The strength of the opponent may not have been on par with that of Spain or Brazil, but the U.S. men’s national team continued its sharp play of late.

Coming off a second-place finish at the Confederations Cup, the U.S. began CONCACAF Gold Cup play with a convincing 4-0 win over Grenada, in front of a less than capacity crowd at Qwest Field in Seattle.

“It’s important to start the Gold Cup the right way. There were a lot of good things: a good team effort and four different guys scoring goals. All those things are important as we start this tournament,” said coach Bob Bradley, to ussoccer.com, about the opening victory.

Freddy Adu’s first-half goal put the Americans up early, and they never looked back. Stuart Holden headed in another first-half goal as well. Robbie Rogers, who assisted both first-half goals, and Charlie Davies added second-half goals of their own as the U.S. coasted to the victory.

On the international level, the American line-up was fairly inexperienced. Holden, midfielder Logan Pause, and defender Brad Evans all made their first cap on the night. As well as goalkeeper Troy Perkins, who was making second career appearance for the national team. But Bradley’s choices proved well with the opening match win.

Adu, who failed to see any time during the Confederations Cup, took a Rogers pass atop the box and placed a low-lying shot into the right corner of the goal in the 7^th minute for the early 1-0 lead.

Rogers later sent a 31^st minute cross into the box, a racing Holden, leaped above his defender to head home the second goal of the match.

The teams went to half with the U.S. leading 2-0.

The Grenadian attack, without New England Revolution midfielder, Shalrie Joseph who has been slowed by a knee injury, was unable to muster much of anything to test Perkins throughout the night.  The U.S. outshot their opponents by a count of 25 to three.

After assisting the first two goals, Rogers got in on the scoring action himself after an impressive full-field lead pass from Pause. Controlling the pass, Rogers calmly beat Grenada goalkeeper Desmond Noel with a low shot to the far post in the 60^th minute.

Only eight minutes later, Chad Marshall sent another full-field pass to a streaking Heath Pearce who settled the pass to Davies who then beat Noel for the fourth goal of the night.

It was an impressive win for the Americans, who win next play Honduras in Wash., D.C., on Wednesday night, July 8, at 9 P.M. (EST).

Stay tuned for the Honduras match, as WSR will be reporting live from RFK Stadium!

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