USA vs. Guatemala, 2014 CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying: USA advances with a 3-1 victory

Michael Bradley’s perfect pass set up Clint Dempsey’s second goal of the game, and more importantly gave the U.S. Men’s National Team a 3-1 advantage late in the first half of its 2014 World Cup qualifier against Guatemala.

It’s just the second time Dempsey has netted a pair of goals in a single match while playing for the national squad.

It wasn’t always pretty, it was flashy, but the United States did the job and defeataed Guatemala 3-1 in Kansas City to book their place in the CONCACAF hexagonal, one step from qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.

Eddie Johnson had the best chance of the second half but executed a grown ass miss after Graham Zusi made a great run and put the ball on a silver platter with a great cross.

The United States had a nightmare start, conceding an early goal to Guatemala, but recovered well with a goal from Carlos Bocanegra and a brace by Clint Dempsey to take a 3-1 lead in to the locker room.

The United States appear to be sticking with their wingers opposite where they started, which makes sense. If Johnson is wide because of his pace, why not put him on the side where he can hit crosses from the byline?

As bad as the U.S. start was, they’ll be happy to erase the deficit and start from scratch. It’s like a new game, and hopefully, for the health of supporters of both teams, this gets a little less dramatic.

There are 85 minutes left for the United States to get back into this match, but there’s no way they could have anticipated this kind of start. That was some unfathomably poor defending.

We’re underway from Kansas City, and your handsome and talented blogger is struggling to breathe. Let’s be real, I’m an American and I’m not going to pretend I don’t have a stake in this.

Jürgen Klinsmann’s team was a bit slow against A&B, but they’re looking a bit quicker in the opening minutes of this match against Guatemala. Hopefully for U.S. fans, they’re able to keep that up throughout the match.

This team and lineup should almost certainly be good enough to get three points, so it’s not as though Klinnsman’s decisions will actually hurt anything, but with that said it’s still pretty weird to see Eddie Johnson listed as a left winger.

Guatemala starting lineup: Ricardo Jerez; Ruben Morales, Elias Vasquez, Erwin Morales, Jonathan Lopes, Wilfred Velasquez, Mario Rodriguez, Jose Contreras, Manuel Leon, Carlos Figueroa, Carlos Ruiz

Fortunately, the Yanks will be playing in front of a very friendly crowd at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park in Kansas City. Their last home game resulted in a convincing 1-0 win over Jamaica in Columbus, continuing a strong run that hasn’t seen the USA lose a home game in World Cup qualification since 2001.

Game date/time: Tuesday, 7 p.m. ET

Having said that, injuries have left Guatemala a bit shorthanded in defense. Carlos Gallardo, Elias Vasquez and Luis Rodriguez are all dealing with injuries, meaning that Guatemala will probably be forced into using a makeshift back line. Regardless of who starts for the United States, it would be surprising if they found scoring goals to be as much of a struggle as they did against Antigua and Barbuda. Guatemala have also not been great on the road; they lost away to Jamaica and only managed to beat A&B by the same one-goal margin that the U.S. did at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.

For more on the USMNT, check out United States soccer blog Stars and Stripes FC.