A pair of Premier League loanees helped the USA national team to a victory in their Gold Cup opener against Canada on Tuesday.
The US got past neighbours 2-0 in their first Group C match and coach Bob Bradley said a lot of it had to do with the performances of Aston Villa loan signing Michael Bradley (of Borussia Monchengladbach) and his Blackburn Rovers counterpart Jermaine Jones (of FC Schalke).
"The two of them set the tone in the first half," he said. "Together they pushed the team, closed things down, passed the ball well, and mixed up the passes.
"In terms of what we wanted at the beginning of the game, that was very good."
And Bradley was also delighted with the showing from Villarreal striker Jozy Altidore, who scored the opening goal before laying off a pass for Clint Dempsey to score the winner.
"For confidence, it's a good game for Jozy. The movement that led to the first goal and, obviously, the ball that he put across for Clint's goal were both great plays," he added.
"When you go through a stretch with your club team where you're not always playing regularly and not getting goals, in terms of confidence this was very important."
