Grateful Gooner

USMNT 3 -0 Costa Rica

// June 6th, 2005 // Soccer

I was kinda, erm, distracted this weekend, so I completely missed this game. We’ll have to make do with ussoccer.com’s version of events:

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (June 4, 2005) – The U.S. Men’s National Team recorded a dominating 3-0 victory against Costa Rica in front of a raucous Utah crowd of 40,586 at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. The victory was sparked by two goals from forward Landon Donovan and six sparkling second-half saves by goalkeeper Kasey Keller.

Donovan’s two strikes were his first goals of the year and extended his amazing streak of having scored at least a goal or an assist in 11 of the 12 FIFA World Cup 2006 qualifying games played by the United States on their current road to Germany. For Keller, the shutout was 38th in his 80-game U.S. MNT career and his 16th in 28 World Cup qualifying appearances.

The USA victory, coupled with qualifying victories by Mexico (2-0 in Guatemala) and Trinidad & Tobago (2-0 against Panama at home) puts the U.S. in a solid second-place position in the hexagonal with nine points after four games. The U.S. is one point behind Mexico, but five points clear of Guatemala, Panama and Trinidad & Tobago, who are all even with four points. Panama, the USA’s opponent on Wednesday is bringing up the rear with two points.