Beasley scores twice in U.S. win
The U.S. has a time and place for its Gold Cup quarterfinal. What they don’t have is an opponent.
Not that it really matters. The way the Americans rolled through group play -- a roll they concluded Tuesday with a 4-0 pasting of El Salvador in a match that wasn’t nearly as close as the score would indicate -- it probably doesn’t matter who shows Saturday afternoon at Gillette Stadium to play the U.S.
Nevertheless, a sacrificial lamb will be chosen anyway from among Guadeloupe, the third-place team in Group A, and all four teams in Group C -- Panama, Honduras, Mexico and Cuba -- who enter play tonight hoping to finish anywhere but third, thus avoiding a mismatch with the U.S.
“We can’t choose who we play. We’ll all watch and see how the results come out,” U.S. Coach Bob Bradley said diplomatically. “We know going into the knockout phase that things will tighten up again.
“We look forward to it.”
Just how dominant has the U.S. been? Tuesday’s match was not only the most one-sided in this Gold Cup, but it also left the United States as the first team to score four times in one game. Only three other teams have scored that many times in the entire tournament.
It also ran the Americans’ Gold Cup unbeaten streak to 10 games, dating to the 2003 semifinals when it lost to Brazil. And in the last four of those matches, the U.S. hasn’t given up a goal.
“I think teams know our place in CONCACAF,” Bradley said without the hint of a smile. “That’s been established over the last eight to 10 years.”
What more? Well, whoever faces the Americans in Saturday’s quarterfinals will be doing so at Gillette Stadium, a place U.S. captain Landon Donovan says is his team’s home field and a place where the U.S. is 15-1-4 with 11 shutouts.
DeMarcus Beasley started the scoring in the 34th minute Tuesday, controlling the one-bounce rebound after a corner kick and blasting it home from just inside the penalty area.
But if there was a turning point in the match, other than when the U.S. players filed off the bus, it came in extra time at the end of the first half when Salvador’s Alfredo Pacheco was called for a handball, setting up a penalty kick. Donovan made good on the opportunity and the rout was on.
“That second goal ... was a big blow,” said Salvadoran Coach Carlos de los Cobos, who was ejected after arguing that Pacheco’s hand touched the ball inadvertently and, in any case, referee Benito Archundia wasn’t in position to make the call.
“It’s a young team and that affected their attitude of the group, got them out of their rhythm.”
What De los Cobos missed in the second half was another goal by Beasley -- this one in the final minute -- and a goal in the 73rd minute by Taylor Twellman, who wasn’t even on the field when the match started.
And though Bradley told a little white lie when he said he doesn’t care who the U.S. faces next, Donovan, whose goal moved him to second on the all-time U.S. scoring list with 31, three behind Eric Wynalda, was more forthcoming: Given the way they’re playing now, the Americans would like nothing better than to see the green shirts of their arch rivals standing in front of them Saturday afternoon.
“It would be great,” he said with a smile, “if we could play Mexico.”
In the final game of Group B play, Guatemala traded goals with winless Trinidad and Tobago in the final seven minutes then hung on for a 1-1 tie, earning a spot in Saturday’s quarterfinals where it will play Group A champion Canada.
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