Twellman, U.S. Dominate

Taylor Twellman, ineffective against Canada a week earlier, bounced back in spectacular fashion Sunday afternoon by scoring three goals as the United States routed Norway, 5-0, in an international soccer friendly in front of 16,366 at the Home Depot Center.

The New England Revolution striker was the top goal scorer in Major League Soccer in 2005 but had failed to make much of a mark on the international level, scoring only once in 14 previous games for the U.S.

Then came Sunday.

His hat trick was the ninth by a U.S. player in 93 years and the first since Eddie Johnson put three goals past Panama in a World Cup qualifier in October.

Twellman came off the field to an ovation in the 83rd minute, having revived his hopes of making the U.S. roster for Germany this summer. Not that he would admit as much.

“I don’t know what I’m doing for dinner, so I have no idea,” he said. “I’m just more concerned about day in and day out being a good teammate and working hard for the team.”

Twellman’s goals came in the fifth, 17th and 76th minutes, with Eddie Pope also scoring in the 67th minute and Chris Klein in the 87th as the U.S. outshot the Norwegians, 24-2.

It was a complete turnaround from the previous match.

“The Canada game wasn’t a great one for the team, and we wanted to come out here and set the tone,” Twellman said.

For Norway, which fielded only one starter from its World Cup qualifying squad, there was nothing good about the game, as Coach Age Hareide said.

“They have a lot of good players and we knew that,” he said of the U.S. “Our boys weren’t up to it today. We had a lot of inexperienced players. I let them play just to have a look at them, and it turned out to be a very disastrous experience for them.”

The margin of victory was the largest for the U.S. against a European opponent.

U.S. Coach Bruce Arena pronounced himself satisfied, although there is a lot of work to be done before the World Cup opens in Munich on June 9.

“Obviously, it was a good performance on our part today, certainly improved from last week,” he said. “We played quite well for 90 minutes. I was very pleased.”

Twellman came in for the lion’s share of praise, although others, especially Galaxy defender Todd Dunivant, who created the second and third goals, deserved almost as much in his national team debut.

“He scored three goals, and that’s sometimes how you’re graded as a striker,” Arena said of Twellman. “If that’s the case, he gets an A for today. All three goals were great, and he also at one point in the first half made a great play defensively.

“Taylor’s getting used to what we ask of our forwards, and I think he played well. It was a good performance. What can you say, three goals is three goals.”

There were three Galaxy players in the U.S. starting lineup -- Dunivant, goalkeeper Kevin Hartman and midfielder Landon Donovan. A fourth Galaxy player, defender Ugo Ihemelu, came on in the 83rd minute for his national team debut.

Donovan’s day was as eventful as Twellman’s. In addition to serving as captain, he was issued a yellow card by Colombian referee Oscar Ruiz Acosta in the 70th minute after reacting angrily to being spat upon by Norway’s Magne Hoset.

“He told me to calm down,” Donovan said of Acosta. “I said I’m a person, if someone spits on me I’m going to react.”

Like Arena, Donovan was satisfied with the result.

“If you win 5-0 and you don’t play extremely well, then it’s like, OK,” he said. “But to win 5-0 and dominate everywhere -- we kept the ball, moved the ball well, got dangerous chances, defended well, got the ball back right away when it turned over -- I think everywhere we played well, and that’s a nice feeling.”

Next up for the U.S. is a match against World Cup-bound Japan in San Francisco on Feb. 10.

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U.S. schedule

Remaining matches for the U.S. men’s national team before the World Cup:

Feb. 10: vs. Japan at San Francisco

* Feb. 19: vs. Guatemala at Frisco, Texas

* March 1: vs. Poland at Kaiserslautern, Germany

* March 22: vs. Germany at Dortmund, Germany

* April 12: vs. TBA at U.S.

Note: The U.S. also will play three games in May at home against opponents to be determined.