Excitement At The End, But The U.S. Holds On

Tim Howard had to make a fantastic save in the 87th minute and there was a lot of traffic in the box during stoppage time, but the U.S. was able to escape Rio Tinto with a 2-1 win over El Salvador. There were some defensive shortcomings on the U.S. side, which was to be expected with Oguchi Onyewu and Jay DeMerit out, but the U.S. had just enough offense and Tim Howard to prevail. The officiating was especially bad, but could not deter the Americans from inching closer to South Africa.