SANTA MONICA – The USMNT took on Martinique on Wednesday and came out on top, beating them, 3-2. Although they did win the match, the USMNT looked a little shaky, just as they did in their first match of the Gold Cup. Coach Bruce Arena, however was pleased. “I thought we played well,” Arena said according to MLSoccer.com. “We are certainly guilty of making the game a lot more difficult than it needed to be, but give Martinique credit, they fought and played hard the entire game and made a good showing. It was a good game,” he continued.
The first half of the match was pretty slow. Despite both teams fighting and getting a couple promising shots on goal, at halftime the game was still, 0-0.
When the second half started, so too did all the action. Gonzalez really got things kicked off in minute 54 when he scored the first goal of the game. He rebounded the ball of the goalkeeper and slid it into the side corner of net. Then, just 10 minutes later, Morris received a cross in front of the net and put the ball in the back of the goal, giving the USMNT a 2-0 lead.
However, Martinique had a lot of fight left in them. Just two minutes after Morris’ goal, Parsemain scored one of his own for Martinique. He took a perfectly timed shot that slid right past the goalie into the far right corner. However, Parsemain was far from done. About 10 minutes later, he scored once again, tying the game up 2-2.
It was up to the USMNT to get a third goal to win the match, and that is precisely what they did. Not even two minutes after the game was tied up, 2-2, Morris scored a second goal of his own. He received a cross in front of the goal and swished the ball into the top of the net, giving the USMNT a 3-2 lead and winning them the game.
Next, the USMNT will play Nicaragua on Saturday at 4:00. Later today, El Salvador will take on Curacao and Mexico will face Jamaica.
Jordan Morris scored twice for the USMNT on Wednesday, including scoring the game winning goal.
Photo by: Tony Quinn
Photos by ISI.
