On this day in 2006, three wins in a row to start the year

⚽️ | 📅 #OnThisDay in 2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣6️⃣

🇺🇸 #USMNT 3-2 🇯🇵 Japan

📍 San Fransisco

👔 Arena

📋 Friendly

This is now three matches unbeaten to start this World Cup year, though this included a late scare.

24’

Carlos Bocanegra long pass.

Taylor Twellman nod down.

Eddie Pope pounces.

39’

A great exchange by the Americans here.

Clint Dempsey to Josh Wolff to Twellman back to Dempsey for the finish.

More of this please.

50’

Twellman capped a great day with a goal of his own, doing what he does best.

Landon Donovan hits in the corner and Twellman heads to ball to the back of the net.

The #USMNT would hold on after late goals from Seiichiro Maki and Yuji Nakazawa.

Scorers: Eddie Pope (Taylor Twellman) 24′, Clint Dempsey (Taylor Twellman) 39′, Taylor Twellman (Landon Donovan) 50′ — Seiichiro Maki (Akira Kaji) 60′, Yuji Nakazawa (Mitsuo Ogasawara) 90+’

USA: 22-Kevin Hartman; 3-Todd Dunivant (6-Heath Pearce, 90′), 12-Jimmy Conrad, 23-Eddie Pope, 17-Chris Klein (25-Brian Carroll, 79′); 13-Pat Noonan (7-Chris Rolfe, 87′), 5-Kerry Zavagnin, 10-Landon Donovan (Capt.), 8-Clint Dempsey (14-Ben Olsen, 69′); 16-Josh Wolff (9-Eddie Johnson, 58′), 20-Taylor Twellman (11-Brian Ching, 68′)

Subs not used: 24-Matt Reis

Head Coach: Bruce Arena

JPN: 23-Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi; 2-Makoto Tanaka (17-Makoto Hasebe, 55′) 5-Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (Capt.), 22-Yuji Nakazawa; 21-Akira Kaji, 15-Takashi Fukunishi (30-Yuki Abe, 55′), 4-Yasuhito Endo (27-Hisato Sato, 46′), 14-Alessandro Santos, 8-Mitsuo Ogasawara, 18-Shunji Ono (19-Masashi Motoyama, 68′); 9-Tatsuhiko Kubo (16-Seiichiro Maki, 46′)

Subs not used: 12-Ryfota Tsuzuki, 20-Keisuke Tsuboi, 24-Teruyuki Moniwa, 25-Shingi Murai, 31-Yuichi Komano, 33-Takashi Shimoda

Referee: n/a

Cards: Chris Klein [Y 8′], Ben Olsen [Y 75′], Eddie Pope [Y 76′] — Yasuhito Endo [Y 26′], Yuji Nakazawa [Y 32′]

US Soccer History Lineup

All match reports and stories posted to Twitter. Follow at @usmnt_historian