By FRANCO PANIZO
WASHINGTON D.C. – The U.S. men's national team started its quarterfinal match against Jamaica without Landon Donovan, but that didn't seem to matter as the Americans put forth their most complete performance of the Gold Cup with a 2-0 win.
Second half goals from Jermaine Jones and Clint Dempsey proved to be the difference in a game that the U.S. team controlled from the opening whistle. Jones scored his first goal for the United States four minutes after halftime, and Dempsey scored his second of the tournament in the 80th minute to eliminate Jamaica and give the Americans a place in the semifinals.
"I thought we were able from the start to do a good job of establishing control, passing the ball, keeping the ball moving," said head coach Bob Bradley. "Ultimately it took a while to get the goal and the second goal, but as far as establishing our game today I thought we did an excellent job."
Jamaica played part of the second half with 10 men after Jermaine Taylor received a red card for a foul on Jones, who appeared to be clear on goal in the 67th minute.
Taylor's expulsion, combined with Jamaica scrambling to find an equalizer, opened the game up for the Americans, who began the game well by applying pressure through the wings in a 4-2-3-1 formation and without Donovan.
"When you make decisions on a lineup you size up all sorts of things," said Bradley of Donovan, who entered the game in the 65th minute. "It's been a busy stretch for Landon and we felt with an afternoon game (it) made sense to use him as a reserve today and we could bring him on and he would give us a lot."
The match may have started out well for the U.S. team, but things took a turn for the worse when Jozy Altidore went down with an injury just 12 minutes into the match. That forced Bradley to make an early substitution, with Juan Agudelo replacing Altidore in the lone forward role.
The early change didn't seem to affect the Americans, who continued to threaten Jamaica's back-line. The U.S. team had multiple opportunities in the first half, but Donovan Ricketts denied Dempsey and Sacha Kljestan. Ricketts' saves were a big factor in keeping the Reggae Boyz in the game in the first half.
The United States was able to break the deadlock shortly after halftime when Jones pounced on a headed clearance and blasted it towards goal. The shot deflected off of Taylor and made its way into the back of the net to give the U.S. team a 1-0 lead.
"The first time you score with the national team is always special," said Jones through Steve Cherundolo, who translated from German to English. "Most of all it was a very important goal for us tonight."
The Americans added a second 31 minutes later as Agudelo received a ball on the flank and then played it across the penalty area to Dempsey, who rounded Ricketts before slotting his shot home.
"I was disappointed with my performance against Guadeloupe. I wasn't able to finish some chances that I got and I wanted to make sure that I came out today and do whatever I could to help the team win," said Dempsey. "I was able to get the goal that sealed it."
The United States will face either Panama or El Salvador in the semifinals in Houston, Texas on June 22. Panama and El Salvador square off on Sunday evening in the fourth and final quarterfinals match.
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What do you think of the U.S. team's victory? Who was your man of the match? Starting to believe the Americans can win the Gold Cup again?
Share your thoughts below.
He does clip him. There is a video of it that Ives posted on his twitter clearly showing the clip. Sorry Ted. You lose.
of course he hasn’t…he’s a burned out hippie. .. EVEN if he did dive, most of us here have seen dives 1000x worse, some by our favorite players. i for one f*ckin love it! all the things about soccer, even the ugly, shameful, and down right absurd!
Big difference between embellishment and Dive. Dive occurs when there is no contact. As long as there is contact, I’m fine with him letting everyone know he got clipped and going down. What I don’t appreciate and is distasteful is the rolling around on the ground grabbing your knee when not hurt.
People want to kill Sacha for past performances. He’s not our best player, but fits in that role well and has had a great tourney. People also don’t understand that while Bedoya and Sacha are both called Midfielders, they play totally different positions.
You’re probably right! Listen it’s a love hate relationship between neighbors, but I do want to tell Danny that the Americans I know living in Mexico love it and that the tourist love it even more and are not treated except with Mexican cordiality. and I’m sure as Rob says that many in the stadium were cheering for the Americans as would I by the way.
P.S. But drug trafficking is not about weed my friends!
Maybe you both need to back to primary school. You write what you mean.You do not make people guess. Go back to school troll.
Bwahahahaha! Jason really shut up after that foot in the mouth moment!
I think there was some contact and Jones embellished it. What really gets me is not that you call it a dive, but that your deride Ives but clearly spend a bunch a time on his website posting and reading his (and his writers) articles. If you think he’s so biased why do come here. If I felt that someone’s website who I visited regularly was so biased that I needed to comment on it, I would stop coming to that site.
shook my head at a few of his crosses today….hope he’s workingon his left foot and he could be even better
probably true. but dc derserved at least a point in that game regardless
Agreed with thoughts on diving and the faking injuries.
