Jozy Altidore got them off to a great start with a screamer from outside the box that found the top corner of the net only eight minutes into the game.  As for the rest of the American team, they seemed to think that Altidore’s goal was enough insurance for the remaining 82 minutes, as none of them appeared to be interested in adding a second goal.  Not Landon Donovan.  Not Chris Wondolowski. And certainly not Clint Dempsey, who found himself with the ball at his feet and nothing standing between hims and the goal only 2 meters in front of him, but opted to wait long enough to allow a Guadeloupe defender to make a goal-saving tackle from behind.

Against decent competition, errors like that will often lose you the game.  Thankfully for Dempsey and the U.S., this is the Gold Cup and their competition was Guadeloupe.  So that single goal in the eighth-minute proved to be more than enough to advance to the quarter-finals on this occasion.

Hat Tip – [Dirty Tackle]

One thing that makes the Spanish side so threatening is their precise offensive attack.  Yesterday’s semi final match at the FIFA Confederations Cup was not much different, but the Americans countered with a goalie that was up to the challenge.  Twenty-nine shots were fired in his direction, eight of which were on goal, but none got by Howard as he recorded the clean sheet and earned himself honors as “The Stat Line Of The Night” for Wednesday June 4th, 2009.

Stopping the likes of Fernando Torres and David Villa is not an easy task, but Howard was up for it.  He also received some much needed help from his defense, who got their bodies in front of several potential shots on goal.  The great team effort not only catipulted the USA into an unlikely final game, but it also ended Spain’s 15-game winning streak and 35 game unbeaten streak, both international records.