U.S. advances to Gold Cup semifinals with 6-0 blowout of Cuba (Video)
In just the first half of its Gold Cup quarterfinal against Cuba, the United States men's national team scored as many goals as it had the entire group stage. And then the Americans got two more to humiliate an overmatched Cuban side 6-0 on Saturday, thanks in large part to a Clint Dempsey hat trick.
Laboring through Baltimore's 93 degree heat index, the U.S. easily advanced to Wednesday's semifinals, where it will face the winner of the Haiti-Jamaica quarterfinal slated to be played later in the day at M&T Bank Stadium.
Cuba, which had given up eight goals in just three group stage games, had somehow advanced in spite of scoring just once – in a 1-0 win over Guatemala. But by the time the Cubans appeared for kickoff, five players had defected and two more were injured.
The Americans, meanwhile, had finally found something resembling a rhythm in the second half of their 1-1 tie with Panama last Monday, after slogging to unflattering wins over Honduras and Haiti. And against a visibly dispirited team, they had no trouble building on their growing form and running up the score early.
In just the fourth minute, Fabian Johnson set up a nice attack up the left wing. The ball was played across the box and laid back by Gyasi Zardes for Timmy Chandler. The latter sent a cross soaring to Clint Dempsey, who leaped unmarked and dumped his header over Diosvelis Guerra and into the net.
A short while later, a wide-open Johnson deposited a lofted ball right onto the foot of Zardes, who had strolled all too easily past his defender and redirected the ball past Guerra.
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