The United States bounced back from a shutout loss to Colombia in their Copa America opener by blanking Costa Rica 4-0 on Tuesday and will now try to defeat a winless Paraguay team Saturday in Philadelphia.
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Goals from Clint Dempsey, Jermaine Jones, Bobby Wood and Graham Zusi saw the USA thump Costa Rica 4-0 on Tuesday night. The first meeting dates back to the 1930 World Cup where the US used a 3-0 victory to advance out of the group stages and onto their highest World Cup finish. Both sides return to action on Saturday with the United States of America taking on Paraguay in Philadelphia and Costa Rica facing Colombia in Houston.
Villar didn’t seem to mind, just laughing his head off, while James – who scored the crucial second goal in Colombia’s 2-1 win – might see it as a lucky charm.
Carlos Bacca No.7 of Colombia controls the ball past Gustavo Gomez No.3 of Paraguay during the second half of a 2016 Copa America Centenario Group A match between Columbia and Paraguay at Rose Bowl on Wednesday in Pasadena, California.
If Costa Rica and Colombia draw, the USMNT advances to the quarterfinals, finishing second in Group A. The United States lost a game where they controlled the possession for most time of the match without creating many unsafe attempts on goal.
While the victory will count for nothing if the U.S. lose to Paraguay in their final Group A encounter in Philadelphia on Saturday, few would bet against them now.
“It took us a little while to get going”, Paraguay coach Ramon Diaz said through a translator.
United States Soccer Federation chief Sunil Gulati had fueled fresh speculation about Klinsmann’s position only hours before kickoff, telling journalists: “No one has iron-clad job security”. Lezcano, Paraguays hottest goal scorer had scored four goals in the last three qualifying matches for Paraguay.
“Colombia had some good quality and I think we all had an excellent game”. Whatever Klinsmann said in the trainings lead up to and in the pregame in Chicago seemed to work especially since he played the same exact starting XI.
Still, Paraguay is a solid team (they held a 56 percent-44 percent advantage in possession vs. Colombia) and they won’t be a pushover by any means for the U.S. As always in a knockout game like this, the first goal (assuming that there is one) will be critical. A loss to Paraguay would eliminate the USA from the competition.
The tournament continues on Wednesday with games in Group B – Brazil meet Haiti in Orlando and Ecuador face Peru in Glendale, Arizona.
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Paraguay was much better in the second half, but Ospina stopped everything except Ayala’s exceptional long strike.
