Gold Cup: Dempsey Leads USA to Title Game

The OG works rather well as a super-sub.

Entering this semi-final fray to provide a spark for an American side that was pushing forward well but with nothing to show for it, Clint Dempsey took a blowtorch to Costa Rica in the second half.

It was about damn time, too, as X of Bruce Arena's starting XI for this match made a diabolical habit of leaving another OG -- 'keeper Tim Howard -- to fend for himself.

Their combined heroics, though, produced a 2-0 victory in Dallas and another berth in this event's championship game.

Putting it mildly, dudes were showing those young Yank whippersnappers how meaningful international matches were won:

Wow. No wonder we need to get permission from management signed in triplicate under penalty of pee-pee whacking to post interviews here.

Dempsey went straight to the vanilla platitude handbook on that one.

Fortunately, he's much more dynamic on the pitch.

Maybe Bruce Arena's right by condensing Dempsey's highlight potential to a tighter timeframe these days, even though it's fairly clear the USA's top scorer ever hasn't really bought into it.

Now or ever.

The title game is Wed 26 Jul at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara.

Levi won't be there, but Dempsey will. At some point.