Gold Cup quarterfinals: USA 2-0 El Salvador
Another sloppy game but another win for USMNT against a limited Salvadorian side. US survived in the quarterfinals to advance to the semis against Costa Rica. The Ticos will be the toughest opponent the team has faced by far in the tournament and USMNT will have to play a much better football to reach the Final.
Coach Bruce Arena did not really like the performance and pointed out deficiencies:
“I thought we had a difficult time tonight. Our timing wasn’t good. We didn’t deal with the physicality. The game had no rhythm, with all the fouls and players falling on the ground, but we weren’t good on top of it. It took us 30 minutes to play a little bit and then we got a little better service and capitalized on them. It was just a sloppy game overall.
Games shouldn’t look like that. Too many fouls. Time wasting. Players falling on the ground. It doesn’t prepare us for big games. I think this was one of the better Salvador teams I’ve seen since I’ve been part of the national team. They gave us their best in the first 35-40 minutes but we rebounded well. We can’t be coming out flat like that. As games get tougher good, a good Costa Rica team will punish you early on for coming out like that.”
