LA Galaxy star Landon Donovan said it was vital for the USA team to bounce back from Saturday's disappointing 4-0 international friendly loss to Spain.
The US opened up their 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup campaign with a 2-0 victory over Canada in Detroit on Tuesday and Donovan, who returned after missing the Spain match with illness, highlighted the importance of the win.
"It was important for a lot of us to get on the field, period, and a lot of us to get on the field again after the other night," he said.
"Any time you have a result like the Spain result, you're eager to get back on the field because we're all proud and you don't like losing that way.
"We wanted to make sure early on in the game that they knew this was not a game they thought could win. We wanted to take the air out of their sails right away."
The USA will now prepare for Saturday's meeting in Tampa with Panama who held off a fast-finishing Guadeloupe 3-2 yesterday.
