USA manager Juergen Klinsmann was full of praise for Geoff Cameron following his assured performance in Tuesday night's 2-0 win over Panama.
The Stoke City defender played a key role as a defensive midfielder, covering centre-backs Omar Gonzalez and Matt Besler, as the US went top of the CONCACAF hexagonal World Cup qualifying group.
Klinsmann was thrilled with how the former Houston Dynamo star performed and was looking to more of the same in next week's meeting with Honduras in Utah.
"We asked him to win a lot of balls back, cover the two centre-backs and have a strong, strong presence in there," said Klinsmann.
"I don't know how many balls he recovered; he was constantly there. And then we asked him to play it simple, and he did that. We said once you get that ball, then just keep it simple, find Michael Bradley, find Clint [Dempsey], find the players around him and cover our two centre-backs.
"It was a huge performance by Cameron for us. It's really important to see that players step in if somebody is injured, if somebody is yellow carded like it happened now, and it gives us even more confidence to go into the next game knowing that whoever steps in now will get his job done."