US 2, El Salvador 1.

It was not fun to see ES go up 1-0 off a terrible Bornstein clearance. But we recovered well, with nice headers by Dempsey and Altidore. The last ten minutes were far tighter than they should have been. But we have the three points, and for that I'm glad.

Random observations: (1) the officiating was disastrous -- Altidore scored a second goal that was waived off because of an imaginary foul on Dempsey on the springing pass, and many, many calls were wrong or unmade; (2) Dempsey is simply never consistent -- he scored today, but missed several solid chances; (3) Davies is electric, and this upcoming year in Ligue 1 will only make him better (he'a already off to a great start there); (4) Bornstein -- who I've criticized much less than others -- was not at all good today, surrending possession and doing a terrible job of clearing the ball; (5) Mike Bradley was also poor today-- his touch was off, and he had far too many giveaways in our half; (6) we missed the steadiness of Gooch and Demerit -- we looked defensively vulnerable several times; (7) again (like against Mexico at Azteca), I thought Holden brought quality as a sub -- he had a nice cross to Torres (!) that should have resulted in a goal but for a great save by the ES keeper.

FF