The goal came quick, the second never came, but there was never much doubt about the result.
The U.S. men’s soccer team didn’t mathematically clinch a spot in the 2006 World Cup Wednesday night, but a trip to Germany is all but assured. Brian McBride scored in the second minute and the U.S. defeated Trinidad and Tobago 1-0 before 25,488 at Rentschler Field.
The U.S. played a choppy game but was in control throughout to improve to 5-1 in the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying with four games left.
“We can feel a little guilty that we made it difficult on ourselves,” U.S. coach Bruce Arena said. “We created a number of good goal scoring opportunities and we came up short. That allowed Trinidad to hang around.”
Goalkeeper Kelvin Jack kept Trinidad in the game with five saves in the first half and two huge stops in the second. He dove to knock away Oguchi Oneywu’s header in the 56th minute and got his fingertips on a Bobby Convey shot in the 63rd.
U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller didn’t have to make a save in the second half.
Although the goal came 94 seconds into the match, it was not the quickest in U.S. qualifying history. Ante Razov’s goal 74 seconds into a win over Trinidad at Foxboro Stadium in June 2001 tops the list.
The U.S. had a 12-1 shot advantage in the first half and 18-1 for the game.
–Hartford Courant
– ABC and ESPN will broadcast their fourth straight World Cup next year and will televise all 64 games live and in high definition. The networks will not decide until after the Dec. 9 draw for the tournament–held June 9-July 9, 2006–how to split the games among ABC, ESPN and ESPN2.
