The mood surrounding the USA men’s national team was much more positive Tuesday night after its 4-0 demolition of Costa Rica.
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CHICAGO (AP) – The fans stood and cheered when Clint Dempsey headed off the field in the second half, and the forward responded with his own round of applause. He gave the message with Michael (Bradley) in the midfield that this was our game, this was our three points.
“You know where you kind of are in terms of the goals you’ve scored for the team”, Dempsey said.
While the ferocious rivalry between the US and Mexico is the true heavyweight tussle of this region, Costa Rica and the Americans provide a worthy undercard. There’s only two games left so you got to get your first three points and then you see how things will play out in the third game.
Jermaine Jones, Bobby Wood and Graham Zusi also scored as the US moved into prime position to grab one of two spots in the knockout round coming out of Group A in South America’s championship. The 3-0 loss to Uruguay in Montevideo during World Cup qualification was an anomaly.
That opened the floodgates as U.S. tore Costa Rica apart on the counter-attack, with Gyasi Zardes and Dempsey wreaking havoc.
One of the most anticipated matches of the Copa America Centenario, which is now unfolding across the United States, will take place on Tuesday, June 7th at the magnificent Soldier Field in Chicago. As a team against Costa Rica, the US recorded 16 tackles, more than double its total against Colombia (seven). “I see a team that badly wants to prove itself with these caliber teams in the Copa America”, U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said.
Paraguay opened the Centenario on Saturday by playing Costa Rica to a scoreless draw in Orlando, Fla.
Bradley has seen enough and done enough to know that moral victories, even against elite global opponents, are relatively worthless.
Now, he knows how much better it is to get the win in Group A. Dempsey had also scored his first global goal at Soldier Field, in 2005 against England.
Saturday’s game ended 0-0, with a red card shown to centre-back Kendall Waston for a challenge on Nelson Valdez which leaves him suspended for the game against the U.S.
“I think we all do understand what’s at stake”, USA manager Jurgen Klinsmann said at his press conference on Monday. The opportunity arrived because midfielder Bobby Wood was pushed inside the box by a Costa Rican defender, right in front of the referee.
The victory came just hours after U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati suggested that if the team didn’t start winning games Klinsmann wouldn’t be the coach when World Cup qualifying resumes in the fall.
He did, pushing forward to join attacks, missing just barely on other chances to score, and harassing Costa Rica in the middle of the field.
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Klinsmann was surprisingly happy about the Americans’ effort in Friday’s 2-0 loss to Colombia in San Jose, praising the tactics while blaming the defeat on their set-piece defending. When the area finally was cleared, Dempsey took a stutter step, tricking goalkeeper Dany Carvajal into leaping to his right, then slammed the ball inside the opposite post for goal No. 50. “We are there in the driver’s seat to get through this very hard group”. If not for some mishits and the crossbar, it could have been easily 3-0 or 4-0 against the U.S. Yet even with the loss, there were some positives to take away from the match.
