USA on to Copa America Centenario Semifinals after beating Ecuador 2-1

Picture Courtesy: us soccer.com

By Francisco Romero. – A hared fought battle it was between the United States Men’s National Team and Ecuador, at the end of the day USA finished on top 2-1, advancing to the semifinal round of the Copa America Centenario.

The game was played at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Washington in front of 47,322 fans.

Both teams played with grit and intensity, but USA struck first as Clint Dempsey scored the first goal of the match at the 22^nd minute of play.

Most of the second half both teams played with 10 players as Antonio Valencia received a second yellow card for Ecuador and Jermaine Jones was shown a red card for an after-the-play incident for the U.S.

Gyasi Zardes scored the second goal for USA at the 65^th minute of play and Michael Arroyo scored the lonely goal for Ecuador.

Dempsey is tied for the lead in the tournament Golden Boot race with Lionel Messi (ARG) and Philippe Coutinho (BRA); each has three goals. Dempsey leads all players in the competition with three assists. He recently won the Golden Boot at the 2015 Gold Cup with seven goals.

Dempsey scored his 52nd goal in his 128th cap for the USA. He is now, only five behind all-time U.S. leader Landon Donovan and has scored or assisted the winning goal in each of the USA’s last three games.

Thursday’s victory improves the USA’s all-time record vs. Ecuador to 4-5-5. The U.S. has won both the last two meetings between the two countries including their Copa America Centenario warm-up match 1-0 on May 25 in Frisco, Texas.

The United States Men’s National Team continues its 2016 Copa America Centenario in the Semifinal against the winner between Argentina and Venezuela, who play on Saturday night at 7 p.m. ET in Boston. The Semifinal will be played at NRG Stadium in Houston on Tuesday, June 21.