USA 2 El Salvador 1: Two Late First Half Goals Propel USA to Win

On September 5, the United States national team faced off with El Salvador in an important World Cup qualifier for both teams at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah.

Going into the match, the Americans just suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Mexico at Estadio Azteca in August, while El Salvador was looking to get a victory in order to get back into the chase to qualify for next year's World Cup.

Early on in the match, the Americans were given several good scoring opportunities by El Salvador, but weren't able to put any of these chances past El Salvador keeper Miguel Montes and the game continued to remain scoreless.

And in the 32nd minute, El Salvador surprised everyone as they capitalized on a terrible cross by American defender Jonathan Bornstein, which led to Christian Castillo heading the ball past a confused Tim Howard and gave El Salvador a surprising 1-0 lead.

However, the Americans did not quit after conceding this goal, and in the 41st minute Clint Dempsey miraculously stayed onside and headed in a free kick from Landon Donovan to tie up the game at 1-1.

And after that goal, the United States continued to keep up the pressure on El Salvador and once again, Donovan sent in a beautiful cross to Jozy Altidore, who headed the ball into the back of the net, and gave the Americans a 2-1 lead at half-time.

As the second half begun, the Americans kept up their pressure, and Altidore scored again in the 58th minute, but the goal was disallowed because Jozy apparently nudged a defender while attempting to head in another goal.

In the 71st minute, American spark-plug Charlie Davies injured the outside of his left calf, and was replaced by Stuart Holden.

As the game was heading toward stoppage time, El Salvador once again started to apply more pressure and in the 87th minute, William Reyes got a point-blank shot on Howard, in which the Everton keeper was able to not only stop, but was able to hold on to the ball, in which turned out to be El Salvador's final good chance of the match.

With the win, the Americans are now up to 13 points in the CONCACAF standings, as they only trail Honduras on goal differential.

Also, Mexico beat Costa Rica 3-0 in Costa Rica, which now has Mexico in the third and final spot in CONCACAF for automatic qualification, while Costa Rica (which were in first place in CONCACAF going into yesterday's match), are now in fourth place in the CONCACAF table.

Also, the Americans received no bookings in this match, which means that no American's will miss their World Cup qualifier at Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday due to suspension, and the Americans will also get back AC Milan defender Oguchi Onyewu back from suspension for their next match.