U.S. Captain Landon Donovan has admitted that his team were being kept up to date with the Italy vs Brazil score line throughout their match against Egypt in the Confederations Cup.

Speaking after his team's 3-0 victory over Egypt to secure a semi-final spot against Spain, Donovan said, "The first thing that was required was belief. After the Italy-Egypt game we realized there was some chance, however unlikely, and tonight we just said 'let's go for it.'

"We had a good start and played well, and when we heard the Brazil score we knew we had a chance if we could get the next two goals. The next thing you know we're through.

"Our objective was to get the first goal and see where that put us. Charlie (Davies) did a great job and made a great play to score the goal.

"From that point we tried to get the second and we had a few chances. At halftime they told us it was 3-0 Brazil, so we wanted to be smart. We knew Egypt was going to try to sit back, since they were through at that time. We wanted to push forward and get the second because we thought if we got the second we would get the third and we did.

"I kept looking over [to the bench] at 3-0 to make sure the Brazil-Italy score was still the same. It would have thrown everything off if Italy had scored. My initial reaction was don't get too excited, because we don't know what happened. But I looked over at the bench and everybody was jumping up and down so I knew we could celebrate."