The tournament started last night with Canada and El Savador drawing 0-0 and USA beating Cuba, who were a man down for 70 minutes, 6-0. Panama vs Honduras and Mexico vs T&T are tonight. The top two teams from each group advance to the semi-finals and the two semi-final winners qualify for the olympics. http://www.concacaf.com/page/MOQ/Home
It's pretty simple. A consistently improving Canadian youth setup mixed with a Canada team that got a wake-up call in its 1st match, mixed with an overconfident US team, add in a coach making some boggling selections (for the overall squad and the starting lineup-Teal Bunbury again? No Gyau or Okugo starting? Little defensive depth?) Plus, add in the one of the few times Bill Hamid has a bad game for club or country(probably his worst outing in a while) and that's how you get this loss. Yeah the States can still qualify if they beat El-Salvador but they'll prolly face a bloody good Mexico team after that and it just might be lights out for team USA's olympic hope then.
I really think Porter should have changed up the starting lineup more, asking your best guys to go 90 minutes in two games with only a days rest is too much. The Canadian coach had the right idea playing a weaker team on Thursday and saving his better players for tonight. Now USA has a must win game where they either have to play a weaker lineup or play an already tired lineup even more. The semi-final would have been tough enough if we would have won the group, the fact that our best hope now is coming in second and playing Mexico just makes it that much tougher.
And Cuba was able to get a draw against Canada, so if we win tonight we'll win the group and hopefully avoid a semi-final against Mexico.
Fantastic write-up by Paul Kennedy of Soccer America on the state of the US-U-23's and more importantly imo- their defence. http://www.socceramerica.com/article/46117/u-23-basket-emptier-than-imagined.html The selections of Opara and Kitchen were a bit boggling to me. Caleb Porter should have looked for more depth for the backline but I guess he figured if they qualified for the Olympics, he'd just plug in one of the US Nats- Goodson, Omar, Cameron or the other Euro's. Right now El-Salvador up 2-1 after a run of span of horrible defending by the U.S.
The ref let it go too long, 4 mins of stoppage time and the goal comes after that. If I was Boyd I would find that little punk ass defender that sucker punched him and beat him to a bloody pulp in the tunnel. DD
I have a second cousin on that squad. My dad was jumping up and down all game. USA needs to stop rejecting good Latino players. There are like 6 kids all US born on that Salvadorian team that went to play with El Slavador because they gave them a shot. Team USA reaps what they sow after all those years of not paying attention to the Latino players born in the U.S. their program sucks.
No offense but wtf are you on about? Check the US roster and tell me what Corona, Villafana and Agudelo are? Albert Morales would have been selected but his club team wouldn't release him. He would have been probably started on this team. Did the US program suck in 08 when they qualified for the Olympics? No doubt this is a terrible result but I see nothing but good stuff in the future for the US and Canadian teams. (But Mexico is still running things and will be for a little while longer).
The good thing about this is the Houston Dynamo will not lose Kofi Sarkodie and Geoff Cameron (might get selected as one of 3 over-age players) for the Olympics.
Yes there are and it is a new movement brought over by Klinsmann and his influence from the top. Not saying that the program isn't going to get better but what the **** took so long?
Man, I am going to be over in the UK during the Olympics and was going to take my family to a USA soccer match...this really sucks. DD
Sorry bro but that's not true. The integration of Hispanic-Americans to the US National team is not a "Klinsmann doing". It has been progressing that way over the past few regimes. If you want to give Klinsmann the credit then one would seriously have to question why he has consistently excluded two of the best Americans at their positions from the National Team(until the National team camp earlier this year). Omar Gonzalez and Herculez Gomez. I don't give Klinsmann credit for the Latino's on the US youth and MNT's. As the population of the country changes and the US scouting system has developed, more of those players have been and will keep getting noticed. With or without Klinsmann's doing.
If you are there try to catch Usain Bolt vs. Yohan Blake in the 100m and 200m finals to witness a new World Record, that will be worth everything. Try to get tickets for a Team USA game, should be full of highlights. For soccer, maybe bring them to a Brazil game, they should do damage vs. the other youth teams and show some skills, you also get to see Neymar, Ganso, Pato, etc.
Totally agree with this. It's not a new thing by any means. If they are still lacking in a region, however, it's the Texas Rio Grande Valley. I know there are incredible players down there that just can't get noticed. If I had a say, I'd have a permanent scout based in Brownsville or McAllen, just scouring the leagues down there.
