Clint Dempsey's record goal helps USA past Costa Rica into Gold Cup final

theguardian.com ^ | 23 July 2017 | Associated Press

[Berlin_Freeper]

Clint Dempsey fed Jozy Altidore for the go-ahead goal, then scored on a free kick to match Landon Donovan’s American record with his 57th international goal and lead the United States over Costa Rica 2-0 Saturday night and into the Concacaf Gold Cup championship game.

Playing in his home state of Texas, the 34-year-old Dempsey entered in the 66th minute and made a perfectly timed through pass six minutes later that allowed Altidore to break in alone and beat Patrick Pemberton with a left-footed shot from 10 yards.

Dempsey doubled the lead in the 82nd minute with a 27-yard shot that went around a four-man defensive wall and got past Pemberton on two bounces.

“I saw the keeper cheating a little bit, and it went in,” Dempsey said.

Dempsey has 136 international appearances, trailing only Cobi Jones (164) and Donovan (157) among American players. The assist was his 20th for the national team.

“Coming back from two heart procedures, being able to still play at this level,” Dempsey said in his Texas twang, “living a dream. So I’m happy.”

Trying for their sixth Gold Cup title and first since 2013, the Americans play Mexico or Jamaica in the final on Wednesday at Santa Clara, California.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Player ratings from USMNT’s 2-0 win over Costa Rica

[Berlin_Freeper]

#USMNT

[safeasthebanks]

Great result and fun game to watch. Still scary that we still have to rely on Dempsey so much to produce goals, although Pulisic was missing.

[dfwgator]

JAMAICA BEATS MEXICO!!!!!!!!!

USA vs Jamaica for the Gold Cup Title.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Flick Kick
https://pikpok.bandcamp.com/album/flick-kick-football

[Berlin_Freeper]

Jamaica shocks Mexico 1-0 in Gold Cup semis, will face USMNT in final

[Berlin_Freeper]

Müggelsee Day :) A bit cloudy but warm. Days ahead will be rainy. I swear, as a former iron-worker I never seen such consistent rainy weather. We used to sit in the shanty for an hour while it rained and then went home and got paid for two hours. Seems like in 15 years iron-working you could count the rained out days on two hands. LoL - almost. Now I want to ride my bike to swim in the lake and it's a struggle just to get one decent warm/sunny day in the week for the past 6 weeks! Hell that?

[Berlin_Freeper]

Jamaica has less rest. :)

[safeasthebanks]

I like our chances, not that it will be easy...

[dfwgator]

Blake had one of the best back-to-back saves you’ll ever see. He was magnificent.

[safeasthebanks]

Yes, I have slowly become more and more impressed with Blake.

I say slowly only because I’ve seen many GKs in the past from the Caribbean nations that make an initial splash because they make some fantastic/acrobatic saves, but are then shown to be very sketchy with bad mistakes on crosses or reading the game.

I think I’ve seen Blake play enough games now to conclude he is not one of these “usual” keepers.

[dfwgator]

I’m sure after last night, he’ll be getting a few calls from Euro clubs.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Dempsey will want to break Donovan’s record ASAP and The Final is The Primal.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Müggelsee Day :)

[safeasthebanks]

With Donovan looking on from the broadcast booth possibly!