Jason’s already written about the prospect of two Fulham team-mates lining up on opposing sides for tomorrow’s Gold Cup final, but I thought I’d add these quotes from the two men involved.
Clint Dempsey’s really established himself as one of the key players for both club and country over the past couple of years and had a key role in the USA’s semi-final success over Panama. Dempsey was particularly modest about his goal:
It was a great ball from Freddy [Adu] to open up Landon [Donovan]. Once Landon gets in those positions, he normally finds a player. All I had to do was try to put myself in a position that he could find me. I felt far post was the way to go. He hit it hard and low, and all I had to do was put my foot on it. That’s why after the goal I tried to go and celebrate with him, because without that pass there was no goal.
It was a frustrating match in the sense that it was real tight. We found it difficult trying to get the ball in between lines. They were a very organised team. That’s why they are in the semi-finals. I think we showed our quality in being able to grind out a result even when it wasn’t our best game, and now we find ourselves in the final.
Carlos Salcido has had a quieter tournament for Mexico and will need to pass a fitness test on his injured heel to take part in the final.
I have some pain in the heel. I have an issue there since the last two games. It has something to do with the training surfaces being too hard. This field was also hard. It began to hurt a lot. They gave me a substance to reduce the pain prior to the game but it didn’t work that well.
