Top Stories

A look back at U.S. Soccer’s landmark day

USMNTBF02292012f030

Photo by Bernd Feil/ISIphotos.com

Three wins, eight goals, none conceded and plenty to build off across three levels of U.S. Soccer.

It's safe to say that Feb. 29, 2012, went about as well as it could have if you're a U.S. Soccer player or fan.

The U.S. men's national team took a big step forward under Jurgen Klinsmann's direction, withstanding late pressure to notching the most important result of the new era with a 1-0 victory over Italy, the first-ever win for the United States over the Azzurri. That result came on the heels of the U.S. women opening their quest for a ninth Algarve Cup with a 5-0 thrashing of Denmark, in which Alex Morgan continued to state her case to be a fixture in the starting lineup with two more goals.

The Under-23 men's national team capped off the day with a dominating performance in a 2-0 victory over Mexico in a pre-Olympic qualifying friendly featuring the top two U-23 sides in the region. With momentum and confidence building as all three teams approach an important stretch of matches — be it Olympic qualifying, World Cup qualifying or the Olympics — Wednesday can be looked back on as a key reference point going forward.

Videos of postgame reaction from players and coaches speaking after the triumphs of the men's senior team, U-23 men's team and women's team are after the jump:

USMNT POSTGAME REACTION

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpoU5BNJXCE]

U.S. U-23 POSTGAME REACTION

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55ZGyrWC9M0]

USWNT POSTGAME REACTION

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxECqtumNrQ]

Comments

  1. I like Carlos Somoano’s game. He took over from Porter and won the NCAA his first year as head coach.

    There are coaches who look good and then there are coaches who win.

    It would be interesting to see a piece written by somebody comparing Somoano with Porter.

    Klinsi is a Caleb Porter type of guy, I think.

    Reply
  2. Haha his hair is probably the least exciting part of that U-23 game. Other than that it was a great game.

    I had the same feelings about the polo/varsity jacket shirts that the senior team wore too. They both look ridiculous.

    Reply
  3. anyone know if this match will be aired again? my recording failed and I really wanted to watch the game but I was not able to watch it live. I contacted ESPN but they were not planning to reair the match.
    Stewclarke@hotmail.com

    Reply
  4. Speaking of accents– or speaking style– it’s clear that Caleb Porter has gone to the Bob Bradley school of flat-affect style post-game talks.

    Which is funny considering his coaching style is so different.

    Reply
  5. can we stop with the historic nonsense. It was a friendly against a good team. That makes it a good win and a good building block for the future, NOTHING ELSE. Historic wins are wins you will be talking about in the future. How pathetic would it be if the US fanbase was talking about our victory over Italy in that friendly. We all want the US to be elite, so let’s start acting like it.

    Reply
  6. He lost some balls but comparing him to a 10 year old YSL kid is silly. It was a nice play and one the old Jozy probably wouldn’t have made. Also his foul just outside the box was due to his attacking with the ball at his feet and giving the defenders a change of pace and a chance for teammates to get involved. There was no flopping it was just aggressive defending by Italy that got some legs tangled.

    You may never be satisfied with Jozy even if all he does is deliver assists and earn dangerous set pieces for the US.

    Reply
  7. If you read his interviews I think a lot of Donovan’s struggles early on in his career occurred between his ears.

    LD is a complex guy and he isn’t motivated by the same things most athletes are. He doesn’t care about money and fame as much as being wanted and beloved.

    He’s a sensitive cat.

    Reply
  8. I hate to be negative, but I thought Jozy Altidore was horrible as usual, especially in the first half. Yes, he got an assist by trapping the ball and side footing a pass to Clint, the same as any other 10 year old youth player is taught, but he still lost most balls played to him, and didn’t fight hard for any 50/50 balls.

    Yes, he got a penalty drawn on him, but he did it by flopping, as usual. In a friendly, I would rather see him fight hard for the ball instead of flopping.

