Dempsey Hats Cuba; USA in Gold Cup Semis
The USA's hot streak is alive, well, and hell-bent on melting metal.
The same can be said for target man Clint Dempsey.
The Americans obliterated Cuba, 6-0 in the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarter-finals with the Big Fuzz netting a powerful hat trick.
Given the teams the USA has beaten recently, Cuba was just a stroll in the park for them, which was quite a change from 1961, which gave the world's one of President John F Kennedy's most poignant quotes:
Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. |
Jürgen Klinsmann was going to have none of that.
Dempsey, as usual, got his head into the game quickly. As in the fourth minute:
A big dude jumping that high is a defender's worst nightmare.
The Americans' second came 11 minutes later and was all about mind games:
Everyone thought that the ball was meant for the head, but no. And Gyasi Zardes didn't mind.
But the third marker for the Americans was both a nifty touch from Aron Jóhansson and a Dumb and Dumber move from frisky Cuban 'keeper Disovelis Guerra:
Safe to say that America owns the passing game in this one.
And the hits just kept on coming, like this classic sweeping grass banker:
There's just no stopping Joe Corona. Especially if you're an earthworm.
Dempsey then got serious about posting a hat trick. It never hurts to get your number called for the spot:
Fish in a barrel.
And then for the coup de grace:
That’s one kind of goal we don’t get to see every day, because center backs don't get that disoriented every day.
Next up: Jamaica.