Holden Saves US in Gold Cup Draw

With two wins already in the books during the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup, for all intents and purposes there wasn't a whole lot riding for the U.S. in their final Group B match Saturday night in Foxborough, Mass., against Haiti.

For about 92 minutes, though, it looked like the U.S. might have some major egg on its face. But with about a minute left, Stuart Holden cracked a wonder strike from outside the penalty area into the upper right corner of the net to save the U.S. some major embarrassment and salvage a 2-2 draw, winning the Group in the process. It was his second goal in as many games during the tournament, which are also his only two full senior level international appearances.

If the Gold Cup was a chance for some of the fringe U.S. players to showcase themselves, through three games its been a bit of a missed opportunity most most players not named Holden. Beside the game-tying goal, the young Houston Dynamo midfiedler also assisted on Davy Arnuad's first international goal with a defense-splitting pass to get the U.S. on the board in the sixth minute.

The U.S. kept up the pressure for the rest of the first half, and Holden nearly doubled the U.S. advantage with a blistering strike from around 40 yards away that clipped under the cross bar, but not over the line.

Quickly, in the second half the game turned on a dime. In the 46th minute Leonel Saint-Preux caught U.S. defender Jay Heaps wrong-footed on the right side and sent a ball across the goal mouth. U.S. keeper Luis Robles flapped at the ball with one arm and missed, leaving Vaniel Sirin wide open at the far post to nod it into the goal.

Three minutes later, Haiti struck again. In a similar set up, a Haitian player got around the defense of Heaps causing Robles to rush off his line. However Robles didn't get to the ball and it took a deflection out to Mones Chery outside the penalty area and his placed a perfect shot that hooked under the cross bar.

Suffice to say, it probably wasn't the way Heap or Robles envisioned their first senior international cap. Overall four players made their international bow Saturday, with six total making their first starts and that inexperience probably played some hand in the draw.

Surprisingly, down a goal, the U.S. pressed but couldn't find the decisive ball through the Haitian defense.

In quirky fashion, the winning goal came on a somewhat bad break for the Haiti. A defender tackled the ball off U.S. forward Brian Ching, only for it to fall right into the path of Holden, who wasted no time and ripped his shot from 24 yards away into the netting to make it 2-2 and a major sigh of relief for U.S. coach Bob Bradley.

Had Holden's strike gone an inch or two to the right, perhaps it's a different story. Losing to a team like Haiti, which gave a great effort Saturday and advanced to the quaterfinals, may have made headlines for all the wrong reasons for the U.S.

Perhaps then people would question how the U.S. could defeat then FIFA No. 1 Spain (albeit with a vastly different team) and then lose to a light weight like Haiti in the span of three weeks. Yet at least the U.S. secured the draw and by the time it plays its Gold Cup quarterfinal on July 18 in Philadelphia against Jamaica or possibly Panama most fans will have probably forgotten this match was even played.

However, the players involved with this one other than Holden, well, let's just say it didn't do them any favors if they want to be on the plane pointed toward South Africa next June.