USA opens up 2011 Gold Cup with a 2-0 win over Canada

By Money Mike


Day 3 of the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup is now officially in the books. Both the United States and Canada kicked off their Gold Cup campaign and it was the United States coming out on top 2-0 with Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey finding the back of the net for the Red, White and Blue. Panama and Guadeloupe also kicked off their campaign with Panama winning 3-2. The United States will face Panama next on Saturday at 5pm on FOX Soccer Channel.

The U.S. got on the board first in the 15th minute. Landon Donovan with a good through ball found Jozy Altidore, who made a nice turn and slotted the ball under goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld for the opening goal. It was Altidore's 11th international goal, and this dude has received a lot of criticism for his lack of confidence while in Europe. You know, the lack of playing time, lack of goals (6 total. 2 for Hull City, 3 for Villereal and 1 for Bursaspor), etc. So I don't care how lucky that was, it was nice to see him get a goal for the U.S.

The 2nd goal came in the 62nd minute. Juan Agudelo slid the ball into the danger area and as the ball rolled past Altidore, Clint Dempsey made a run at the far post and tapped it into an open net to put the United States up 2-0 and that was the final score.

Missed the match, wasn't able to catch it on TV:

OK, sorry that was all I could share to you guys. I wasn't able to see the match at all, so I had my friend send me text messages regarding the match. This is the 3rd straight time that I missed the first match. In 07', I was able to catch like, the first 10 minutes of the USA-Guatemala match in which the U.S. won 1-0 on a goal by Dempsey. In 09', I couldn't see their match against Grenada, which took place here in Seattle, because I was at my grandmothers house for the 4th of July, she didn't have FSC, and this was just after USA's 2nd Place Finish at the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa. The United States won that match 4-0. As for the next match against Panama, I'm not sure if I'll be able to catch this one because of the Tacoma Relay for Life, but we'll see.

Alejandro Bedoya replaces Benny Feilhaber in USA's Gold Cup squad:

So, just before USA's final tune up match before the Gold Cup, the United States made a change on their Gold Cup squad. Benny Feilhaber picked up an ankle injury during New England Revolution's 1-0 to the Los Angeles Galaxy, so Alejandro Bedoya replaced him on the squad. Remember I made a complaint when I showed you guys the squad about Bedoya not being named when I think he should've. So it's nice to see him on the squad because, he left Boston College, went to Europe, and he has worked his ass off every season with Orebro SK in Sweden.

Here's the scoring summary from the match:

United States - Jozy Altidore (Landon Donovan) 15'

United States - Clint Dempsey (Juan Agudelo) 62'

Booking summary:

United States - Michael Bradley (caution) 51'

Canada - Will Johnson (caution) 52'

Lineups:

Canada: 1 - Lars Hirschfeld, 2 - Nik Ledgerwood, 4 - Kevin McKenna, 5 - Andre Hainault, 7 - Terry Dunfield (21 - Jonathan Beaulieu-Bourgault, 82'), 8 - Will Johnson (10 - Ali Gerba, 65'), 11 - Josh Simpson, 13 - Atiba Hutchinson, 14 - Dwayne De Rosario (9 - Rob Friend, 81'), 17 - Simeon Jackson, 19 - Marcel de Jong

United States: Tim Howard; Steve Cherundelo, Clarence Goodson, Tim Ream, Carlos Bocanegra; Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones (Maurice Edu, 79'), Landon Donovan; Jozy Altidore (Sacha Kljestan, 74'), Juan Agudelo (Chris Wondolowski, 65')

Note: I put Canada's starting lineup in numerical order because I didn't know their exact lineup.