SEATTLE — Clint Dempsey scored for the third straight game on a first-half header and set up Gyasi Zardes for a tap-in goal midway through the second half, boosting the United States into the Copa America semifinals with a 2-1 win over Ecuador on Thursday night.
Playing before a boisterous and almost completely partisan home crowd in the soccer-mad Pacific Northwest, the U.S. won a knockout game against a nation outside its region for only the second time and will play Argentina or Venezuela on Tuesday in Houston.
American midfielder Jermaine Jones and Ecuador winger Antonio Valencia were both ejected early in the second half. Jones will be suspended for the semifinal along with U.S. midfielder Alejandro Bedoya and Bobby Wood, who both got their second yellow cards of the tournament.
Dempsey’s 52nd international goal, five behind Landon Donovan’s American record, put the U.S. ahead in the 22nd minute and Zardes guided Dempsey’s cross into the net in the 65th for a 2-0 lead.
Michael Arroyo scored for Ecuador in the 74th minute and Enner Valencia missed a pair of great chances just moments later on a pair of headers.
U.S. Coach Jurgen Klinsmann made some changes to his lineup for the game, moving Fabian Johnson across the field to right back and inserting Matt Besler on the left side of his defense.
The U.S. had started the same lineup in three straight games for only the second time – and the first since 1930 – but right back DeAndre Yedlin, a former regular with the hometown Seattle Sounders, was suspended after getting a two yellow cards in a 57-second span against Paraguay last weekend.
Johnson last started at right back for the U.S. in the loss to Mexico in last October’s playoff for a 2017 Confederations Cup berth. He also played right back during the 2014 World Cup.
Besler, seen more often in central defense, had not played since spending the first half at left back during a May 28 exhibition against Bolivia.
The rest of the lineup was unchanged.
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