July 11, 2009 IN THE NICK OF TIME Holden's late equalizer gives U.S. Group B title, averts Gold Cup upset
Stuart Holden's stoppage-time goal lifted the U.S. into a 2-2 draw with Haiti. Linda Cuttone/Sports Vue Images
By Michael Lewis
BigAppleSoccer.com Editor
Foxborough, Mass. -- With one good, swift kick, Stuart Holden spared the United States from a major upset and an embarrassing defeat Saturday night.
Holden fired home a spectacular 28-yard shot a minute into second-half stoppage time to lift the Americans to a 2-2 Group B draw with Haiti in the CONCACAF Gold Cup at Gillette Stadium.
The tie gave the Americans (2-0-1, seven points) the Group B title with a quarterfinal confrontation in Philadelphia Saturday against either Jamaica, from Group A, or Panama or Mexico from Group C. The Americans' opponents will depend on today's Group C results.
Granted, this wasn't anywhere close to the same U.S. team that made international headlines with a second-place finish at the recent FIFA Confederations Cup, but it would have counted as a loss and an upset, nonetheless.
The U.S. extended its Gold Cup group match unbeaten streak to 25 games (23-0-2). The Americans last lost in the Cup to Brazil, 2-1, on July 23, 2003.
But Holden made sure no history was going to be made before a crowd of 24,137. He took a pass from Brian Ching on the right side and launched the shot past goalkeeper Jean Dominique Zephirin with precious time running out in the Group B match.
"You want to strike it as well as you can, keep it on target," Holden said. "Luckily enough I hit it well enough and it went in the back of the net. It was a great feeling, but I was still hoping we'd have a few extra minutes that we could get the ball and try to get another goal.
"We were knocking on the door for most of the second half."
That was after the Haitians broke through the Americans' door in the opening four minutes of the second half. Holden helped the U.S. to a 1-0 lead six minutes into the match, setting up Davy Arnaud's first international score, from 12 yards.
"We scored an early goal, which is always a good thing," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. "But I think it came so early that we really hadn’t found a rhythm yet. As a result, after that, we were still trying to find that rhythm and they were able to take some plays and cause some trouble."
With the second half but 45 seconds old, Sirin Vaniel headed home a Leonel Saint Preux right-wing cross past goalkeeper Luis Robles. It was the first goal the U.S. had allowed in group play in the Gold Cup in 747 minutes.
“It was one of those plays," said U.S. left fullback Jay Heaps, a New England Revolution defender who made his international debut at the age of 32. "I was falling down, sliding, and I was just trying to clear it as far as I could. Unfortunatley, I didn’t get all of what I wanted on it, and it went right to their guy. He’s 35 yards out and hits a bomb. Tip your hat to him, but obviously I want to do better with that and get it further away."
In many ways, the score was reminicisent of the Brazilian goal that cut the U.S. lead to 2-1 in the opening minute of the second in the Confederations Cup final. Brazil went on to win, 3-2.
"We didn't need a second reminder of what it's like to give up a goal 45 seconds into the second half," Bradley said. "That is one thing that is stuck with us forever. Hopefully, this is a group of players who learned some lessons. Two-two is beter than 3-2."
Only three minutes later, Mones Chery launched a 32-yard blast that hugged the upper left corner of the goal to give the Caribbean side an improbable 2-1 lead.
"We spoke about getting on top of them, limiting their chances," Holden said. "It was something we didn't do."
