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U.S. defeats Canada 2-0 at Gold Cup
Landon Donovan has always been adept at scoring. Now, he's doing it late in
matches and in important situations for the United States.
Donovan scored on a header in the 90th minute, and the United States beat Canada 2-0 Saturday to advance to the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Donovan's goal, off a nicely played cross by DaMarcus Beasley, moved him into third place on the American career goal list with 25, passing Joe-Max Moore. Only Brian McBride (28) and Eric Wynalda (34) have scored more. On Thursday, Donovan entered as a sub and scored twice in the final minutes as the Americans beat Cuba 4-1 — once off a pass from Beasley. Donovan now has eight goals in Gold Cup play. This time, it was Beasley entering as a sub in the 67th minute, and setting up his young counterpart. "I told Bruce (Arena), I don't want to get use to coming off the bench," Donovan said. "But his theory of how he wanted to play these two games worked out, so we're in great shape." The United States has six points in Group B — tied with Costa Rica — and earned a spot in the final eight of the tournament, the championship of soccer's North and Central American and Caribbean region. Costa Rica beat Cuba 3-1 earlier Saturday and will play the Americans in a first-rouind finale on Tuesday night in Foxboro, Mass. In the first two games, Arena accomplished his goal of giving some inexperienced players an opportunity. Of the 23 on the roster, 22 saw action. Goalkeeper Matt Reis was the lone exception. Those who didn't play much, or at all, against Cuba had fresh legs, and in the second half wore down the Canadians. "We played much better in the second half and obviously some fatigue set in for the Canadians," Arena said. "Overall, it was not a bad performance on our part." There were plenty of scoring chances for the Americans as the match was played almost entirely on Canada's half of the field. Yet for most of the second half, it appeared an own goal by Canada would be the difference. In the 48th minute U.S. midfielder John O'Brien chipped a pass into the penalty box. Canadian defender Atiba Hutchinson attempted to head the pass away from trouble, but instead deflected the ball past his goalkeeper, Greg Sutton. "I thought if I get my head on it maybe it goes out for a corner," Hutchinson said. The oft-injured O'Brien started Saturday, making just his third appearance for the United States since the 2002 World Cup. He was a second-half sub on Thursday. "It worked out great," O'Brien said. "It was fun to see it in the back of the net." Forward Patrick Noonan had other good scoring chances for the Americans. In the 51st minute, Noonan lofted a shot from about 20 yards over Sutton, but it hit the crossbar. Nine minutes later, Noonan's header missed an open net. The United States almost took the lead in the 35th minute, when Noonan headed a pass in front of the goal to Josh Wolff, who backtapped the ball to Donovan. But his shot was saved by Sutton. "The chances were there," Noonan said. "It should have been a 2-0 game much earlier." The Americans outshot Canada 13-5. The offensive control led to an easy day for goalkeeper Kasey Keller, who posted his 40th career shutout and his 46th win, both tops in U.S. team history. Dwayne De Rosario, Canada's main scoring threat, was aggressively defended by the combo of Eddie Pope and Oguchi Onyewu. Pope played just a half before leaving with a sprained left ankle. He was replaced by Jimmy Conrad at halftime. The United States improved to 11-8-8 against Canada, and is 6-0-5 in its last 11 meetings — posting shutouts in the last five matches. "We played well enough to get goals, but we can't seem to get the final touch, or that correct final ball in the box," Canada's coach Frank Yallop said. "You saw today a team that tried very hard, but in the end, got beat with quality." The teams had not played a match in competition since the Gold Cup semis in 2002, when they played to a scoreless tie before the United States won on penalty kicks. Canada played without defender Kevin McKenna, who picked up two yellow cards on Thursday against Costa Rica. Adrian Serioux will miss Tuesday's game against Cuba after picking up two yellow cards on Saturday. The United States will be without forward Conor Casey for the rest of the Gold Cup. An MRI exam Saturday revealed a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. Casey injured the knee Thursday against Cuba. In the earlier game, Randall Brenes scored twice in his first international match for Costa Rica. Brenes entered the game at halftime as a substitution for Bryan Ruiz. He drilled a header into the top left corner 16 minutes later off a corner kick from Jafet Soto to give Costa Rica a 1-0 lead. Brenes hit the same spot on a penalty kick in the 86th minute — the Ticos' second penalty kick goal of the half. Teammate Jafet Soto scored on one 5 minutes earlier, after Cuban goalkeeper Odelin Molina took down Oscar Rojas in the box. Maykel Galindo scored Cuba's only goal in the 73rd
minute.
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