Off a beautiful volley from Bennie Feilhaber to the far post top corner, where Mexican keeper Osvaldo Sanchez for once had no chance, USA defeated Mexico for our second consecutive and fourth overall Gold Cup trophy. El Tri scored first minutes before the half on a smart breakout, Andres Guardado from Neri Castillo; Brian Ching won a penalty in the 62nd, just before he was about to be subbed off, that Landon Donovan converted and Feilhaber got the winner 10 minutes later.
Our southern neighbors remain winless on American soil in this century but were the better team today, losing because they could not take advantage of the possession and opportunity and perhaps because neither of their star strikers, Jared Borghetti and then Cuauhtemoc Blanco after Borghetti went off from a hamstring injury, were able to impose themselves on the US back line. Big props to American captain Carlos Bocanegro for this, with an assist to Oguchi Onyewu.
Donovan’s was his fourth of the tournament, all penalty kicks, tying him at 34 with Eric Wynalda for the all time US goal scoring record and with Mexico’s Luis Roberto Alves for the all time Gold Cup goal scoring record with 12. He also surpassed Wynalda as the USA scoring leader in the competition’s second game. Coach Bob Bradley remains undefeated at 10-0-1 since taking over the team last fall, though this will surely change when he takes an even younger, less experienced team to Venezuela this week for the Copa America.
The American team is in transition, though, with this tournament the first real outing since the World Cup debacle in Germany. Keeping the Cup in our hands is a positive but aside from the 4-0 thrashing of Trinidad & Tobago in the final game of the group round we never dominated in a manner justifying our elevation to 16th in the FIFA World Rankings. Bradley did use the games to bring in new, younger players and the team going to South America will be even more so.
Feilhaber, a 22 year old playing for Hamburg SV in the Bundesliga, and Michael Bradley (yes, the coach’s son), 19 years old, who plays for SC Heerenveen in The Netherlands, made the best impression among the new boys, with Jonathon Bornstein (23, Chivas USA) close behind and Michael Parkhurst (23, New England Revolution) doing well in his one start at center half.
Brian Ching IMO earned the chance to start ahead of Taylor Twellman and Eddie Johnson but it will be interesting to see how the coaching staff settle on an attack formation; Twellman and Johnson are on the Copa America squad while Ching will return to the Dynamo. Landon played at both right wing and second striker, with Clint Dempsey generally taking the other side of the equation. DaMarcus Beasley was better than Dempsey from the wing and Feilhaber, Bradley and Pablo Mastroeni, backed up by Ricardo Clark, made a very strong central midfield group.
Donovan once again did not play up to expectations, with only one assist and no goals from open play (of his four PKs, other players won three), Onyewu did not seem to help his objective of finding a new club in the EPL and Tim Howard solidified his claim to the number one keeper spot. Kasey Keller was pretty good and will be the one going on to Copa America but Howard seems likely to be the better choice as the team builds to the 2010 World Cup.
Players to watch during Copa America:
- Marvell Wynne, Toronto FC, a young defender I liked very much when he played for the US U-20 last summer
- Jay Demerit, one of the better players on a weak and demoted Watford team,
- Lee Nguyen, for the moment a teammate of DMB’s at PSV Eindhoven
- Ben Olsen, DC United, needing a very strong showing to get back in the first team mix
- Charlie Davies, a striker playing for Swedish side Hammarby with one previous national team appearance
We have Argentina, Columbia and Paraguay in a group stage from which advancing will require a miracle. Should the US find a way to do so, the probable opposition in the first knock out round would be Brazil, who have a big emotional stake in winning the whole thing, but overall this should be a terrific experience for the American youngsters.
The US is also fielding a decent squad for the Under-20 World Cup this month and a number of those players ought to be in the 2010 mix: Josmer Altidore, a triker from my home town of Livingston, NJ, Freddie Adu (reportedly in his last MLS season, headed off to Europe once he hits his 18th birthday this summer), keeper Tim Ward (Columbus Crew), defenders Nathan Sturgis and Hunter Freeman and midfielders Danny Szetela and Eddie Gaven (who was on the US squad in Germany).
BillSaysThis 