Scary start, but resilient U.S. prevails, taking Honduras 2-1

It's not often athletes feel happy about disappointing the home crowd.

The 55,647 fans at Soldier Field on Saturday night, more than half of them Hondurans, saw the United States score a 2-1 victory in a 2010 World Cup qualifier.

The Hondurans in the crowd were jubilant when Wilson Palacios stole the ball from Clint Dempsey in the fifth minute and fed Carlos Costly for a 23-yard blast past U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard. Suddenly, U.S. fans worried about a repeat of Wednesday's demoralizing 3-1 loss in Costa Rica.

"You knew when you looked around the stadium that you made the day more difficult for sure," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. "That wasn't the plan."

"Actually, we were still confident," added U.S. right back Jonathon Spector, an Arlington Heights native. "It wasn't ideal by any means, but I think we did a good job sticking to our game plan. We knew it was going to work in the long run over the 90 minutes and we remained confident. I think it showed in the way we were playing. Especially when we we came out at halftime and it was 1-1. We knew we were going to win the game."

The Americans responded well to the Honduras goal, pressing the attack and finally winning a penalty kick that Landon Donovan converted in the 43rd minute. Honduras' Mario Beata earned a yellow card for the hand ball in the penalty area.

The game-winning goal came in the 68th minute after a long Donovan corner kick. Dempsey headed the ball back to the middle, and former Fire defender Carlos Bocanegra dove to head the ball into the net from five yards out.

"Clint Dempsey lost the ball in a difficult spot on the field," Bradley said about the first goal. "Then you give him credit, because instead of putting his head down he was determined to make up for it."

He did, and the United States is back on track.

"It was a really important win," Spector said. "The nice thing about the two games in quick succession, we were able to put right what went wrong Wednesday night in Costa Rica. I think we're all happy this game came around so quickly."

The victory puts the United States in second place in the CONCACAF standings, 2 points behind Costa Rica. The top three teams earn a berth in South Africa next year. Mexico fell to fifth place with Saturday's loss in El Salvador.

"We're halfway through this round, and we're off to a good start," Bradley said. "There's work to be done. We know that."