Beasley propels Americans past Cubans

Oct 12, 2008 - 3:29 AM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- DaMarcus Beasley scored twice to lift the United States men's national team to a 6-1 triumph over Cuba on Saturday and secure a berth in the final round of 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying.

Forwards Landon Donovan of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Brian Ching of the Houston Dynamo, Jozy Altidore and defender Oguchi Onyewu also tallied for the Americans, who won all four of their games in Semifinal Group 1, improved to 7-1-1 with four shutouts against Cuba and advanced to the next round.

"Obviously that was the goal," United States coach Bob Bradley said. "We also felt strongly that we wanted a good strong team performance and I think that was the case.

"We also want to give credit to Cuba. To come in here with no points, they still came in and were organized and difficult to break down. That is a credit to their coach and their players."

Hensy Munoz tallied in the 32nd minute for the communist nation, which was playing without midfielder Pedro Faife and forward Reynier Alcantara, who defected on Friday.

The triumph was the Americans' second in five weeks against the Cubans.

On September 6, Clint Dempsey scored in the 40th minute to propel the United States to a convincing 1-0 triumph over Cuba at Estadio Pedro Marrero. That match was the Americans' first trip to Cuba since a 5-2 exhibition loss in 1947.

A midfielder for the Glasgow Rangers of the Scottish Premier League, Beasley scored in the 11th and 31st minutes to give the United States a 2-0 advantage at RFK Stadium.

"The first one, Sacha (Kljestan) collected a ball in the midfield and played it into my path," Beasley said. "The only thing I thought of was to shoot far post and that's what happened. To get the first goal was great, because that's the most difficult one.

"The second one, the defender just got caught ball watching. Landon saw me, and we know each other, and he played me a great ball. I looked at the keeper and he didn't come out, and I had time to chest it and shoot it."

A former member of the New York Red Bulls who plays for Villarreal of La Liga, Altidore scored in the 87th minute to give the Americans a 5-1 advantage.

Onyewu, who plays for Royal Standard de Liege in Belgium, capped the scoring in the 90th minute.

"The only edge is that we aren't walking on eggshells for the rest of the round," Onyewu said of advancing. "Now that we have guaranteed a spot in the next round, we can focus on bettering our team for the next round."