World Cup Wrap
On a day when England qualified and the U.S. won 0-1 over Trinidad & Tobago perhaps the most telling World Cup qualifying result was El Salvador's win over Costa Rica.
The result created space at the top of the hexagonal for the U.S. and Mexico all but guaranteeing them qualification. The U.S. needs just two points from two games to guarantee qualification now; the U.S. could even advance without scoring any points, according to U.S. Soccer.
Landon Donovan fends off Trinidad and Tobago's Trent Noel (AP Photo).
The Galaxy's Landon Donovan played creator (as usual) for the deciding goal over T&T concluded by Ricardo Clark's questioning riposte, but otherwise the U.S. offered largely fairly tepid stuff and required a Tim Howard stoppage time save to preserve the narrow road win.
No player ratings from me despite requests (I'm sitting at a desk in Torrance watching the game for crying out loud), but here's the starting U.S. XI: Tim Howard; Jonathan Spector, Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra (capt.), Jonathan Bornstein; Clint Dempsey (Stuart Holden, 82), Ricardo Clark, Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan; Charlie Davies (Brian Ching, 77), Jozy Altidore (Benny Feilhaber, 63).
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About 100 Percent Soccer
Sportswriter Nick Green has written the 100 Percent Soccer column since 2005 for the Daily News, Daily Breeze and other Los Angeles area newspapers. The blog of the same name began in 2007. A native of England, he began writing about soccer in the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat in the stands for one in the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer and is married to a long-suffering soccer widow. Join Nick on FaceBook and follow him on Twitter.
Decent Win by the US...Howard played Excellent...Ricardo Clarkes Goal was Epic. We are Not going to win the world Cup with this team...
Good thing the US doesn't need to score to advance - we're not too good at scoring lately.
It's great that England qualified this year. Not the same without them.
How about Argentina though?!! Wow - do you think they will get through Nick? Seems like Uruguay might have a tougher schedule but the Argentines are STRUGGLING!
CAN'T WAIT TILL WORLD CUP!
Nick replies: if Argentina finish fifth they'll face a CONCACAF team in the playoffs; even Maradona can't lose then - can he?
Nick replies: if Argentina finish fifth they'll face a CONCACAF team in the playoffs; even Maradona can't lose then - can he?
Yes, Nick, he can. As a coach, Maradona is an incompetent hack who has no idea about what he's doing. He coaches just like an addict infatuated with Marxist chic would coach.
El Salvador can beat Argentina, Messi or no Messi.