Afterward, the coach dismissed any notion he is guided too much by player evaluation for the next World Cup qualifying and not enough by results in lesser events such as the Gold Cup. History. A raucous home crowd.
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“The team is disappointed”.
“We lost this game with the two set pieces that we conceded”, said Klinsmann.
In the early going, both teams pressed and defended as the game resembled one played in Kingston during the Hex rather than a Gold Cup match in the United States.
Other than those two set plays, the Americans largely dominated.
The United States controlled possession for 60% of the match and compiled 20 shots on goal (10 on target), but it wasn’t enough as Jamaican keeper Ryan Thompson made nine saves on the night. The botched save found Michael Bradley who finished the opportunity to get the Stars and Stripes a goal back.
“We knew if we could contain them, we’d be able to catch them on the break”, he said.
At the final whistle, the Jamaicans charged onto the field, hugging and waving their flag while a small contingent of fans, clad in green and gold, saluted their underdog team.
Well, before more than 70,000 in the sold-out Georgia Dome, the Americans were tripped up by an island nation of some 2.9 million – roughly half the population of metro Atlanta.
Jamaica coach Winfried Schafer said his team wanted more heading into the semifinal but would need a “David-vs.-Goliath” effort.
The loss ends the United States’ hopes of defending its title and winning its sixth Gold Cup. The USA was last eliminated before the Final in 2003 when they lost in a semifinal to worldwide powerhouse Brazil, a non-CONCACAF team invited to participate in the tournament. Excluding the 6-0 win over defection-ravaged Cuba in the quarterfinals, the only U.S. goal-scorers in the Gold Cup were F Clint Dempsey (six goals) and M Michael Bradley (two). In their first game in Atlanta in 38 years, they had most of the chances but kept sending good looks wide or over the net.
On the first, Mattocks (Vancouver Whitecaps) beat John Brooks to Kemar Lawrence’s long toss on a narrow field. Guzan couldn’t reach it. The ball struck the upright, skipped across the goal line and kissed the left post before spinning into the net. His looping header was directed off the right post and over the line to give Jamaica a 1-0 lead.
Then, five minutes later, in a play rarely seen at the elite level, referee Ricardo Montero ruled that Guzan failed to release the ball before stepping outside the penalty area as he tried to throw a pass to midfield. Giles Barnes drilled a perfectly placed 18-yard free kick into the upper right corner.
“Any time a World Cup finishes there’s always going to be a bit of turnover”, Guzan said. Win the playoff game against either Jamaica or Mexico and they book your ticket.
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Just three minutes later, the US squad almost equalized as Johannsson fired a free kick that Thompson could not fully grip and the rebound was headed over the crossbar by Johannsson.
