USA defeats Poland in friendly

Mar 27, 2008 - 1:22 AM KRAKOW, Poland (Ticker) -- The United States men's national soccer team rolled to a 3-0 victory over Poland in a friendly match Wednesday.

Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu and Eddie Lewis scored goals for Team USA, which recorded its largest margin of victory since a 3-0 rout of Austria in 1998.

"I thought it was a great team effort tonight," American coach Bob Bradley said. "Obviously, we took advantage of set pieces, which is always a positive. More importantly, we showed the mentality and discipline necessary to win games on the road against good opponents like Poland."

"We took our chances and we even had a few more that we didn't score," Bocanegra added. "Today, we got the better of them. Each time, we're trying to improve in Europe, and this was a really good win tonight. We can take the positives, but we still need to work on a lot of stuff."

The Americans took the lead in the 12th minute, when Bocanegra headed in a free kick by Landon Donovan.

Team USA doubled its lead 23 minutes later when Donovan curled a perfect corner kick to Onyewu, who headed the ball past goalkeeper Artur Boruc. It was the 99th career cap for Donovan.

"Our performance was very good, and the two set piece goals got our confidence going," Donovan said. "Overall, I think there was only one team that was going to win, and that was us."

Lewis entered the contest in the 64th minute and pushed the lead to 3-0 just nine minutes later, scoring on a leftfooted free kick.

"In the beginning, I thought we dominated," Lewis said. "We had a tight midfield, created some chances and defended well. To score on set pieces is a bonus, but in general, I was really pleased with the overall play."

Tim Howard made three saves for the Americans, who improved to 4-14-3 all-time on European soil.

"It's great to come back with a win in Europe," Onyewu said. "In the past, we haven't been as good or as imposing as we would expect to be, and this past year, we've been able to emerge as a threat to teams.

"In the past, people would have jumped to play us, but I think each time here, we're making a name for ourselves. We're learning how to win, and this was a good milestone for us."