The United States played a difficult semi-final match against Honduras last night in the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Despite being played in New Jersey, most of the 41,000+ crowd was there to support Honduras. And for the first half it seemed like their support was helping. The United States played dismally and in no way resembled the team that had just a few days earlier been ranked number 6th in the world (an all-time peak for the country).

Mario Ivan Guerrero opened the scoring in the 30th minute for Honduras by driving a short range shot low and past Casey Keller. The US went to the locker rooms at half time 1-0 down and looking rough. And the beginning of the second half only started off worse. In the 59th minute, coach Bruce Arena was ejected for disputing a non-call with one of the linesmen. He was forced to watch the rest of the game on TV and pace nervously, awaiting an embarassing defeat.

In a coincidence he will likely downplay, once Arena was gone, the US came much more alive on the field. Four minutes from the final whistle, the US finally took advantage of all their pressure and John O'Brien slotted home the equaliser. With heavy fatigue, the prospect of playing a 30 minute overtime must have seemed too much of a hassle because in the dying seconds Oguchi Onyewu headed in a cross from Landon Donavon and sealed a spot in Sunday's final for the US.



An unconvincing last gasp win, but a win nonetheless and they will now face off against Panama for the Gold Cup. It sounds like a good game, but I wouldn't know because NO AMERICAN CHANNEL BROADCASTED IT! Come on, America! You broadcast darts and billiards, but not the fucking semi-final of the Gold Cup? If they don't have the game on Sunday, I can always catch it on Telemundo.

Posted by Chad

This entry was posted on Friday, July 22, 2005 at 2:16 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.