US 3 - 1 Ecuador

Landon Donovan wore the captain’s armband today, and rewarded interim coach Bob Bradley’s faith by scoring a hat trick to pace the US to a 3-1 friendly win over Ecuador this afternoon.

After turning on the TV a few minutes after 12, I quickly ran to the kitchen to grab a glass of water before the match started. Imagine my surprise then, when I came back to the living room, to find that Donovan had scored from a 30-yard strike just 45 seconds into the match!

Felipe Caicedo scored for Ecuador just ten minutes later, and that’s how the teams went into the dressing rooms at the half.

After the break, the US seemed to have a bit of an edge in fitness level, and in the 66th minute, that advantage bore fruit in the form of two Donovan goals in the span of a minute.

The US have one more friendly during this international window, a match against Guatemala in Texas on Wednesday. The match will be broadcast live on ESPN2 @ 9 PM ET, so everyone who still watches “Lost” (and if you aren’t, that’s too bad, because it’s back to kicking major ass) will need to make sure to program their DVRs!