Team U.S, fresh off a European tour where they recorded friendly victories of Germany and Netherlands, look to win their second consecutive CONCACAF Gold Cup starting tonight against Honduras. And the next major tournament is just a few days away.
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Interestingly, German head coach Winfried Schafer has named 17 of the players in his squad that also recently participated at the Copa America.
In his pre-tournament media talk, Floro pointed to the many challenges that face Canada.
Michael Bradley notched his 100th cap for the United States national team on Tuesday, becoming the fourth youngest to do so. “I consider Costa Rica as one of the best teams in the world and they had a very good Gold Cup last time”. Abby Wambach joyously lifted the World Cup trophy while the players led the crowd in chants of “I Believe That We Just Won!”
After a 12th minute goal from Mario Goetze gave the German’s the lead, USA midfielder Mix Diskerud equalized four minutes from halftime.
Clint Dempsey didn’t view a wild sellout crowd as a pro-Texas bunch celebrating two goals by what amounts to a hometown kid. For these games, however, he was given the armband in a more deliberate manner. “We should have saw the game out but we made it hard on ourselves”. The group’s winners and runners-up each qualified for the Gold Cup.
While the U.S. women walked an arduous and treacherous path to winning the Women’s World Cup, with the rest of the field developing quickly, their talent clearly overmatched that of their opponents. His two goals increased his worldwide total to 44, second on the all-time US list and not all that far behind leader Landon Donovan (57). As Brazil posted a 3-0 win over Italy, the U.S pulled off a miraculous result to move into the semifinals where it would defeat Spain.
The U.S.is defending Gold Cup champion and will seal a berth in the 2017 Confederations Cup if it wins the title again. Yet for much of the night the domino effect of one breakdown causing another plagued the US defense.
While Honduras are yearly contenders, they haven’t played that great in the last two World Cups they participated.
Bradley was the man of the match because for the first time in this history of dos a cero, one player supplied the “dos” by himself.
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But in the 25th minute, Dempsey craned his neck to nod a rebound into the net from six yards after Honduras failed to deal with a corner. The youngster needs to use the experience he gained from playing with Giovinco and Bradley to keep his nation on the front foot. And he delivered. The positive was that the United States proved that it belonged with the world’s elite. In the 82nd minute, Bradley was the hero when he equalized on yet another ideal run into the box.
