USA vs. El Salvador: Last-Minute Goal Ends Yanks' Olympic Dreams

The United States entered their final group match of Olympic qualifying needing to beat El Salvador to advance. They came within moments of doing just that. But a goal in added time for the Central Americans leveled the score, leaving U.S. fans shocked and knocking Team USA out of Olympic contention.

The U.S. started brightly. With their first real attacking move of the match, Brek Shea fought off three defenders to get down the left side and play in a cross. The ball came in behind Terrence Boyd, but the striker got his left foot to it and found the net.

1-0 United States.

Boyd had several chances to add to his total early. His industry paid off just 11 minutes in when he nicked the ball off a defender and put himself in free on goal. A heavy final touch allowed Salvadoran keeper Yimy Cuellar to disrupt the chance, which was indicative of the early hustle from the Nats.

But head coach Caleb Porter's team lost its edge around the 20 minute mark when it lapsed into a one-dimensional attack consisting of lumping crosses into the box for a hopelessly outnumbered Boyd.

As the U.S. took its foot off the gas, El Salvador stepped things up. Isidro Gutierrez was especially dangerous down the right side of attack. He gave U.S. left back Jorge Villafana fits in the first half.

The match got to the 35th minute before El Salvador managed to equalize off a corner kick. Lester Blanco shook free of Boyd and crashed the near post. Cutting in front of U.S. right-back Kofi Sarkodie, Blanco redirected the ball into the American net.

1-1.

It might have taken El Salvador a half-hour to score once, but it would only take them two minutes to repeat the trick.

U.S. center-back Perry Kitchen gave the ball away at his own end. El Salvador dithered with possession at the top of the American area. Having run out of ideas, Jaime Alas played either an awful shot or a brilliant pass in which his teammate Andres Flores was the only player reacting to.

American goalkeeper Bill Hamid might have been hampered on the play by an injury he picked up a few minutes prior. But blame for the goal has to be assessed in equal measure to Villafana, who appeared to never see Flores before the Salvadoran streaked past him to finish the move.

2-1 El Salvador.

For the next 30 minutes, Freddy Adu was the only U.S. player who seemed to have any attacking ideas that didn't involve hitting speculative crosses into the box.

He created a pair of chances out of nothing as halftime approached. The first saw him smash a shot wide across the mouth of goal. The second was Adu just missing a chance at replicating Giovanni dos Santos' brilliant chipped goal in the Gold Cup.

The second half began with no changes for Porter's team.

For their part, El Salvador came out of the locker room only concerned with defending their lead. It worked for about 20 minutes.

In the 65th minute, the Salvadoran defense failed to deal quickly with a punt. Adu sneaked in and stole the ball before playing quickly to a breaking Terrence Boyd. Boyd's first touch tied the game.

2-2.

Just three minutes later, Joe Corona made his first appearance of the match. Having been largely invisible along with Mix Diskerud at midfield, the pair finally linked play through the middle for a decisive effect.

Corona played Diskerud and crashed the box. Diskerud found Adu out right. Adu lofted the ball to the back post where Corona rose to finish his fourth goal of the tournament.

3-2 United States.

And that's how it looked like it would end. The United States was controlling possession and running the clock out. El Salvador had no real sustained possession and no clear-cut scoring opportunities.

Then the unthinkable happened. As U.S. fans were breathing sighs of relief at having made it through a rocky group stage, Jaime Alas broke their hearts.

In added time, the ball ended up on Alas' foot 25 yards from goal. No U.S. defender closed him down. He took the shot and watched as it fooled substitute U.S. goalie Sean Johnson.

Johnson dove to his right, got hands to the ball and popped it up in the air. He could only watch as the deflected ball dropped into his goal to knock his team out of the Olympics.

3-3. Final whistle.

Just like that, the United States is eliminated from Olympic qualifying. El Salvador will move on to play the second place finisher in Group B. The other semi-final match-up will see Canada face Group B winner Mexico. Those semi-final games will be played March 31st in Kansas City.