Howard was back in goal, preferred to Kasey Keller, and Jonathan Spector and Michael Parkhurst started for the second game running with Onyweu and Bornstein returning after a game off. Spector switched from left-back to right-back to accomodate Bornstein with Onyweu and Parkhurst in the center.
Pablo Mastroeni returned from his World Cup suspension and went straight into the starting lineup alongside Benny Feilhaber and Michael Bradley in central midfield. All 3 played pretty similar roles, with Feilhaber seeming to have a little more freedom to roam forward than his more defensive minded teammates.
Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley took up the right and left central attacking midfield spots with Clint Dempsey the lone striker role. A valuable feature of the 4-3-2-1 was the ease to shift to a 4-3-3 and not sacrifice much in terms of defense, and Donovan and Beasley were well selected to take advantage of this.
Formation:
The USA started out well, with the first few minutes being high intensity back and forth action with the US having a slight advantage for most of the early procedings. The Americans looked like they would take the lead in the 7th minute when Jonathan Spector whipped in an outstanding cross which Landon Donovan headed just past Montes' far post. Michael Bradley was then booked after a rash, studs-up challenge. Just after the booking, Donovan had another chance to score, intercepting an El Salvadorian pass, only to have his shot from the top of the 18 sail just wide. El Salvador countered well and Campos got through on goal after Oguchi Onyewu appeared to hesitate in stepping up for the offside trap, but Campos pushed the shot wide and 'Gooch' was off the hook. Unfortunately for El Salvador, they couldn't create much more in the first half.
About halfway through the first period, Clint Dempsey pounced on a misplayed ball in the El Salvador box, only to see his outside of the boot shot hit the post after beating Montes. It was Dempsey again moments later with another chance after some good play by Benny Feilhaber, this time Dempsey could only hit side netting. The US would dominate the game from this point on, with the breakthrough finally coming ten minutes later. A Landon Donovan corner was cleared weakly to the top of the box to a waiting DaMarcus Beasley who side footed home on the half volley through a sea of players. The 1-0 lead seemed to further energize the Americans as they carried on attacking and looking for more. Beasley had a chance to make it two after Donovan layed the ball off to him at the top of the box, but Beasley blasted his shot nearly out of the stadium. Only a minute later Beasley found himself with another chance. He did better, but still put it narrowly over.
Just when it looked like the US would be content to go into the half up one-nil, one more counter attack lead to Feilhaber winning a penalty after his cross into the box was handled by an El Salvadorian defender. Donovan lined up to take the penalty, but Montes guessed right and pushed it on to the post. Donovan pounced and slotted home the rebound, but Michael Bradley was ruled to have entered the area early on the original kick and the referee ruled the penalty had to be retaken. This time around, Donovan beat Montes from the spot and the US were up two-nil and the halftime whistle sounded.
Halftime Score: 2-0 USA
The US made one substitution at halftime, bringing on hometown hero Taylor Twellman for goal-scorer Donovan. Clint Dempsey took over Donovan's withdrawn role to allow Twellman his usual spot up top. It seemed as if El Salvador realized at the half they had to get something out of the game to have a chance to go on and their play in the second half showed. Despite controlling the tempo and better play in general, it was still the Americans who had the better chances. Six minutes into the second half, Jonathan Spector played a beautiful ball into the box in the path of DaMarcus Beasley, but Montes was just a little quicker than Beasley and collected the ball. As was the case many times tonight, they had another chance only a minute later when Pablo Mastroeni made a great challenge in the midfield to set up a counter attack that ended in Benny Feilhaber shooting over.
Probably El Salvador's best chance of the night came when Juan Campos crossed up a flat footed Oguchi Onyewu who was slow to react and caught Campos as he was going by, earning himself his third yellow card of the tournament and El Salvador a free kick 25 yards from goal. In the end it went harmlessly over and Onyewu was off the hook again.
In the 64th minute, the US made their second sub of the night, bringing Brian Ching on for Michael Bradley. This effectively pushed the US back into a standard 4-4-2 with Dempsey on the right, Beasley on the left, Mastroeni and Feilhaber in the center, and Twellman and Ching together up top. Ching didn't take long to get involved, taking a shot from a full 30 yards soon after coming on that went close. In the resulting El Salvador attack, Jonathan Spector was uncharacteristically caught out of position in the back and after hustling to get back, he was turned in the box, but the shot was poor and never looked like troubling Tim Howard.
That would be the last dangerous chance for the El Salvadorians as the US unleashed another deadly counter attack lead by DaMarcus Beasley. Beasley took the ball up the left side where he played it into space for Brian Ching who made an excellent no look pass into the path of Taylor Twellman who controlled well and shot through El Salvador keeper Montes for three-nil United States. From then on it was an exhibition for the United States. Clint Dempsey nearly made it 4-0 with an outstanding shot from outside the area, but Montes made an excellent one handed save to force a corner. Frank Simek then came on for Jonathan Spector who was slightly less effective in attack than he was in the T&T game, but had a good game defensively.
With stoppage time looming, the US made it 4-0 after some slick passing between Dempsey and Twellman freed up DaMarcus Beasley who had a simple finish after being played in by Twellman to complete the rout. In the final minute of stoppage time, Taylor Twellman missed the simplest chance of the night for the Red, White, & Blue, smashing an open shot past Montes' near post with the gaping far post open. It was no matter however, as the United States won by their largest margain in Bob Bradley's short tenure as head coach and clinched Group B with an impressive 9 points out of 9 and a goal difference of +7 with none allowed.
Full-Time: 4-0 USA
The US will meet one of the following in Saturday's quarterfinal: Guadeloupe, Honduras, Cuba, or arch-rivals Mexico, depending on the outcomes of the remaining group stage games.
Coming up later tonight/tomorrow: Player analysis
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