Entries Tagged 'Soccer' ↓

Brian Ching and Eddie Johnson each scored either side of halftime to give the US a 2-0 victory over T&T on Saturday. The win, coupled with El Salvador’s loss to Guatemala pretty much ensures that the US will advance to the second round.

Next for the US is El Salvador, who’ve already been eliminated from the Gold Cup. Taking place at Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts, tomorrow’s is the first match outside of California for the Americans during the tournament. Coverage begins at 6:30 PM ET on Fox Soccer Channel.

Clint Dempsey’s goal in the 26th minute was enough to give the Americans a 1-0 victory over Guatemala in the opening match for each side of the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup. It was an ugly, ugly game, with both teams playing very sloppy and somewhat dirty football. The ref was horrible, and missed several legit calls, and ended up sending Oguchi Onyewu off for a second bookable offense on a very questionable call.

In any event, that’s 3 points in the bag, and now the US will turn their attention to the match against T&T tomorrow afternoon. T&T lost their opening match to El Salvador 2-1 last night, so they’ll be desperate for points. The match will be shown live on Fox Soccer Channel at 5PM ET tomorrow afternoon.

In their final tune-up match before the Gold Cup, the US easily defeated China 4-1 in an exhibition last night at San Jose’s Spartan Stadium. Goals from Benny Feilhaber, DeMarcus Beasley, Clint Dempsey, and Oguchi Onyewu, paced the Americans to their fourth victory under new boss Bob Bradley.

In all honesty, Bradley’s really only had one real test - against Mexico, but there are certainly some big games coming up this summer. The Gold Cup starts this week, and the US face off against Guatemala on Thursday, Trinidad & Tobago on Saturday, and El Salvador next Tuesday.

Yawn.

The only thing that was even half-interesting about this match was that former Gunner, Frankie Simek (pictured above), made his debut for the US last night. Other than that it was an absolutely atrocious match. Guatemala had no intention of attacking, and the US couldn’t figure out how to get past 11 men.

Yawn.

(BTW, Lost wasn’t much better - until the last minute!)

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!