Thursday, August 23, 2007

U17s-I'm up early

Fulltime, the U.S. is out of the World Cup. G'Night everyone.
90+ GOAL Desperate to score, the U.S. throw everybody forward and look to have half a chance - they get a corner and a deep throw in. But the clearance results in a counterattack opportunity, and Tunisia scores.
90 - GOAL Jeffrey scores it.
89 - Nimo is taken down in the box. The U.S. gets a PK!
86 - wow, that woke me up - the U.S. in the box, still battling, Ibrahim right off the goalkeeper.
80-something - a flurry of yellow cards to end the match. I'm half-asleep.
77 -
Cruz comes on for Dominguez - last sub for U.S.
73 - The U.S. wastes a free kick.
71- Tunisia's goalkeeper gets a yellow for time-wasting. Brandon King in for Ellis McLoughlin
66 - Bates gets a yellow.
65- The Galavision announcers aren't impressed by MacMath or Mykel Bates. As the camera shows a shot of MacMath's uniform letters peeling off, one says "Even his own name wants to get away from him."
57 - Now I'm seriously sleepy, and the caffeine in a soda isn't cutting it. I might miss an incredible comeback, but the bed is calling me.
50 - The U.S. players are so desperate to win the ball that at times they fight for a header and hit it directly to a different Tunisian player by mistake.
48 - Announcers are also impressed by Sheanon Williams's throw-ins, "hands of a basketball player" they say.
Abdusalam Ibrahim is in for Chris Klute, who the Galavision announcers thought was responsible for causing both penalties. That's a bit harsh, but he certainly contributed.

Halftime - the problem at this age is that players don't have the experience to keep battling and instead ride momentum a lot. The guys hung their heads after the first goal, and by the time they got it together to go for the goal, weren't focusing enough to prevent defensive errors. Yikes. This could be it for the U17 team in the World Cup.
GOAL Hadhria smacks it hard, and MacMath doesn't react in time to stop it. What a nightmare for the U.S.
45 - the goal before the half goes the other way. PK for Tunisia.
44 - Tunisia's goalkeeper is down for a while, but he's back up now.
42-A score before the half would do wonders for the U.S. "rip the heart of their team out" as Bob Bradley would say. - And Alex Nimo nearly gets it! Wide, though.
40 - Screaming Korean girls on the telecast. I don't get what that's about. Maybe they think Jeffrey is cute.
37 - Corner for the U.S. leads to a Tunisian corner
35 - Tunisia's coach is showering himself with a water bottle. Hey, I just saw the Zimmermans (Preston and Brandon's parents, Ken and Pam) on the telecast! I met them in Peru when Preston played with the U17 team. They're great. Hi guys!
32 - Jeffrey especially looks rattled. His first touch is failing him and he is losing ball after ball in the midfield.
30 - Tunisia takes a short corner - they are playing an open, unpredictable style - full of confidence.
27 - Offsides for the U.S
25 - Back and forth in the midfield. Hustling play, even if it's not very pretty. Given the heat, I expect someone to pass out, or puke. I'd put the odds on puking a bit higher.
22 - Free kick for the U.S. Brian Dominguez earned it and strikes it and it goes over the bar.
20 - Ok, finally the U.S. is bringing the ball out of the back a bit better.
18 First U.S. corner! Nothing much happens.
17 - There is little to no connection between the U.S. midfield and attacking corps.
15 -Tunisia looks faster, more dangerous - while the U.S. seems shellshocked.
Jared Jeffrey takes a long distance shot - no chance.
Zack MacMath is nervous - the Galavision announcers can't believe he tried to clear the ball into his own defender's backside.
Bad beginning for the U.S., who will have to play from behind now.
8th minute, PENALTY, though the video didn't show the handball
GOAL Tunisia scores with a low, hard shot to Zack MacMath's right. Hadhria took it.

Anyone else doing the dawn patrol?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Forgot about it, thanks for reminding me Andrea.

Us late late people :)

Joel Aceves said...

I am a Nightowl :-)

Joel Aceves said...

I almost forgot [nelson] Ha, ha! [/nelson]

Anonymous said...

Wow all those tours this year and last year just wasted. I knew that team was over confident but I didn't think they would go out like this. Just goes to show US teams have to adjust to the pressures of being highly rated. US squads also have to learn to adjust to everyone upping their game for the World Cup tournaments. This team did well on tours and in some tournaments but they failed to peak at the right time and likely didn't realize how amp other teams would be coming into the tournament. Hopefully this bunch will learn from this continue to develop. But what does this do for their and Hackworths careers?

A.C. said...

It's interesting how this team reversed a bit the trend of Hackworth's other u17 squad, which had a lot of poor results, but pulled it together for a World Cup run in Peru. This was the reverse, basically. It remains to be seen which the federation values more, as far as Hackworth goes. With the players, the deadline to be considered for the U20 team starts immediately.