By Brian Homewood
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 15 (Reuters) - The United States began
World Cup qualifying with a crushing 8-0 win over Barbados
while Trinidad & Tobago’s hopes of repeating their 2006 finals
appearance were dented by a 2-1 home loss to Bermuda on Sunday.
In other second preliminary round first-leg matches,
Jamaica hammered Bahamas 7-0, Canada won 3-0 in St Vincent and
the Grenadines and Mexico stuttered to a 2-0 win over Belize in
the first meeting of the two neighbours.
U.S. captain Landon Donovan had complained about the format
of the CONCACAF qualifiers, which forces the region’s top
nations to play two-leg ties against rank outsiders for a place
in the group stage, but he had little to worry about against
Barbados.
Clint Dempsey opened the scoring when he turned in Carlos
Bocanegra’s pass after only 53 seconds, Michael Bradley fired
the second after 12 minutes and Brian Ching made it 3-0 in
Carson, California.
Dempsey and Ching added further goals in the second half
while Donovan and Eddie Johnson were also on target and Daryl
Ferguson put through his own goal.
Jamaica and Canada also made sure that their return matches
would be little more than formalities.
GERBA DOUBLE
Ricardo Gardner, Demar Phillips and Marlon King put the
Reggae Boyz in control by scoring in a eight-minute spell in
the first half at Kingston’s National stadium.
Luton Shelton added two more after the re-start and Andrew
Williams and Omar Daley shared the other goals.
Canada’s Ali Gerba came on as a seventh-minute substitute
for the injured Rob Friend in Kingstown and scored late in each
half in their 3-0 win.
Issey Nakjima-Farran opened the scoring from Tomasz
Radzinki’s pass in the 32nd minute.
Mexico were less convincing, taking more than one hour to
break down the amateurs of Belize. Carlos Vela broke through in
the 62nd minute and Mexico’s record scorer Jared Borgetti added
the second with a stoppage-time penalty, his 44th international
goal.
Belize were technically the home team but the game was
played in Houston as the Central Americans do not have a
stadium which meets FIFA standards.
The only upset involved Trinidad who were sunk by two
first-half goals from Bermuda striker John Nusum.
Southampton’s Stern John replied for the Soca Warriors, who
are led by former Colombia coach Francisco Maturana.
Two players were sent off as Panama beat El Salvador 1-0 at
home and Colombian-based Luis Tejada scored the only goal after
21 minutes.
Panama’s Juan Perez was dismissed in the 61st minute at the
rain-soaked Rod Carew baseball stadium and El Salvador’s Manuel
Salazar followed in the 90th minute.
The only goalless draw was in Port-au-Prince where Haiti
were held by Netherlands Antilles.
(Editing by Ed Osmond)