Joe-Max Moore

Joe-Max Moore

Personal information
Full name	Joe-Max Moore
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Position(s)	Forward
Team information
Current team	Retired
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 18 November 2006

Joe-Max Moore (born February 23, 1971 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is a former American soccer forward who played for the United States national team in three World Cups. He played professionally for clubs in Germany, England, and finished his career with the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer.

Moore appeared in a charity match for Hollywood United FC against LA Galaxy on November 4, 2007. The event raised over $100,000 for the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army to benefit those affected by the wildfires in Southern California. Other participants included actors Anthony LaPaglia, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Costas Mandylor; musicians Steve Jones and Vivian Campbell; and former World Cup players Frank Leboeuf, Richard Gough, and Eric Wynalda. Former Galaxy standouts Alexi Lalas and Mauricio Cienfuegos played for LA along with current star David Beckham.[1]

Early life

Moore, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the son of oilman Carl Moore, who was co-owner of the North American Soccer League Tulsa Roughnecks. Joe moved to Irvine, California when he was 14, and played boy's soccer at Mission Viejo High School where he was a four year starter. Heavily recruited out of high school, he chose to play NCAA soccer at UCLA. While at UCLA, he played with future national team teammates Brad Friedel, Chris Henderson and Cobi Jones. As a freshman he scored 11 goals, assisted on 10 others and was named to the Soccer America Magazine's All-Freshman team. That year, UCLA won the NCAA championship, defeating Rutgers in penalty kicks. As a sophomore, he earned second team All American honors and was a first team All American as a junior. As he junior, his final year with UCLA, he also led the team in scoring. At the end of his junior year, he had scored a total of 38 goals and assisted on 24 others in 65 games.

While in college, he began playing for the national team. In 1989, he was part of the U.S. U-20 team which placed fifth at the 1989 FIFA U-20 World Cup. In 1991, he scored the winning goal against Mexico in the Pan American Games championship game. In 1992 he was a member of the U.S. Olympic team which went 1-1-1 and failed to make the second round.

After the 1992 college season ended, Moore signed with the U.S. national team. Beginning in 1988, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) had begun to sign top U.S. players to contracts, making the U.S. national team a de facto professional club. USSF would then loan out U.S. players to club team, recalling them for national team games. Moore chose to not return to UCLA for his senior year and joined USSF as a full time national team player.

Years in Germany

In July 1994, USSF loaned Moore to German Second Division club FC Saarbrücken. At the time, Moore was an alternate for the U.S. team at the 1994 FIFA World Cup, but had not been selected to play. With a lull in national team games following the World Cup, USSF decided to move several players overseas. Saarbrücken would end up buying Moore's contract from USSF for $250,000. In Moore's single season with Saarbrücken he played 25 games, leading the club with 13 goals. At the end of the season, Saarbrücken transferred Moore to fellow Second Division club FC Nuremberg. He again led his team in scoring with 8 goals.

New England Revolution

In 1996, Major League Soccer (MLS) was in the process of building teams for its upcoming first season. As part of that process, MLS attempted to ensure an initial equitable distribution of talent across each of its teams. It did this by allocating known players to each team. MLS allocated Giuseppe Galderisi to the New England Revolution. However, he showed up injured and played poorly through his first four games, so MLS replaced him with Moore on the Revolution roster on July 24, 1996.

Moore had an exceptional four year tour with the Revolution. Aside from an injury marred 1997 season, in which he only played 11 games, scoring 4 goals, he consistently produced for the club. During these years, he became the club's all-time leading scorer and made the 1999 MLS All Star team. His success with the Revs led him to pursue a return to Europe, this time with Everton in the English Premiership.

Emelec

In November-December 1997, Moore spent a month on loan from the Revs to Emelec of the Ecuadorian First Division following the end of the MLS season where he yearned to be close to his family recently residing in Durant,Oklahoma. He was not the only MLS player with Emelec, as Alexi Lalas joined him during the loan.

Everton

In November 1999, MLS sold Moore's contract, which ran through December 1999 to Everton in the English Premiership for a nominal $50,000, after Moore impressed the Everton staff in a 7 day October tryout. At the time, Moore did not have permission from MLS to work out with any team but the Revolution. Despite this, MLS placed no barriers in the way of Moore's transfer. The contract with Everton, good for three and a half years, would pay Moore approximately $600,000 per season.

Moore initially had outstanding success with Everton, scoring 5 goals in his first 5 first-team games. However, he slowly became less and less effective. The final straw came at the end of 2002. Moore had suffered a knee injury in the U.S. game against Portugal at the 2002 FIFA World Cup and did not play for Everton in the next season. On December 12, 2002 his contract with Everton terminated “by mutual consent”.

Return to the Revolution

When he returned to New England from Everton in 2003, he was a much changed player. He had suffered from several injuries while in England which hampered his playing time when he came back to the Revs. However, he still managed to score 4 goals in 16 games during the 2003 season. In 2004, his last season with the team, he played in only 3 games, failing to score a goal, before spraining ligaments in his knee. He was out for most of the rest of the season, but planned to return for the 2005 season. However, he reinjured his knee during a January 2005 pre-season mini-camp.

Moore had reconstructive surgery on his right knee for a damaged medial collateral ligament on January 25, 2005. Two days later, he announced his retirement from professional soccer, saying, "After numerous attempts to strengthen and stabilize my knee through rehab, it became clear that I had no alternative but to have reconstructive surgery. Considering my age and the recovery time necessary, I have decided to end my playing career."

In his six years in MLS, Moore scored 41 goals and added 35 assists for 111 points, the assists and points being Rev records through the 2004 season. However, Taylor Twellman has since passed Moore on the Rev's points lists.

National team

Moore's first appearance for the US national team came against Canada on September 3, 1992. He played in the 1994, 1998, 2002 FIFA World Cup tournaments and became the sixth US player to earn 100 caps, doing so against Poland.

His 24 goals for the US rank him fourth in national history, behind only Eric Wynalda(34), Landon Donovan(34) and Brian McBride(30). On January 27, 2006, Moore was inducted into the Oklahoma Soccer Hall of Fame.

References

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