Gold Cup could be golden opportunity for U.S. soccer players

SAN DIEGO -- DaMarcus Beasley had played only three matches for the U.S. national soccer team before making his first appearance in a Gold Cup match 11 years ago, coming off the bench to score the winning goal in the 90th minute.

Less than six months later he was starting at midfield in the 2002 World Cup.

Which is why Beasley, now a 31-year-old veteran with more than 100 international caps on his resume, would argue with anyone who looks at this month’s Gold Cup as nothing more than a summer lull in World Cup qualifying.

“The guys know that this tournament is very important,” says Beasley, who will captain the U.S. team in a pre-tournament friendly with Guatemala on Friday at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. The game will be broadcast on the NBC Sports Network beginning at 8 p.m. PDT.

“This has nothing to do about being a B team,” he said Thursday. “There’s opportunity for them to play with the national team. Whether you have one cap or you have 100 caps. It doesn’t matter. It’s an important tournament.

“We’re on our home soil. And obviously we want to do well and hold the trophy at the end of the tournament. So I think guys will understand that and they won’t feel that they need to overprove. They just need to take the opportunity and go from there.”

Mexico, winner of the last two Gold Cups, will open defense of its title against Panama on Sunday at the Rose Bowl in the second game of a doubleheader that will also feature Canada and Martinique. The U.S. will play its first match in group play Tuesday, meeting Belize in Portland, Ore.

After three games in group play, the top two teams in each of the three groups, plus the two best third-place teams, will advance to the knockout round, which will end with the tournament final July 28 in Chicago.

But there’s more at stake this time around, because, beginning with this month’s tournament, the winner of each biennial Gold Cup will qualify for a one-game playoff to determine the region’s representative in the prestigious Confederations Cup, a kind of dry run for the World Cup.

And that raises the profile of the tournament in the eyes of U.S. Coach Juergen Klinsmann.

“We want to win this competition,” said Klinsmann, who was named coach of the national team two years ago when former Coach Bob Bradley was dismissed following the team’s loss to Mexico in the last Gold Cup final.

“We want to be No. 1 in CONCACAF and this is now a good opportuity to show that. But we have to do our homework. We have to look at what we are doing and not looking at the other teams too much. And we know it’s going to be a lot, a lot of work ahead of us.”

Work that begins Friday against Guatemala, a team chosen for the warmup because it plays the same kind of challenging style Klinsmann expects to see in the 12-nation Gold Cup.

“They really have nothing to lose,” Klinsmann said of Guatemala on Thursday. “So they will give it everything they have. And therefore for us, it’s a challenge. We expect it to be a tricky game. And we need to be patient. We need to move the ball around. We need to play with urgency.

“It’s a good test for us. It’s not going to be an easy test, but that’s what we need.”

Although the U.S. will be without top European-based players such as Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard and Jermaine Jones, who are getting a summer break, 11 players on the roster took part in the last national team camp that saw the U.S. collect four straight victories and climb to the top of the table in regional qualifying for the World Cup. And six players on the roster, including Beasley, play professionally in Mexico, the most ever on a U.S. squad.

Among the additions is the Galaxy’s Landon Donovan, the all-time leader in international goals and assists. Donovan last played for the U.S. 11 months ago, with part of that time taken up by a self-imposed sabbatical following the Galaxy’s win in December’s Major League Soccer championship game.

Donovan, 31, said he needed the break because he was exhausted and now he’s hoping to earn his way back to the national team ahead of next summer’s World Cup in Brazil.

“I understood exactly why he did it,” Beasley said of Donovan’s break. “He’s had a lot of weight on his shoulders the last six, seven years. Being the face of MLS, being the face of U.S. Soccer. All that stuff. And he needed to take a little break.

“The guys understood where he was coming from, to sort out what he wanted to do. But at the same time I’m glad he’s back.”

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