The Case of the Fatal Goal

A soccer star who lost to the U.S. is murdered

The mistake had been fleet, but no one knew how fatal it would be. It was a slip of the mind, a touch of the foot and, suddenly, instead of blocking the ball, Andres Escobar propelled it past his own team's goalie and into Colombia's net. The defensive error gave the U.S. soccer team a 1-0 lead, and eventually a surprise 2-1 victory at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on June 22. For Escobar and the heavily favored Colombians, it led to World Cup elimination and, in the early morning hours near Medellin last Saturday, murder.

Escobar had been on...

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