U.S. shocks Spain, reaches Confederations Cup finals

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa — The United States' stunning 2-0 victory over Spain at the Confederations Cup on Wednesday night sent out a loud and clear message that no one, not even the world's top-ranked team, is guaranteed anything in this captivating sport.

And no team is ever out of contention.

The U.S. shocked Spain on goals by Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey, advancing to the Confederations Cup final with one of the Americans' biggest soccer victories ever.

Altidore scored in the 27th minute and Dempsey added a goal in the 74th as the Americans became the first team to defeat Spain — which came in riding a 15-game winning streak — since Romania in November 2006.

The chances of such a U.S. victory seemed slim just a few days ago. The 14th-ranked Americans lost their first two games in the Confederations Cup, an eight-nation World Cup warmup, and were on the verge of elimination.

"I can't explain it any more than you can," U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard said. "Sports is funny sometimes, but when you put your mind to something, you can achieve it."

Now they will play defending champion Brazil or host South Africa on Sunday in their first-ever men's final at a FIFA competition.

"It's exciting, a great team effort. To beat an amazing team like Spain and make the final, it's big," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. "We played as hard as we could and that's what it took. Every guy contributed, so it's a very good feeling."

The U.S. has three full days to prepare for the final. It was thoroughly outplayed by Brazil in a 3-0 first-round meeting.

"We take a few hours to regroup, but we'll be ready," Bradley said. "We're so excited about this."

Spain, the European champion, had set an international record with 15 straight victories and had tied Brazil's record unbeaten streak of 35 games from December 1993 to January 1996.

"We're not used to losing," Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque said. "We lacked a little of our usual touch. We played a very difficult rival who took us head on."

Spain outshot the U.S. 29-9 but Howard came up with several big saves.

"We knew we had to pick and choose our moments to go forward," Dempsey said. "We're happy with the result and we know we're going to have our work cut out to get anything out of the final."