The USA tied Guatemala, 0-0, Wednesday night in World Cup qualifying action at Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala City.

With the United States already in the World Cup finals, U.S. coach Bruce Arena started a makeshift team. Four U.S. starters made their first-ever qualifying appearances: Jimmy Conrad, Jeff Cunningham, Marcus Hahnemann and Chad Marshall. In addition, Clint Dempsey, Santino Quaranta and Taylor Twellman all were making their first appearances as starters in World Cup play.

Hahnemann helped extend the USAÆs qualifying shutout streak to 597 minutes across seven games

The closest either team came to scoring was in the second half when Bobby Convey rocked the crossbar from 33 yards on a dangerous free kick in the 55th minute and Edwin Villatoro hit a rocket off the base of the left post in stoppage time.

In the 81st minute, second-half sub Eddie Johnson was wide open in front of the goal, but he snapped a header just wide of the goal from eight yards out after a nice build-up from Twellman and Landon Donovan (another second-half sub) after an errant Guatemala clearance.

ôI thought it was a well played game for both teams,ö said U.S. coach Bruce. ôBoth teams had chances in the second half. I thought our team had a much-improved effort in the last 45 minutes. The rule of thumb in qualifying is that if you get a point on the road, you have done well. IÆm satisfied with the result. It is always difficult to play on the road, and we made 11 changes to the team that played against Mexico.ö

The USA is tied with Mexico with 19 points in eight games in the Hexagonal, but the Americans have the edge in the head-to-head tiebreaker (3-2 on goals). Mexico clinched a berth in the World Cup with a 5-0 win over Panama. Costa Rica is in third place with 13 points after its 2-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago. Guatemala (8 points) moved one ahead of T&T (7). Panama (2) becomes the first Hexagonal team to be eliminated from the World Cup.

The USA, Mexico and the third-place team qualify for Germany æ06. The fourth-place team meets the winner of the Uzbekistan-Bahrain series.

GAME REPORT

Sept. 7 in Guatemala City

Guatemala 0 USA 0.

Guatemala – Klee, Sanabria, Melgar, E.Ponciano, S.Ponciano, Giron, Romero, Ramirez (Davila, 46), Thompson (Figueroa, 71), Plata (Villatoro, 78), Acevedo.

USA – Hahnemann, Albright, Marshall, Conrad, Vanney; Quaranta (Donovan, 64), Mastroeni, Dempsey (Ralston, 89), Convey, Twellman, Cunningham (Johnson, 57)

Yellow Card: USA – Cunningham 15.

Referee: Marco Rodriguez (Mexico).

Att.: 27,000.

STATS

Shots: USA 13, Guatemala 14.

Saves: USA 5, Guatemala 5.

Corner Kicks: USA 2, Guatemala 3.

Fouls: USA 20, Guatemala 14.

Offside: USA 1, Guatemala 5.