USA beat Spain 2-0 in Confed Cup what a shock!
The United States ended Spain’s record winning streak with a 2-0 upset victory Wednesday that gave it an unlikely but deserved place in the Confederations Cup final.
Underdogs the United States sank the mighty “Spanish Armada” and reached the final of the Confederations Cup with a stunning 2-0 win over the favourites played at a freezing Free State Stadium in a hard fought semi-final played on Wednesday night.
It was one of the biggest upsets in world soccer. It was a cracking game and underlined what a brilliant tournament this has been with upset after upset.
But this is the upset of the competition with virtual no-hopers USA wrecking Spain’s unbeaten record since November 2006 and against the odds reaching their first ever major Fifa cup final.
But it was slightly soured for the US when Michael Bradley, son of coach Bob Bradley was sent off in the 86th minute. He was the third American in four games to get a red card.
The USA will play the winner of Thursday night’s other semi-final between Brazil and Bafana Bafana at Ellis Park at the same venue on Sunday night. The USA’s win will have given the South African underdogs a lift against a formidable Brazil outfit that has been unbeaten in their three group matches.
Bafana fans in the sellout crowd at Ellis Park will be hoping and praying for another major upset. The two losing semifinalists will meet in the playoff for third place at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Stadium.
The Americans, who struggled at the start of the competition, losing both opening matches 3-1 to world champions Italy and 3-0 to Brazil scraped into the semi-final on goal difference after beating Egypt 3-0 in the final group match and condemned both the Pharaohs and Azzurri to early flights home.
It was Spain’s first defeat in 36 matches. They equalled Brazil’s 35 match unbeaten run set up in the 1990s but failed to notch a new world record.
The Americans deserved their 1-0 lead at halftime. Spain looked unsettled against the tight marking USA who never gave the European champions an inch.
The fact that the American goalkeeper Tin Howard did not have to make a single save in the opening 45 minutes underlined how well his defence played.
US striker Charlie Davies had two early chances in the seventh and eighth minutes when he shot wide on both occasions.
USA’s hard working midfielder Landon Donovan tried his luck with a shot in the 21st minute but the ball crashed into the advertising boards.
But the Americans were rewarded when teenage striker Jozy Altidore became the first player to beat Spanish keeper Iker Casillas in the Confederations Cup with a fine 27th minute strike. Altidore, who plays in Spain for Villarreal, did well to beat Joan Capdevila and beat the Spanish skipper with a great strike.
Spain’s David Villa shot over the US crossbar on 32 minutes while Dempsey came close with a header that inched past the Spanish woodwork four minutes later.
As expected Spain came out firing after the break and Villa was denied an equaliser with a stunning save from Howards in the 47th minute.
Spain huffed and puffed at the American goal but when they did get a shot on target Howard was up to the challenge, saving from Fabregas and Sergio Ramos in the 64th and 65th minutes respectively.
But with Spain camping in the American half, the underdogs hit the world best on the counter attack in the 74th minute when Donovan found Dempsey who breached the Spanish defence and fired home the second goal and steered the USA into their first ever major cup final.
Spain threw everything forward but it was too little too late and the passionate local fans, who love the underdogs, cheered the Americans to the end of what was their first win over Spain and their place in Sunday’s cup final.
With four minutes to go German based Bradley was shown the red card for a crunching tackle but it did not matter as Spain were down and out.
source:worldcupweb.com
Tags: Confederations Cup, USA beat Spain, USA final
June 25th, 2009 at 3:51 am
Spain will do better in the next world cup, you can bet it
June 25th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Spain will do better in the next world cup, you can bet it