Bball players do it all the time too and no one complains, this coming from someone who played basketball thru school and never soccer. Lebron and Wade are great at doing it, yeah it’s bs when you’re on the other end of it but when it’s your team it’s anything to win the game.
Diving or going down hurts both ways, players get yellow cards all the time for it.
I used to feel like we were somehow better because we didn’t dive. I’ve now realized that moral highground doesn’t win matches. And I like when we win matches….
My feelings on diving are obviously conflicted….
hate to see jozy injured, but i’ll take agudelo over him all day long….kid is half his size but holds the ball 10x better than jozy.
If it was such a blatant dive, why no protest?
Fair argument. Be sure to come back here and post that same statement the next time the US gets screwed by someone taking a dive.
The defender barely protested so I would highly doubt there was no contact. Jones sold like 99% of the players would. A better performance thankfully.
i have both and i prefer univision, nothing to be ashamed about…. they cover the game the way i wish fox would…perfect example being the early reggae boyz chance, univision’s replay graffic was awesome (and unlike fox, it wasnt replayed while the game was in progress). I don’t speak spanish well but i’d rather practice my spanish than listen to j.p. della camera
Haha fair point. I was going to go on to say I didn’t understand exactly what the commentators were saying about the call but then I realized that wasn’t necessary. Obviously, neither was the comment about not getting Fox Sports 😉
credit where credit is due — by far the best performance by the squad in this gold cup so far. keep it going boys.
Being Italian, I can say that unless your a literal brother or very close friend, mamaluke is not a nice comment. Its the kind of thing that gets you b**ch slapped if you said it to me on the street. It would be like a white man calling a random black man the n-word and thinking that its acceptable. Stop trying to defend your ignorance and just apologize sincerely.
I agree with you. Im no expert. I like how he controls the midfield, work rate etc.. He did well today. I just remember a few turnovers that drove me nuts.
And yet here you are, posting on a website that you implicitly deride with your comment.
“Do you root for Mexico?”…as if the options are 1) rooting for Mexico or 2) throwing things at Mexican players or fans, or starting horribly insensitive chants. in between these extremes, civilized adults can find a range of options for their behavior.
Scum? Me? Wow! Remove the PC stick from your keeester por favor.
+1 I wanted to see all of the Concacaf teams move as far as possible in the World Cup. Plus, as a Red Bulls fan, I am pulling for Rafa to do well in this tourney. I also appreciate Mexico’s skill on the ball. It is very entertaining to watch.
How does scum like this not get banned?
It was a dive, don’t let your biased blind you like it does to Ives.
Damn so Mexicans don’t smoke weed? They don’t exploit where they are to get rich off of Americans? The Mexican government isn’t involved with the many gangs in Mexico? Mexicans have no blame, right?
Sorry my friend, but this ridiculous, blame is found all around. Easy way to fix this, legalize weed in the US, close the boarders, and treat illegal immigrants like the Mexican Government treats them.
Anyways, all the talk about Mexico’s fans booing the U-17 players is ridiculous. It’s good for the players at that age to see a hostile crowd, and I clearly remember the Mexican fans on the end line cheering with the US player after the last goal. Why do we need to make it a bigger problem than it really is.
I think he was referring to destroying everyone in the group stages, are you crossed eyed?
I’m a long time poster and bradley hater, but he did good with fielding a team today, but we have a problem on wednesday… Bradley and Jones can’t play 3 games in a week, nor can dempsey, (asking for us to lose with them gassed on saturday)… Jones is the 1st to sit on wed due to his yellow card accumulation, and bradley looked awful today and probably needs to sit. What this means for wed, I don’t know? I know on saturday, i would want this lineup, substituting donovan for sacha, or (even sit donovan,) bedoya’s no david silva but he’s played so much better than donovan I don’t know why you start donovan on sat other than reputation. I don’t know, lots of thoughts, but we have a problem due to donovan’s form and 3 games in 6 days…
Much better today; Sacha and Bedoya were more influential than Donovan has been. I’m still interested to know if something is hampering Landon. All props to Bradley for changing the formation and sitting Landon. Michael wasn’t terrible but had two bad giveaways and will need to step up his game as we go forward.
Agreed speeke. I’m Mexican and that is the tone that we should use. I think the new generation of Mexican players are much more respectfup to the US. Never heard Gio, Hernandez, Vela, Guardado, salcido, Maza etc say anything negative against the US National team ever. Maybe I’m wrong. Of course the rivalry helps everyone for all the reasons you state and more.
As for Chino Strada, brother we have to chill and leave politics aside. I’ve also seen Americans treated like “kings”in Mexico. San Miguel, Los Cabos, Cancun and Mexico City were I live, have Americans everywhere and they seem enchanted with Mexico. I doubt they’re being hypocritical.
Anyway here’s looking for another exciting final between these two very talented teams…
Paz!
True. Over it.
Yeah if you take it literally.
