Next to last warm up for the US national soccer team at Foxboro before the World Cup starts on May 31 in Japan and South Korea. Last match is this Sunday against the Netherlands; first US game is June 5 against Portugal. The Portuguese have to be the favorites in our opening round Group D, with South Korea and Poland the other group teams. We ought to go through to the knockout stages even though oddsmakers don’t think so.
First goal today was sweet, with San Jose Earthquakes young (20 year old) star Landon Donovan starting things off at midfield, getting it ahead to Joe Max Moore streaking ahead on the right. Moore makes a terrific cross, close enough to draw the Jamaican goalkeeper Lawrence off his line but curving away from him, Josh Wolff is right there with a chest-high diving header into the net.
One of the Americans is on the sidelines 90 seconds into the second half Landon Donovan takes a steal and is off on a speed move down the right side. He sees no shot so passes back to Josh Wolff who puts it right on the foot of Clint Mathis. Mathis, well out in the box, powers the ball right past the Jamaican keeper.
A couple of minutes later American keeper Kasey Keller has to hobble off the field. He appears to have hurt his right knee in a collision with a Jamaican forward. Tony Meola, an American soccer icon from Kearney, NJ, takes his place. Early report (10 minutes after he came off the field) is just a contusion of the left knee for Keller; the announcers say this is good news as Keller should not see any lasting effect from the injury.
In the 60th minute, Josh Wolff from the top left on the box, lots of top spin, slams it into the goal. Wolff is earning World Cup playing time.
Mathis limped off a couple of minutes later for a substitute, the last the Americans have for this match, due to a contusion on a toe–someone stepped on his foot. Jamaicans continue to foul badly and somehow the referee Martinez is letting them get away with it; there was a tackle on Eddie Lewis by Daly which the announcers said was a clear red card but the referee only gave a yellow. The USA bench “looks like a MASH unit.” The referee is going to let Daly keep going until he “commits two acts of murder tonight.” A good lesson for the Americans as they will be seeing very physical play in Korea.
84th minute: Landon Donovan, after setting up the first three goals, finally gets into the net from the top left corner of the goal box. He has to be the top candidate to replace the injured Chris Armas in midfield after making solid defensive plays as well.
88th minute: Jamaica gets their first real challenge on the American goal but the striker puts it over the top instead of on target.
92 minute (extra time): DaMarcus Beasley (19 years old) gets the ball alone against Lawrence and sticks it into goal seconds before the end.
5-0 USA!
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