    Reply
  9. What annoys me about that is that Dempsey was never in the pipline. No one saw Dempsey as a teenagers and said: “Ten years from now, best US player, scoring winners against Italy.” Landon was a golden ball winner at the U something, then a 19 year old Donovan absolutely tore up a World Cup, even giving the Germans a lot of trouble, so yeah. But then what happened? An absurd overvaluation and competitive increase that was probably too large and immediate. I like where a lot of these guys are at their ages. How once you get to a certain age, maybe 22-23, minutes are going to be a concern,

    Reply
  10. You have provided an excellent recap of how other countries have caught up and now are challenging the US power-house, national womens team. Even though defense is important to concentrate on, it is even more important for the US to play intelligently and more technically to keep the other team from putting pressure on the defense in the first place.

    Reply
  11. I don’t get why people keep leaving him out of the starting lineup. Every report I’ve read from these U23 camp has said Shea was the best player their and look to be in his own level. Yet I see almost everyone who make their line up leaving him out.

    Reply
  12. It’s not really a gentleman’s game and I am ok with that. The vast majority of top footballers came out of a working class background. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard guys yelling F U in a match. Is it admirable? No. Does it happen like…. every game? Pretty much. That’s just da boys being competitive. I’m much more interested in how a guys plays /whether he is a dirty cheapshotter etc rather than what he says. Truth be told… if say… a guy comes in studs up on your kneecaps, he well deserves that and more. I’d have no problem shaking a guys hand who had said that to me in the heat of battle after a match…. but that’s me.

    Reply
  13. +1 it’s a shame that the women’s game hasn’t achieved professional stability in this country. Most interviews the give reflect positively on the women and the national team.

    Reply
  14. We won’t start seriously competing for the World Cup trophy until a few years after:

    (1) Youth development programs rival those of the elite soccer powers

    (2) Youth and Professional coaching rivals that of the elite soccer powers.

    (3) Presence of “Streetball” skills (a la Dempsey) are actually nurtured and become the rule, not the exception for selection of promising youths for development programs.

    We still have a ways to go

    Reply
  15. When I came up the only soccer I could find on TV was early Sunday morning on public access television, when there was a grainy Serie A game broadcast for the local Italian American community. Good times. Then we walked to church uphill both ways in the snow.

    Reply
  16. Deuce’s movement right before the layoff was also top class. Watch the way he reads the play as the cross is coming in and fades away from the defender to open the gap for the layoff and strike. That’s the type of subtle class that is learned in the world’s top leagues.

    Reply
  17. All I want is for the USA to beat Ghana. I kid….

    I want to see a true gold star on a US men’s jersey as much as the next fan, but as good a day at the office as US soccer had yesterday that’s a far cry from predictions of a golden generation and winning the world cup.

    Keep in mind teams like The Netherlands and Portugal and Mexico have NEVER won a World Cup. NEVER. Spain JUST won their first. That is an insane statistic when you consider how huge soccer is in those respective countries. I don’t think there is anything is domestic sports that comes close to the difficulty of winning a world cup (unless you’re Brazil, Germany or Italy).

    In spite of the great progress the US is making, Spain and Germany are very much in the ascendancy, France and the Dutch have a championship potential with many of their rising players and I won’t discount Argentina until Messi retires. Plus, emerging countries like South Korea, Japan and Ghana may very well make history before the US does.

    Personally I’ll be ecstatic if the next 12-24 years see the US rise to be a perennial factor in the elimination rounds of the tournament with a reputation for playing confident classy and skillful style of soccer. I think it’s absolutely within grasp. But I also expect that we’ll need a few bites at the apple before we win it all (unless we manage to host the tourney).

    I also think we are watching what will go down in history as a very special generation of players, both those who are nearing their peak and those about to follow. I think this generation will be the giants on whose shoulders future champions will say they’ve stood on.

    Reply
  18. Very true, but Timmy Chandler is young, Fabian Johnson is young; I have yet to see Lichaj look lost on the international stage. Ream, I’m going to give him a chance to improve in all phases, is also pretty young.

