The USA reached the semifinals of Gold Cup 2002 thanks to a 4-0 victory over El Salvador on Sunday in which Brian McBride notched a hat trick and Ante Razov scored once. Here are reactions from the U.S. locker room at the Rose Bowl: U.S. Coach Bruce Arena: “We obviously started the game in strong fashion today in getting an early goal, and the second one following shortly after made our task a lot easier today. As the game went on, it was a matter of survival with the elements, the field conditions, and having to deal with some pretty bad fouls. Now our challenge is to get our team ready for Wednesday.” On the play of Brian McBride: “There’s no question he’s made it back from his injuries, which is good news. He’s not where he wants to be, or where I want him to be, and that’s just going to take some time. Brian does a lot of good things on the field. I thought his performance against Cuba was outstanding, and today obviously who can argue with the three goals. He’s been good, and it’s a real good sign to see in the early going that we have Brian back. He’s another guy we can put into the mix, and I think it’s a real positive.” On the return to action of Clint Mathis: “I’m glad we got him back on the field today. It’s going to take him probably another two months before he’s ready, but it’s good to see him on the field. I think psychologically this helps him just to put the uniform back on and to step on the field. I can tell he’s still not there. He doesn’t have the explosiveness. But his first touch is still like it was when he was injured in June, and he still has great vision. I think he still has a little bit more to go in the physical aspect, but I’m confident that as we move into the spring he’s going to get back to 100 percent.” Asked to reflect on the lack of productivity in their first two games: “We were productive in the first two games. We won those two games. We were probably in the toughest group in this tournament, which people fail to notice. South Korea is a very difficult team to play against, and Cuba’s had a good showing. Obviously we didn’t create the kinds of chances in the previous two chances that we did today. Having said that, in the Cuba match I think we had some good chances that we didn’t finish off on. As we continue to move forward in this tournament I think our guys will have a little more confidence and be a little bit more comfortable in taking their chances.” On Kasey Keller’s performance tonight and the impact it will have on his chances for the World Cup: “Well, I’m not sure today did a whole lot. He wasn’t challenged a whole lot today. Kasey is a very good goalkeeper. Obviously, Brad Friedel is having a good run in England right now. It’s going to be hard. I need to see those players, specifically Brad, in some games when we’re in Europe. It’s a nice problem to have. Obviously, Kasey’s done nothing but help his situation at the moment, and hopefully it will be a good competition right until the end.” On Canada, the U.S. opponent in the semifinal round: “I haven’t seen Canada play in this tournament yet. I know generally how they play and what they are like. Obviously, they are very difficult to play against and they have been very successful here. No one’s been able to eliminate them in this tournament now in two tries, so that’s going to be quite a task on our hands. They play everyone tough. Even the game they lost in this tournament, I think it went 88 minutes before Ecuador got on the board. They have a real physical presence. They are outstanding on attacking restarts, and that’s an area where probably get all their goals.” U.S. forward Brian McBride: On tonight’s performance: “We came out wanting to get after them from the beginning. Another important thing we talked about was getting that second goal right away and continuing to push forward. Our finishing was much better today.” On scoring the first hat trick of his international career: “It feels really good. I think our runs in the box today were excellent. Ante [Razov] made a lot of runs that freed up space for me. It just so happened that I was in the right place today. It feels really good to score in the run of play, and more so it’s great for us to get a few goals and keep our momentum going.” U.S. forward Clint Mathis: On returning to the field after seven months: “It feels good. I think it was a good test. It helps already being three up, which takes a bit of the pressure off. I hope I can continue to push forward and get some more of these games in and continue to get fit.” On the question of the U.S.s ability to score goals in pressure situations: “It doesn’t matter what the critics say about scoring goals, the bottom line is you win a game and nothing matters after that. Maybe we didn’t do it as pretty in the first two games, but we came out here and got the result and that’s all that matters.”