(John Glennon, The Tennessean, 07.04.15)

NASHVILLE — In many ways, things couldn’t have gone better for the U.S. men’s national team and a record-setting soccer crowd Friday night at Nissan Stadium.

The Americans showed some offensive muscle in the second half, managed to keep a clean sheet defensively and treated the larges soccer crowd in state history — 44,835 — to a 4-0 victory over an overmatched Guatemala team.

A number of fans even managed to see postgame fireworks from a nearby downtown display, offering a fitting holiday touch to the evening.

“First of all, we would like to thank Nashville and this crowd,” U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. “What amazing support and what an amazing atmosphere. To get 44,000 in a friendly … it’s wonderful to see.”

The only problem was that — despite the one-sided result and impressive show of red-white-and-blue support — neither Klinsmann nor his players were overly pleased with the way they played against a Guatemala team ranked 93rd in the world by FIFA.

The Americans were fortunate to lead 1-0 at the half, thanks to an own-goal scored by Guatemala’s Carlos Castrillo. The U.S. also surrendered a handful of quality scoring chances before breaking the game open in the second half thanks to the Americans’ superior depth.

“Obviously 4-0 sounds really nice, but the performance was not so nice,” Klinsmann said. “I’m not happy with that performance. I’m kind of disappointed with a couple of things — movement off the ball, speed of play, urgency. Things we talked about before the game were not executed the way we wanted them to be executed.”

The good news is that this game was tune-up for the start of next week’s Gold Cup, a tournament that determines the regional champion of North America, Central America and the Caribbean. So the U.S. hopes to take the good from this game and work on the bad as it prepares to defend its Gold Cup crown.

“I think if we’re honest with ourselves, there’s a lot that can be better,” U.S. captain Michael Bradley said. “We can be a little sharper. We can play a little quicker certain moments. We can keep things a little tighter. Again, we understand that. But this was in all ways a useful exercise as we go forward.

The U.S., ranked 27th in the world, broke the back of the Guatemalans in the 58th minute, when defender Timmy Chandler dribbled across the middle of the field and crushed a left-footed shot into the corner of the net from about 25 yards away.

Clint Dempsey, playing in his first game since serving a three-game Major League Soccer suspension, then converted a penalty kick in the 72nd minute after Bradley was knocked down in the box. Dempsey took the cheeky approach, floating a chip into the middle of the net as Guatemalan keeper Paulo Motta dived toward a corner.

“I’ve done it sometimes,” Dempsey said of the chip. “Sometimes it works if you see the keeper cheating a little big, going early. It’s always something good to have in your locker.”

The U.S. depth took its toll on the Guatemalans in the late going, with substitute midfield Gyasi Zardes providing an especially big spark. It was a Zardes run that led to Chris Wondolowski’s tap-in goal in the 86th minute, the final score of the night.”

“It’s always good to win, to get goals and get a shutout,” Dempsey said. “But we expect a lot of our team. We know we can be better, so we’ll have to be sharper to win the Gold Cup.”