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Less than two months after the U.S. stunned the world by upsetting Spain and nearly beating Brazil in the Confederations Cup final, they’re in their second straight final. This young, so-called “B” team brought their A-game in last night’s 2-0 Gold Cup semifinal win over Honduras.
They ground out a workmanlike win in Chicago, and will face Costa Rica or archrival Mexico in Sunday’s Giants Stadium finale. They’re not only reaffirming their status as the best team in CONCACAF, but building the depth they need to become far more than that.
Coach Bob Bradley fielded the youngest team in South Africa, but they still held a 2-0 halftime lead on Brazil before running out of gas. In this Gold Cup, he’s unearthing gems that can make the difference when they go back for next summer’s World Cup _ gems like keeper Troy Perkins, defender Clarence Goodson and midfielders Kyle Beckerman and Stuart Holden. Perkins stoned Carlos Costly took keep his third clean sheet, Holden set up both U.S. goals and Goodson beat Costly to Holden’s near-post corner, snapping a header in first-half stoppage time that set the tone and set the U.S. toward a shot at their third straight Gold Cup.
“It says that we’re deep. The U.S.A. has got a lot of good player, a lot of talented players,” said Goodson, that depth evidenced by the fact their dozen goals in the tournament have been spread between a record ten players. “Obviously the boys did the job at Confederations Cup; now we’re here trying to do the job at the Cold Cup.
“Logan Pause told me (Wednesday) in training I was going to score. It was our little joke, but it came true, so it felt great…It’s obviously huge. It’s a mental up for us and a downer for them. They played well the first half; to not get anything out of it has to hurt.”
Goodson’s goal clearly took Honduras’ heart; and that toughness is becoming a staple of the U.S., be it the first team that dazzled in South Africa or the backup-laden team that has ground out wins stateside. Having a deep pool of players ingrained with that mindset can only help.
Bring Ching is the only regular starter on this Gold Cup roster; and in the 90th, he held the ball up in the box and backheeled to Holden. The 23-year-old, making his case for South Africa, one-timed a perfect low cross to Kenny Cooper for the clincher.
Now the U.S. has beaten Honduras for a third time in seven weeks, and run their CONCACAF home unbeaten streak to 58 games. But thrashing foes from North & Central America and the Caribbean doesn’t get it done anymore. Now they’re at a stage where the expectation is more than just being the big fish in the small CONCACAF pond.
Granted, Honduras is no Spain, and the Gold Cup is no World Cup. But Bradley handed a host of young players meaningful playing time, the same way he did in the 2007 Copa America. The U.S. crashed out of that tournament winless, but out of that embarrassment came experience.
Green talents like Beckerman, Charlie Davies and Ricardo Clark _ drawing interest from Serie A team Livorno _ learned valuable lessons, and put them to use the past two months. It’s a sign of U.S. progress that this time they’re learning lessons and building depth while notching Ws at the same time.
