Bruins Help Team USA to Gold Cup Victory

by Karakand on Jun 24, 2007 5:08 PM PDT

Bumped from the diaries. A great post with beautiful pictures. It is amazing to see Bruins carrying the day for the Stars and Stripes. GO BRUINS. -N

UCLA has a strong history of developing elite soccer players so it shouldn't surprise anyone that the roster Team USA used today against Mexico in the Gold Cup final had more than a few former Bruins on it.

But it was Benny Feilhaber that really put the Red, White and Blue over the top.

Landon Donovan scored his 34th career goal, tying Eric Wynalda atop the career list, and Benny Feilhaber connected with a gorgeous volley to rally the United States to a 2-1 victory over Mexico on Sunday in the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean.

There isn't anything on YouTube yet as far as I know but the recap has the chain of events:

Ten minutes later, Donovan took a corner kick that was flicked clear by a Mexican defender. But the ball went right to Feilhaber, who scored on a perfect right-footed volley from 22 yards out for his second goal in eight international appearances.

"I knew it as soon as I hit it it was going in," Feilhaber said. "It's a great goal, at such a stage, against Mexico, in the Gold Cup. Unbelievable."

Benny the Jet celebrating his handy work.

It was just beautiful. If you can try and stomach ESPN tonight I'm sure they'll have a highlight of it on SportsCenter. Either that or you can wait for the inevitable YouTube clip.

FYI: Benny currently plays for the German club team Hamburger SV and will be accompanying Team USA down to compete in this year's Copa America.

UPDATE [04/25/07 -N]: Here is the goal:

A beauty!

GO BRUINS

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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Comments

K

Thanks so much for this post. Caught the highlights on ESPN a little while ago. Didn't occur to me that Benny is a Bruin. Great stuff.

I hope we see more soccer posts wrt to our Bruins. As I wrote to tasser on Friday feel free to write as many UCLA soccer related posts you guys want and keep us all plugged in. Love it.

by Nestor on Jun 24, 2007 6:17 PM PDT reply actions

Loved the match

I follow the US national team closely so whenever the US and Mexico play it's a big deal to me. Benny looked overmatched in the first half, but he turned it around in the 2nd half when Ricardo Clark entered the game and he came up with an amazing volley for the winner.

It's great to Bruins play and we'll see more of it starting Thursday when the US takes on Argentina in the Copa American opener. That roster will be young and likely overmatched as the US sends their B team, but there will be 4 Bruins on the team. Benny will be there along with Jonathan Bornstein, Jimmy Conrad and Marvell Wynne who was a Bruin only 2 years ago.

The Bruins are also well represented on the US Under 20 World Cup team where 3 Bruins are on the roster. Sal Zizzo, Brian Perk and Tony Beltran will be representing the red, white and blue. These 3 Bruins are still in school and attending UCLA so you can check them out next season in a few games.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Jun 24, 2007 7:48 PM PDT reply actions

Heres the video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6321668952440074461&q=Feilhaber&total=12&start= 0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Jun 24, 2007 7:53 PM PDT reply actions

spot on, Rye

Clark's speed changed the game. Great move by Coach Bradley. It was one of the best games i've seen.

by pocho on Jun 24, 2007 9:24 PM PDT reply actions

Thanks

for the bump to the front page, Nestor.

by Karakand on Jun 25, 2007 2:27 AM PDT reply actions

My pleasure

Thank you for the post.

by Nestor on Jun 25, 2007 4:35 AM PDT up reply actions

I'm always so jealous...

...that you all have a legitimate angle to cover US Soccer with. I always just have to say "this has nothing to do with University of Alabama sports, but I don't care" when I post about the national team. I usually have to relegate it to the diaries for that reason.

Regardless, Go USA and congrats to UCLA for helping mold another undeniable talent in Benny.

Roll Tide!

by Nico @ Bruins Nation on Jun 25, 2007 5:44 AM PDT reply actions