STL All Sports

The United States national team took one step closed to the 2006 world cup by beating Panama 3-0 last night. The match was dirty, but the United States national team was extremely aggressive in the offensive end.

The game was played at Estadio Rommel Fernandez in front of 23,000 Panamanian fans.

The game was exciting from the beginning, with the United States national soccer team scoring often. Here is the scoring:

USA – Carlos Bocanegra (Landon Donovan) 6th minute.
USA – Landon Donovan (Steve Ralston)  20.
USA – Brian McBride (unassisted)  40.

Coach Bruce Arena was excited:

We are the first team in this cycle to beat Panama at home. As critical as we are sometimes of our performances, getting a result like that is exceptional. The first goal was big, the second goal was terrific, and then Kasey Keller once again was tremendous. In most game reports, that will go unnoticed, but those three saves were tremendous. Overall, we did what we had to do. The back line played very well and we scored opportunistic goals.

The United States national soccer team keeper, Kasey Keller, made a great round of saves:

The saves came in a bang-bang stretch with the U.S. leading 2-0 midway through the first half. In the 26th minute sequence, Julio Medina hit a cross into the penalty area where Roberto Brown powered a header pegged for the right corner that Keller sprawled to his left to save.

The next match that the United States national soccer teams plays is against Cuba on July 7th in Seattle, WA.