Clint Dempsey’s hat trick guides U.S. men into Gold Cup semifinals

BALTIMORE – Clint Dempsey walked away with the game ball for one of the few times in his career. With his first international hat trick, he boosted the United States to a 6-0 rout over Cuba on Saturday and into its eighth straight CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal.

Dempsey put the Americans ahead with a fourth-minute header, converted a penalty kick in the 64th and added the final goal in the 78th.

In Wednesday’s semifinal at Atlanta, the Americans will play Jamaica, which edged Haiti 1-0.

“Habits carry over: scoring goals, getting a clean sheet, people getting assists,” Dempsey said. “That confidence, definitely it grows in the team. And as the tournament goes on, people are getting stronger as a group.”

Dempsey has scored a tournament-high six times, and his 47 international goals are 10 behind Landon Donovan’s American record.

“I didn’t know that it was his first hat trick. It took him a long time,” quipped U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who never had a three-goal game in his celebrated international career for Germany.

Gyasi Zardes (15th minute), Aron Johannsson (32nd) and Omar Gonzalez (45th) also scored as the Americans built a 4-0 halftime lead against a Cuban team depleted by five absent players who may have defected. The U.S. outshot the Cubans 24-7.

“After a couple shaky performances in the group, we came out here and dominated the game,” Johannsson said.

Now 32, Dempsey has played up top in recent years under Klinsmann after being used as a withdrawn forward and a wide midfielder by Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley.

It was more than 90 degrees on the field and sunny for the kickoff, causing Costa Rican referee Henry Bejarano to call for a water break after the third goal. With its highest victory margin in the championship of soccer’s North and Central American and Caribbean region, the U.S. improved to 8-1 in Gold Cup quarterfinals, the only blemish a penalty-kicks loss to Colombia in 2000.

Cuba, which has a history of defections at sporting events, listed five of its 23 players as absent: goalkeeper Arael Arguellez, midfielders Dario Suarez, Aricheel Hernandez and Ariel Martinez; and forward Keiler Garcia. The Cubans, ranked 104th, have not reached the World Cup since 1938 and have been eliminated by Curacao in qualifying for the 2018 tournament.

“The players that aren’t here now, they don’t really mean anything to us because they’ve chosen their path,” Cuba coach Raul Gonzalez said.

Fabian Johnson sparked the opening goal, playing a cross that went through to the other side of the field. Zardes played the ball back to Timmy Chandler, who with his left foot lofted it 30 yards to Dempsey for an 8-yard header past goalkeeper Diosvelis Guerra.

Johnson’s 25-yard pass from the flank allowed Zardes, who had burst past the defense, to volley in with his right foot from 6 yards. Bradley played a 50-yard pass to Johannsson, who ran onto the ball, took a touch and chipped Guerra from the edge of the 18-yard box.

Gonzalez made it 4-0 with his first international goal, poking the ball in from 3 yards after Johannsson headed down Bradley’s corner kick.

Jamaica 1, Haiti 0: Houston Dynamo forward Giles Barnes scored in the seventh minute, and Jamaica beat Haiti to reach its first CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal since 1998.