Before the Five Stripes captured three points on the road in Columbus late last night, Atlanta United's Brad Guzan competed in a match of his own Saturday, joining the U.S. Men's National team to face Ghana in Nashville, Tennessee. The Yanks earned a 2-1 victory in the international friendly as they prepare for this summer’s Gold Cup, and leading the way was Guzan as he received the nod as both the starting goalkeeper and the captain for the evening.
After Dom Dwyer volleyed in his first-ever goal for the U.S. in his international debut, the Red, White and Blue led 1-0 for the majority of the first 45 minutes. However, that lead nearly perished when a penalty was awarded to Ghana just before the halftime whistle, but to the rescue was Guzan who read the spot kick well and deflected it wide to retain the one goal advantage.
That's CAPTAIN @bguzan to you .
— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) July 1, 2017
His second career PK save has the #USMNT up a goal in the second half! #USAvGHApic.twitter.com/fBu0ulBkmK
In addition to Dwyer, Kellyn Acosta notched his first for the USMNT to double the lead in the second half with a low curling free-kick around the wall.
Minutes later, Guzan nearly recorded his second glorious save of the match as he got a hand to Asamoah Gyan’s beautiful upper 90 free kick, but it was a phenomenal strike and Guzan’s fingertips unfortunately couldn’t push it off-target.
The match ended 2-1 in favor of the U.S. and Bruce Arena can be pleased with his captain as he was constantly organizing his side, communicating to his back line and establishing his presence on the field – not to mention coming up big in a crucial moment.
The USMNT begin their 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup journey as they take on Panama next Saturday, July 8th back in Nashville. The match is set to kick off at 4:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on FOX, Univision and UDN.
