GUADALAJARA, Mexico -- The United States heads into the final round of Olympic soccer qualifying confident that it will be in the 16-nation field at the Athens Games this summer.
National team starters Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and Bobby Convey head the American under-23 team, which plays Panama (Tuesday), Canada (Thursday) and Honduras (Saturday) in Group A. The top two teams in each four-nation group advance, and the two semifinal winners qualifying for the Olympics.
"We've got a lot of experience, probably more experience than any other team in this qualifying," Donovan said Monday. "When we go, we go with conviction, and we go hard and score."
Group B action started Monday, with Roy Myrie scoring two goals midway through the second half to lead Costa Rica to a 3-0 victory over Jamaica. In a late game, Mexico beat Trinidad and Tobago 3-1.
The United States finished fourth four years ago in Sydney. Mexico has won only one Olympic soccer match in the past quarter-century, 1-0 over Italy in 1996.
"When you get to this level, there are no weak teams," U.S. coach Glenn Myernick said.
Soccer is a rising sport in Panama, which has traditionally been more focused on baseball.
"We know that our preparation has been much more extensive than theirs," Myernick said. "They have not played but two preparation games. We respect them, their athleticism. They're big, they're strong, they're fast."
While Panama's team just arrived in the Guadalajara area, Myernick has had the U.S. team in training for more than a week, hoping to build a coherent squad and to accustom players to 5,000-foot altitude.
"The last two or three days, I've felt awesome, like my blood cells are finally turning over," Donovan said.
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