USA beat Trinidad & Tobago 2-0

Despite their strong showing at the World Cup (well... relatively speaking), the Tobagans have failed to provide much impact at the Gold Cup, and seem to rely too much on a few of their European based players, all of whom are missing at this event. Once again, they were beaten, this time by a US team that had several changes made to it, with more youngsters and new faces, and key man Landon Donovan on the bench.

Although T&T weren't swept aside, they didn't offer much of a threat. They lacked any kind of spark, and although they offered some brief, arbitrary resistance after Brian Ching scored the first goal for the US, but never looked like seriously causing any trouble.

Team USA produced a solid, professional performance on this occassion. They had endured much criticism for their struggling performance against minnows Guatemala, and this time around they did the job more convincingly. The England-based centre-back pairing of Jay DeMerit and Frankie Simek both produced solid, effective performances at the back, undoubtedly helped by the presence of Kasey Keller behind them between the goalposts.

In midfield, Ricardo Clark and Benny Feilhaber produced industrious performances to ensure that the ball was won and possession kept, and that was a major improvement on the last game where the USA couldn't take control in the middle of the park.

Ching's goal came from some excellent play by Justin Mapp from the left, although Mapp's contribution was otherwise limited. Ching as always was tidy and dangerous. He may not always look like scoring, but always contributes.

However, on this occassion, although the USA managed to impose itself on the game, the attacking play was very disjointed and lacked any sort of finesse. Landon Donovan's introduction in the second-half completely changed that, and he contributed immediately, showing all his wizardry to conjure up a perfect ball for Eddie Johnson after exchanging passes with Ching. Johnson duly produced the finish, and the more or less wrapped it up for the States.

It's a big relief for Bob Bradley, but in some ways worrying as well, because sans Donovan, the US looked very, very impotent. It's not a situation that will matter in bigger games, because Donovan will be an automatic choice for those, but if injuries take their toll, then I can imagine that Bob Bradley would be quite perturbed, because his side didn't seem to know what they were doing with their talisman.

Anyways, there are a lot of positives to take out of this game for the US - I would stick with the same pairing in the centre of the defence. Ogyuchi Onyewu seems to have a very inflated reputation with US "soccer" fans, and indeed on paper with his presence and physical abilities, he has all the attributes needed to succeed in that position. But he seems to lack the know-how that Simek and DeMerit have from playing against difficult opposition in England. Onyewu's time at Newcastle was underwhelming, and he's probably not high on confidence at the moment either.

As for Donovan, it's probably worth leaving him on the bench again once or twice, just to see if the team can manage to pull themselves together without him... it will be beneficial for the future.