November 23 (1980)

Steve Moyers, one of the all-time great scorers in St. Louis soccer history, scores both goals as the United States defeats Mexico, 2-1, at Lockhard Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., before just 2,126 fans in a World Cup qualifier. The victory is only the second for the U.S. in 26 matches with Mexico dating back to the USA’s last win in 1934. Moyers scores in the 31st and 65th minutes. His performance cements his place among U.S.-born players as that rarity: a natural goal-scorer. Moyers will score more goals in the North American Soccer League than any other American-born player. He will tally 65 goals over eight seasons with the St. Louis Stars, California Surf and New York Cosmos. Moyers turned pro in 1977 after playing one season at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Moyers caught the eye of Stars head coach John Sewell at an open tryout and made the team as a walk-on. “Sewell saw this athleticism in him, this fearless determination to score, and his tremendous timing in the air on head balls,” Joe Clarke, one of Moyers’ teammates with the Stars, will tell Dave Lange in a 2010 interview. “Steve picked up things so fast. Steve became great at volleys and he never quit.” Moyers will make seven appearances with the U.S. National Team and will play on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team. Moyers also will take his goal-scoring skills indoors, where he will amass 30 goals in 66 indoor games with the New York Cosmos. He will play one season with the St. Louis Steamers in the Major Indoor Soccer League in 1985. Steve Holroyd will sum up Moyers’ career in a 2015 story for the Society for American Soccer History: “A scoring star in a league that did not provide many Americans with the opportunity to be so, Steve Moyers stands as an example of what might have been, and the type of American player who might have been developed, if the North American Soccer League continued down the ‘grassroots’ path of the early 1970s instead of lunging for ‘major league’ status after the arrival of Pelé in 1975.”