Golden Boy Wondo Gets 3, USA Beats Belize

Hi! We’re the Red, White and Blues Brothers and this is our color-coded U.S. Soccer blog. Chip writes in red and Danny writes in blue. We cheer for the U.S. and you better too! 

The U.S. Men's National Team opened their 2013 Gold Cup with a powerful 6 goal blowout over Belize Tuesday night in Portland. Chris Wondolowski, the 30 year-old striker from the San Jose Earthquakes of MLS gets a hat trick in the first half, Landon Donovan scores another goal on a penalty kick goal and gets 2 assists and this Gold Cup squad after 2 games together looks like they've gelled. Despite his age, Wondolowski is a relative newcomer to the MNT. He has about 13 caps since 2011 and now has scored all of his 4 goals in the past two games. The name on his jersey was spelled wrong... U.S. Soccer added an extra "W... Wondowlowski" Let's go to Chip for some Gold Cup analysis...

So, how do you spell Wondolowski.... Wondolowskie... Wondowlowski.... I spell it  GOALS! 6 goals in back to back games for the USA is an encouraging sign! The players are making it tough on Jurgen to pick his WC roster. Someone is inevitably going to be left off the team that should have a chance. We will have to see how the rest of the Gold Cup plays out and see if Jurgen tinkers with the lineup again in Sept. and Oct. Landon is still producing, so that adds pressure too. Pressure is a good thing. The caliber of teams in Gold Cup are not great, but as Danny pointed out any team can be dangerous on any given day. See you in Salt Lake this Saturday.

That's right! Chip is right down the road from The Rio Tinto stadium where the U.S. MNT beat Honduras in their last World Cup qualifier last month. The temperature was almost 90 degrees for the 7pm start. What is it going to be this Saturday for the 1:30pm kick off? Hey supporters... remember to drink plenty of water! We need you for a full 90 minutes!

Yes, Jurgen is going to have some tough decisions to make. Hercules Gomez and Oguchi Onyewu each sat on the bench and their replacements both scored. It will be good to have deep talent when we go into the World Cup. Between yellow card suspensions, injuries and slumps, we'll need several players who can step up and put the ball in the net. 

Interesting tidbit I discovered at ussoccer.com  ... Chris Wondolowski is half Native American (I'm guessing the Wondolowski name is Polish.) His tribal name translates to "Warrior Coming Over The Hill." Well at 30 years-old he is coming over the hill and if he keeps battling like this for a spot on the World Cup roster, he's going to be a victorious warrior!

Go USA... Beat Cuba!