Gold Cup Update - June 8th

The first two days of the 2008 Gold Cup are in the books with Canada off to an early lead in Group A and the USA and El Salvador with Group B wins.  Mexico opens play in Group C tonight against Cuba while Panama faces Honduras.

Group A
Canada took early control of the group with a win over Costa Rica in the rain.   Canada withstood some solid early pressure from Costa Rica over the first 25 minutes to even play out the remainder of the half.  The game went to halftime 0-0.  The Costa Ricans were the first to strike in the 56th minute as Walter Centeno sent a nice curving shot to the far left post defended past keeper Onstad.  The Canadiens answered back almost immediately as Julian De Guzman, who plays for Deportivo la Coruña, set the equalizer with a shot from inside the box.  The rain did not permit a better show during the second half. There many mistakes and falls on both teams and nobody seemed to want it enough to break the tie. However, on the 73 minute Julian De Guzman showed everyone at the Orange Bowl that he came to the Gold Cup to stand out and scored a beautiful goal with a bending shot over Porras.

In the other Group A game Guadeloupe and Haiti played to a 1-1 draw.  The exotic team of Guadeloupe got to Miami trying to show everyone in CONCACAF that they are ready for this level of playing. With their star Jocelyn Angloma, a former French international, the Caribbean team was ready to bring their fearless style of soccer onto the field. The team, however, did not think of the fact that the Haitians were going to be playing at home in Miami, since the Orange Bowl hosted plenty of Haiti fans, whom did not stop singing and dancing throughout the game. In the 34th minute Haiti’s Boucicaut flew past his defender and found himself inside the box. Sommeil was only able to stop him with a foul and Mones Cherry scored the first goal of the game from the penalty spot.

The second half started just as the first had finished with Haiti in complete control, although slowly but surely Guadeloupe began to show that their attackers also wanted to speak for themselves. On perhaps the best play of the whole game, Capoue broke lose on the left and made it to the end line. His cross found Cedrick Fiston wide open in the small box and the forward only had to tap it into the back of the net.

Group B -
Clint Dempsey scored midway through thefirst half and a 10-man United States squad survived a late Guatemalan surge as the U.S. won 1-0 in the Group B opener at Home Depot Center on Thursday.  With the sun shining brightly at the start of the match, the United States took the initiative early on and pressured the Guatemalan goal creating several scoring chances.  Clint Dempsey was proving to be a handful for the Guatemalan defense. 

The U.S. finally broke through in the 26thminute. Jonathan Bornstein started the play as he collected the ball near themiddle of the field after a U.S. corner kick. Bornstein knocked a ball to theleft flank and Beasley flicked a header toward the corner of the penalty area.Taylor Twellman raced onto the ball and beat Pablo Melgar inside the penalty area. Twellman centered to Dempsey who slammed the ball into the back of the net.  The rest of the first half saw several other quality US chances go unfinished as the game went to half 1-0 US.

The biggest news in the first 20 minutes of the 2nd half was a Honduran referee that seemed willing to give Guatemala a free kcik at every flop and a silly challenge by Oguchi Onyewu that earned the US central defender a sendoff with his 2nd caution.  A very physical Guatemalan side began to take periods of the game to the 10 man US side but the defense held strong for a 1-0 US win.

In the other Group B match, Ramon Sanchez and Dennis Alas scored goals to help their side overcome an early deficit as El Salvador beat Trinidad & Tobago 2-1.  Trinidad & Tobago did well to open the scoring but could not find much offense afterward as El Salvador eventually wore down the Caribbean side. The teams traded goals in an otherwise drama-free first half. Silvio Spawn opened the scoring for Trinidad in the 8th minute with a spectacular free kick, but El Salvador answered as Eliseo Quintanilla swung the ball from the flank inside the penalty area. CesarLarios attempted a bicycle kick but sent the ball to teammate Sanchez, who struck the ball from the inside of his knee into the back of the net.

The second half was more open than the first with both sides exchanging opportunities. Trinidad tried to use its speed to disrupt the Salvadoran defense but 'keeper Gomez stood firm. Meanwhile, the Salvadorans pressured the Trinidadian goal on several occasions and eventually their effort paid off. In the 81st minute, Alas finally broke thedeadlock. Jose Martinez found the ball to the right of the six-yard box.Martinez slammed a shot on goal but a Trinidadian defender slid and stopped the shot. The ball rolled out to the front of the goal and Alas raced onto the balland slammed it into the back of the net.