I thought kljestien was awful. Slowed attacks, gave the ball away during the attack, wasteful free kick, poor shot choices and worse passing in the attacking third.
Was worried about the formation to start but it was played well. Move Dempsey to that attacking mid, and Donovan wide for kljestien and it would have been unstoppable tonight
I’m going to hope Bradley comes up with another reason to have Donovan come off the bench on Wednesday. USA looked GREAT in possession without him today.
Zonal marking broke down this game very well, but Bedoya brings so much to the team as the closest thing we have as a winger. Bradley must stick with the 4-2-3-1. We look SO much more fluid on attack than the dull 4-4-2 with inverted wingers which makes it more like a 4-2-2-2.
I hope Jozy can at least make the final after revenge is taken on Panama. Let’s hope his hammy isn’t destroyed.
Credit to the El Salvadorian fans who brought an amazing atmosphere and passion to RFK, even though it took me 30 minutes to park.
hey bigger picture here guys is this rivalry between Mexico and the USA in soccer is incredibly important to both countries and helps out both teams, their fan bases, their youth systems, and raises the level of play and international respect in CONCACAF. i rooted for mexico (and Honduras) in the World Cup and respect and enjoy watching a lot of their players (Dos Santos, Chicharito). Playing at Azteca during qualifying is great for the composure of US players and the mexican team being challenged every year for regional supremecy is great for them as well. I hope we both make it the finals because we’re the two most talented teams and it should make for a great final. I do hope we smoke them though
Bobbo seems to only see Bedoya as a winger, despite his playing the CAM in his club team’s setup frequently. I’m afriad sweats is gonna go with sacha, who I’ll impressed (outplayed my low expectations) today, but I still that was the least impressive of our front 6. (MB was only so so at times, but Sacha, in so many good positions CONTINUALLY passed the ball to the defender instead of shooting himself or playing into space for runners). I hope I’m wrong.
*Note: the assumption I’m making is that with Jozy out we stick with a 4-2-3-1 and Donovan comes back to the wing, leaving only the CAM position up for grabs between Alejandro and Sacha.
had to look up the Davies dive… 10 times worse than Jones’s.
Well maybe that’s because he’s on the field and you are either in front of a TV or high in the stands.
You can see a lot of things much easier than he can if you are in the stands and know what to look for.
If you are watching on TV there also may be a lot of things you aren’t aware of since the coverage tends to focus on the ball.
Oh and you probably don’t have defenders on you.
Dempsey’s goal was not fluky – it was a beautiful moved that capped off a great passing sequence. One of the best I’ve seen in recent memory, actually.
“Jamaica had a clear chance in the first ten minutes or so, which could have completely changed the complexion of this game.”
But Jamaica didn’t score, or doesn’t what actually happened matter to you?
“But then I see Boca basically pass the ball to a Jamaican in our box. It was the worst clearance I have ever seen. I like Boca, but that was bordering on obscene. The ball fell to him on his STRONG FOOT!”
Did Jamaica score? No? Then my reaction is so what?
The reality is soccer is a 90 minute game (sorry you missed the second half) and the US won it pretty comfortably.
Players blow chances all the time. If they were so “easy” why doesn’t everyone score all the time.
Soccer isn’t the game for you to watch because players blow plays all the time and for a perfectionist like you seem to be that would be very hard to take.
Calling someone a mutt would imply that they were not bred properly. Not doing yourself any favors.
Was anyone able to tell what Dempsey was shouting as he celebrated his goal? I definitely picked up on the word “motherf**ker” but that was about all i could get.
From the motion of waving his hand in front of his eyes, my best guess is he was yelling, “can you see me, motherf**ker?” Gotta love that Deuce swagger.
Dude, I am one of the first ones to critique
Sacha, but he had a great game. Did you see his through ball to Donovan that led a one on one scoring opportunity? He had several other very nice plays.
I don’t care if it’s exaggerated. The fact is, it happened. I don’t care if Mexican fans threw 1 bucket of pee or 1,000. One’s enough, and it’s so disgusting. I’ve been to a game at the Azteca, and those fans should make Mexico ashamed.
And leave politics out of this. It’s a soccer blog.
Racist F.u.c.k.i.n.g Americans.
Lichaj is out best option at the LB at the moment, but I have to say that the LB on U17 team had a great game in a 3-0 win against Czech Republic so there are some talented young players at that position that are being groomed for the future.
“The reason US fans were escorted out of Azteca by Police is because of bufoons like you who after losing 5 nil in the last Gold Cup final with your C team or whatever, started blaring out how you were going to destroy Mexico with your A team. It was all over the media everywhere! When your little dream didn’t come true Mexicans reacted unkindly! Surprised?”
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LOL so can we throw beer, vomit and piss at you when you come to Crew Stadium? You guys get pretty high and mighty about your team too.