Landon Donovan‘s return to the National Team was the story on Saturday night in Jacksonville. Donovan’s time in the squad under coach Jurgen Klinsmann has been limited, with bronchitis keeping him off the roster for February’s game against Italy. Donovan opened the scoring in the 3rd minute, with Michael Bradley‘s impressive long distance shot making it 2-0 ten minutes in. An own-goal gave Scotland an opening in the 15th minute, but the second-half belonged to the United States. Donovan scored his second goal in the 59th and finished off his hat-trick five minutes later. Jermaine Jones scored in the 69th minute to make it 5-1 USA.
“I think tonight you saw many elements of what we’re always talking about, what we’re trying step by step to develop,” Klinsmann said. “It’s a fast-paced game, it has tempo in it. It has one-two touch combinations through our midfielders as fast as possible finding the forwards up there, having pace, build up from the back, no long balls. All those elements I think we saw a lot today. I think we set the tone and the team kept their rhythm throughout the entire game. We kept the tempo going, the energy was high. We saw wonderful goals. For a coach, that’s obviously fun to watch, no doubt about it.”
Klinsmann used his full allowance of subs in the second-half, including bringing on Brad Guzan for Tim Howard in the 70th minute.
— GAME REPORT —
Match: USA vs. Scotland
Date: May 26, 2012
Competition: International Friendly
Venue: EverBank Field – Jacksonville, Fla.
Kickoff: 8 p.m. ET
Attendance: 44,438
Weather: 82 degrees; scattered clouds
Scoring Summary: 1 2 F
USA 2 3 5
Scotland 1 0 1
USA – Landon Donovan 3rd minute
USA – Michael Bradley (Jermaine Jones) 11
SCO – own goal 15
USA – Landon Donovan (Jermaine Jones) 60
USA – Landon Donovan (Michael Bradley) 65
USA – Jermaine Jones (Landon Donovan) 70
Lineups:
USA: 1-Tim Howard (12-Brad Guzan, 71); 6-Steve Cherundolo, 20-Geoff Cameron, 3-Carlos Bocanegra (capt.) (5-Oguchi Onyewu, 63), 23-Fabian Johnson (15-Edgar Castillo, 73); 7-Maurice Edu (14-Kyle Beckerman, 64), 4-Michael Bradley, 13-Jermaine Jones; 10-Landon Donovan, 18-Terrence Boyd (9-Herculez Gomez, 64), 16-Jose Torres (11-Joe Corona, 68)
Subs not used: 14-Kyle Beckerman, 19-Chris Wondolowski
Head Coach: Jurgen Klinsmann
SCO: 1-Allan McGregor; 2-Phil Bardsley (14-Russell Martin, 59), 3-Charlie Mulgrew (17-Lee Wallace, 68), 4-Andy Webster (15-Christophe Berra, 82), 5-Gary Caldwell, 6-James McArthur (16-Steven Whittaker, 59), 7-Matt Phillips, 8-Scott Brown, 9-Kenny Miller, 10-Barry Bannan (18-Don Cowie, 51), 11-Shaun Maloney (20-Craig Mackail-Smith, 83)
Subs not used: 12-Craig Gordon, 13-Johnny Russell,19-Craig Bryson, 21-Matt Gilks
Head coach: Craig Levein
Stats Summary: USA / SCO
Shots: 14 / 4
Shots on Goal: 7 / 0
Saves: 0 / 2
Corner Kicks: 3 / 0
Fouls: 6 / 9
Offside: 0 / 1
Misconduct Summary:
USA – Carlos Bocanegra (caution) 28th minute
Officials:
Referee: Elmer Bonilla (SLV)
Assistant Referee 1: William Torres (SLV)
Assistant Referee 2: Douglas Bermudez (SLV)
Fourth Official: Douglas Bermudez (SLV)
