Hit Me Baby One More Time!! USMNT V. Guatemala

Two players sent off, Eddie Lewis got his face busted open, Tim Howard gets kicked in the face, and you needed a flashlight if you were in the six yard box. It was surely a game to not be missed. And to think, I almost did. I turned it over to ESPN 2 to find that baseball was still on. I sighed and turned it over to the Simpsons, followed by Family Guy and forgot that game should have started by then.

I turned it over at about the 12th minute of play and was surprised to see how dark it was inside of the Mateo Flores Stadium. It seems as if they never considered that the keepers would be somewhat in the dark when they built it. Eventhough the fans more than likely had to strain to see the keepers, that did not stop a jubilant home crowd from cheering on their national team.

The opening part of the match was rather cagey, as most CONCACAF qualifiers are, but early on, it seemed that Guatemala would take the lead via a wonderfully controlled right wing. As the first half pushed on and the teams settled down a tad more, it seemed that things in this one would get ugly. And ugly they got. There were rough challenges left and right that resulted in forty fouls between the two teams for the span of the game.

It would take until the 60th minutes of play with a well placed cross from DeMarcus Beasley sailed into the box and found the head of the US captain, Carlos Bocanegra. Beasley came on in response to a violent elbow that caught Eddie Lewis in his brow. Lewis fell to the pitch with blood smattered over his face and Cabrera Gustavo, whome delivered the blow, was sent off automatically.

Tensions would flare again between the two sides in the 80th minute of play. Tim Howard, the US number one, went down to save a ground shot into the box when Carlos Ruiz ran into his face with his shin. Ruiz danced away from it protesting that he did nothing wrong, simply allowed his forward momentum to carry him. Howard, however, did not take the incident lightly. He was up in a matter of moments and was moving toward Ruiz. I am no expert at reading lips, but the few psychology courses I took in college have helped me out with body language, and it appeared that Howard was making sure that Ruiz knew not to try that again. The game data from ESPN is not showing this, but I believe that Howard was yellowed by the referee.

The US would go on to hold Guatemala to a 1-0 victory. This win marks a milestone for the US team who have not won in Guatemala since 1988.