This is a picture of ESPN’s live online broadcast at ESPN 360. Cyrus and I worked late today at the Coach-Smart.com office to watch the match.
Unfortunately, instead of celebrating a victory, the USA settled for one point after a disappointing 1-1 draw with Cuba in Group A of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament.
Go here to see the live video-feed, it’s remarkable. In fact, you can watch many games online. (You can even sneak it into your day at the office. Just bring some headphones and make the window really small, put it up in a corner of your computer screen. Trust me, totally worth it, and the quality is excellent.)
Back to the game… the tie was completely unexpected as the American team is supposed to be the finest under-23 side ever assembled by our country. In fact, we’re comprised completely of professional players! Of those guys, 6 are playing abroad – the list includes Freddy Adu (F – Benfica, Portugal), Michael Orozco (D – San Luis, Mexico), Sal Zizzo (M – Hannover 96, Germany), Charlie Davies (F – Hammarby IF, Sweden), Kamani Hill (D – VFL Wolfsburg, Germany), and Jonathan Spector (D – West Ham United, England). Domestic representation comes from Salt Lake, Toronto, Houston, Dallas, New York, Chicago and Columbus.
I’d say that early on the team lived up to its hype, and Freddy Adu scored a driven shot from the right flank. But as time went on, the USA could not put away a goal and Cuba equalized. The Cubans seemed to frustrate the Americans every way they looked, and they disrupted nearly every passing pattern the US started. We just could not complete a pass, much less find a rhythm.
US Captain Maurice Edu said, “I think we started off well, and we had them on their heels a little bit. We were pressing forward and putting pressure on them. We kept the play in their half for the most part, but then there was a little bit of a momentum shift. The play began to go back and forth.”
Luckily, Sacha Kljestan says, “It’s good, it’s fine. We still are in control, the game is in our hands, we know if we win the next two games, we’ll go through. We have to keep our heads up and keep focused and keep confident on what we can do in the next two games.”
For more US National Team Quotes, go to http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_5570565.html.
