated."

United States - Brad Friedel, Frankie Hejduk, C.J. Brown, Gregg Berhalter, Greg Vanney, Steve Ralston (Earnie Stewart 46'), John O'Brien (Claudio Reyna 60), Jovan Kirovski, Ben Olsen (Tony Sanneh 75'); Jason Kreis (Cobi Jones 65'), Ante Razov (Brian McBride 88')

Ireland - Alan Kelly; Stephen Carr, Gary Breen, Phill Babb, Terry Phelan; Stephen McPhail (Jason McAteer 37'), Matt Holland, Gareth Farrelly (Mark Kennedy 72'), Kevin Kilbane, Gary Doherty (Niall Quinn 72'), Dominic Foley (Barry Quinn 88')