The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: USMNT advance to Gold Cup semis with 2-0 win over El Salvador
A muffed back pass that led to a breakaway three minutes into the match, two goals from defenders, a "purple nurple" and a whole lot of chippy challenges, the US men's 2-0 Gold Cup quarterfinal victory over El Salvador had its fair share of drama and surprises.
In a game the US were heavily favored, in a tournament they were expect to reach the final, at the very least, this was no masterclass from by Bruce Arena's men.
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Before the US progresses to take on Costa Rica in the Gold Cup semifinals, let's take a look at the match in a fitting homage to the way it played out.
The Good
Well, we're in the semfinals. That's good, albeit expected.
Gonzalez's set piece goal was pretty. Lichaj atoning for his earlier error with a striker's run to notch his first USMNT goal was quite nice - the meg of the keeper on the shot was icing on the cake.
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But that's about it. Arena brought in four of his six knockout-round changes with Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Tim Howard, Darlington Nagbe and Jozy Altidore slotting in right away to the US starting 11. Aside from Bradley's set-piece delivery on Gonzalez's goal and Howard's bailout of Lichaj, they had little effect on the USMNT other than making them look a bit out of sorts.
The Bad
The USMNT back line of Gonzalez, Lichaj, Matt Hedges and Justin Morrow was atrocious, yet survived unscathed somehow.
Enough has been said of Lichaj's poor back pass already but at least that could be chalked up to a temporary loss of concentration, while the rest of the night looked more a fire drill than actual defending.
El Salvador ran directly at the US defense on multiple occasions with little resistance and had it not been for some less than clinical finishing, the US might have found themselves in a world of trouble. After his nervy performance in the first game of the Gold Cup, Hedges did little to assuage fears he's outmatched at this level.
The Ugly
Midway through the second half, Altidore floored El Salvador's Henry Romero in a scuffle prior to a US set piece. As far as forwards and defenders go, seeing bodies strewn across the box leading up to a free kick isn't out of the ordinary in any respect.
The referee intervened and Altidore pleaded his case only to be laid out on the ensuing retake of the kick. What was shown during the replays of both incidents would be hard to believe if you didn't see it firsthand.
Prior to being flattened by Altidore, Romero took it upon himself to put off the US attacker with a twisting of Altidore's chest area, only to follow up that oddity with a bit of a nimble on the the Toronto forward's should (we've seen Luis Suarez, you're no Suarez, Romero!).
A bizarre bit of nonsense fitting of a game the US is happy to forget and survive with all their players intact, the USMNT will now look to right the ship on Saturday against Costa Rica. It'll be a real test for a team that has escaped on the relative weakness of their opponents so far this tournament.
Costa Rica is not likely to step aside so easy.
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