US Men Advance to Gold Cup Final

Americans Down Honduras, 2-0

July 24, 2009

Clarence Goodson and Kenny Cooper scored for the U.S., Troy Perkins recorded his third shutout in the tournament, and Revolution back Jay Heaps started and played the entire match, making several defensive plays.

Revs' defender Jay Heaps was all over the place for the U.S. on Thursday. (CHRIS ADUAMA/aduama.com)

The U.S. will be looking for their third straight regional championship on Sunday, July 26, against Mexico. This will be the fourth meeting between the U.S. and Mexico in the Gold Cup final, with Mexico holding a 2-1 edge, although the U.S. won the most recent meeting in 2007.

"We are very pleased with the effort tonight, but also know the job isn't done." said U.S. head coach Bob Bradley. "We knew from the start of this tournament that it was a great opportunity for a lot of players, but we also made it very clear that we are defending champions, so it was with that idea that we got started and we have gone about it the same way we do every time we come together. We are now looking forward to the chance to accomplish our goal of winning the tournament.”

The victory against Honduras was the third in seven weeks for the U.S., as they also defeated the Central American side in group play of the Gold Cup by the identical score of 2-0 and also on June 6 in a World Cup qualifier, a 2-1 victory at Soldier Field. The U.S. is now 10-2-3 all-time against Honduras.

The U.S. opened the match on the front foot and earned the first clear chance of the game in just the second minute. Holden swung in a corner from the right side where Heaps beat his man to the near post but, his diving header was deflected just wide.

But Honduras nearly took the lead in the 20th minute. A long ball from the back was flicked on by the Honduran frontline to Marvin Chavez on the right sideline. He cut inside Heath Pearce and hit a dipping drive which Perkins did very well to keep out of the corner of the net as he tipped it onto the crossbar and out for a corner.

After pressuring Honduras but getting limited opportunities for most of the first half, the U.S. was able to capitalize on their sixth corner kick during injury time when Goodson got on the end of Stuart Holden’s precise service to put the Americans up, 1-0. The close-range header was Goodson’s first international goal.

Honduras nearly tied the score in the 85th minute when a quick combination of short passes found Carlos Costly alone behind the defense at the top of the area. However, danger was deftly averted as Perkins was out quickly to smother his shot and Heaps cleared the resulting rebound.

In the 90th minute, U.S. substitute, Santino Quaranta, broke free through the midfield after a turnover. The ball found its way out to Holden on the right. He found Brian Ching inside the penalty area, and the captain did well to hold off his defender to provide time for Holden to make his darting run and then rewarded him with a sweet back heel pass. Holden then calmly slid the ball across to Cooper for the tap in, the forward netting his second goal of the Gold Cup off of Holden’s second assist of the match.

Scoring Summary:
USA – Clarence Goodson (Stuart Holden) 45+ minute
USA – Kenny Cooper (Stuart Holden) 90

Lineups:
USA: 1-Troy Perkins; 16-Jay Heaps, 4-Chad Marshall, 3-Clarence Goodson, 2-Heath Pearce; 10-Stuart Holden, 8-Logan Pause, 5-Kyle Beckerman, 7-Robbie Rogers (20-Santino Quaranta, 75); 11-Brian Ching (capt.), 22-Davy Arnaud (17-Kenny Cooper, 86)

HON: 22-Donis Escober; 5-Erick Norales, 11-Mariano Acevedo, 2-Osman Chavez (24-Georgie Welcome, 86), 16-Nery Medina; 14-Carlos Palacios, 15-Walter Martinez (23-Roger Espinoza, 80), 18-Melvin Valladares (8-Allan Lalin, 90), 10-Marvin Chavez; 13-Carlos Costly, 9-Carlos Will Mejia

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