USMNT has slow start, strong finish in Gold Cup tune-up vs. Guatemala - SI.com
That goal was tough to achieve at first. began the match without the sharpness and verve we saw during the friendlies last month in Europe. There wasn’t much in the way of chemistry or energy, and the hosts failed to find consistent answers against a Guatemalan team that was comfortable absorbing pressure. MORE: Mexico star Chicharito (collarbone) out for Gold Cup Jozy Altidore missed a first-half penalty kick and, if not for defender Carlos Castrillo’s 20th-minute own goal, the U. S. would have entered intermission in a scoreless tie with the... The Americans, who wound up winning that 2013 friendly 6-0, ran over Guatemala after halftime, thanks in part to increased comfort with each other and some timely substitutions by Klinsmann. Zardes, who replaced Graham Zusi at the start of the second half, was especially impactful, and as the game wore on Michael Bradley and Dempsey had a lot more room with which to work. The goals were stylish—Dempsey on a Panenka PK, Chandler with a long-range golazo and Wondolowski on a lovely set-up from Zardes—and demonstrated the gap in talent between the two sides. WATCH: Chandler's bomb | Dempsey's Panenka Even with a sluggish start, the hosts never were going to have much difficulty with Guatemala, a nation that hasn’t beaten the U. S. in 21 games dating back to the late 1980s and which barely scraped by... Source: www.si.com
