The United States men’s national team started off their 2015 Gold Cup campaign with a win on Tuesday night. A sloppy win. But a win nonetheless.
And a lot of the credit goes to Clint Dempsey being in the right places at the right times.
The scoring started in the 25th minute. After nearly a half-hour of inconsistent passes and broken possessions, the U.S. won a corner kick, which was passed out to Michael Bradley and brilliantly dropped in the Honduras box. Jozy Altidore had the first shot, but it was blocked by a Honduras goalkeeper Donis Escobar kick of the right leg. That deflected to Dempsey, who headed it in quickly.
The rest of the first half saw a few chances for the U.S. but nothing substantial. Then came the second half, which saw slightly better passing and possession from both sides, but not by much.
Another set piece was won in the middle of the second half, Michael Bradley was again going to get a chance to set it into the Honduras box, and he did so beautifully — pinpointing Dempsey, who scored his second goal (and header!) of the match.
Honduras got one back a few minutes later, but Dempsey’s two goals was enough to get three points and move on to the next group match — a Friday night test against a surprisingly good Haiti team, who finished their opening match with a 1-1 draw against Panama.
