| Watching the U.S. play Costa Rica reminded me of high school junior varsity teams who were just learning the concept of marking up on defense.
USA consistently left Costa Rican forwards in the box ten or more feet from any defender.
Granted, Costa Rica fielded a superb team and the first goal can be attributed to deft dribbling by Alvaro Saborio, but these cannot explain an idling striker twenty yards from the goal with nothing to do but to unhurriedly trap a lofted cross, spin, dribble, and shellac a shot. I'm speaking of the second Costa Rican goal by Borges at the top of the box in the thirteenth minute.
Several other times Costa Rican crosses were narrowly deflected though two, and sometimes three, attackers stood unmarked in the mouth of the U.S. goal.
The defense found no respite from its chaos through its offense. For the majority of the game, were you to score it Costa Rican goals versus USA shots on goal the Costa Ricans would have been in the lead. The U.S. would have had better luck getting swine flu than getting the ball to Donovan. Passing combinations were sporadic and appeared to be more luck than planning, with most of the touches reactionary.
The second half was rife with Costa Rican crosses and passes to the eighteen, the U.S. wide backs stepping off the ball a good ten feet and allowing the Costa Rica wings ample time to wind up and find their halfbacks crashing the goal. The U.S. goalie, Howard, had every reason to be furious with the defense. Costa Rica's third goal came when Pablo Herrera juked a defender, sprinted into the box, shot and scored while the beaten defender jogged lackadaisically behind him.
The lone U.S. goal, a penalty kick by Donovan, came from a lucky foul during a throw-in. It can be ignored.
Then came Honduras: a must-win. Was Costa Rica that good, Honduras that bad, or the U.S. that different? I think it's a combination of all three. Certainly Honduras could not beat Costa Rica but the U.S. played with a fervent aggression and a deliberate attack that had been absent in the game just three days earlier. They also marked tightly on defense and contested the Honduran wing's attempts at crosses.
Donovan handled the ball frequently and with his breakaway speed forced Honduras to double team him. Even when the ball was taken from him he would get up and scramble for it. He forced one memorable turnover after being laid flat from a tackle.
Casey charged the goal and drew fouls setting up threatening set pieces, and Altidore looked like an entirely different player. He forced the Honduran goalie to make nervous kicks that went out of bounds and charged up and down the pitch steamrolling Hondurans off the ball.
It seemed as if the first Honduran goal was a fluke and the only threat to the US win was the single Honduran, Nuņez.
Spector and Bocanegra both buzzed the goal, putting on pressure that Honduras could not contain. Bocanegra's game winning header off a U.S. headed deflection of a Donovan cross was a beautiful thing to behold. And Donovan's goal scoring penalty kick came from, what the referee decided, was a yellow-card worthy hand ball in the box to keep Donovan from going one-on-one with the Honduran goalie.
Redemption is sweet. | 