    I’m less worried about the back line than i was before the Gold Cup, and I do see a stacked U23 team with consistent cross-level coaching bringing kids along and grooming them for bigger things.

    Reply
  19. Ha!

    If that were true Bayern Munich would never have let him go.

    It’s a nice idea, and it shows you are a true fan, but I have to strongly disagree.

    He can’t really dribble past people without loads of space.

    His body isn’t powerful enough to push players off like Dempsey.

    He’s great on a team like Everton where they’re just talented enough to play possession soccer against mediocre teams.

    Donovan’s game requires space. Top teams are not afforded that space by their opponents.

    When he was at Bayern Munich he got stifled by the double marking. Top players are capable of dealing with this.

    I’m not saying Donovan isn’t a very good player.

    But he doesn’t have the talent level of someone like Iniesta, and his body isn’t powerful enough to wear defenders down like a Valencia.

    Reply
  20. That and all the guys on the U-23 team have years ahead of them to get better. I am most worried about the lack of depth in defense. We have maybe 6 backs, counting Johnson, and Boco, Dolo and Goodson are getting long of tooth and another, Onyewu, seems to have begun getting injuries and slow recovery that comes with age. It usually takes time for backs to learn the tactics and patience needed to defend well. I hope some of those young guys are fast learners.

    Reply
  21. Gotta agree. There was a time when it was earth-shattering news if the USA somen lost. They were more athletic, and more skilled than any other team. A few other countries have caught up, Germany both physically and technically, China and Japan Technically and probably tactically. Brazil and Mexico have skill. I think the USA dominated so much that tactical awareness was just not part of the equation, they simply were so much better. Now the USA needs to be more tactically aware and since they can no longer dominate possession at 80-90%, they need to learn how to defend better as a group.

    Still despite that fall from infallibility, they have remained one of the 4 or 5 top national teams in the world.

    Reply
  22. We were better than Italy when we played them in the 06 World Cup if you ask me. We got screwed in that one.

    It felt so good to beat them, yes, but nothing matters except winning a World Cup and Olympic gold. Spain win was epic. But Confederations Cup doesn’t mean jack, and neither do FIFA date fixtures where we 1-1 draw with Argentina or shock upset a team in Europe.

    I’m actually more stoked that our U-23s, made up of mostly unproven players, bossed a fairly solid Mexican youth side. I have been a Mix believer for a while. I’m not sure I like him more than Holden, Bradley, and the others in that “engine” role. but he’s great for depth in that position for sure.

    The women. Eh…

    Reply
  23. Indeed. The women’s did what we’d expect because after all they are world class. I only hope the mens team didn’t over achieve and that these results from the mens teams become expected in every friendly and qualifier.

    Reply
  24. A look forward – even though the US Men soccer teams had a great successful Wednesday, the US National Womens team needs similar improvement! Yes, they also won but do NOT play technical enough to be at the highest level, as they used to be. The USNWT also plays a MAJOR role in making soccer more popular, even as mothers of future men/women soccer stars!!!

    Reply
  25. Yeah – and if you look at the replay of the goal Dempsey scored – look at the lead up.
    It’s Bradley settling the ball in the mid-filed, and safely conducting the sphere, dribbling close to his body – medium tempo – looking up and reading the field – making a good pass to Johnson – who then picks out Altidore in the box. Jozy settles the ball, looks up and says, “Clinton, brother, good to see you! D’ya wanna tango?”
    Bam! Golazo!

    Reply
  26. Dig it man – right on. I grew up playing HS soccer in the 1970s in New Jersey – I summered in Mexico and had uncles and cousins and grandparents who had played professionally at one point or another or just plain loved the game like crazy, and I lived in Brazil as a kid – so I kind-a knew what I was doing. Sort of. But we had no soccer on TV, no internet, no DVDs and training videos, etc. – the amount of soccer knowledge US kids have access to now at their fingertips, and the opportunities to train and play with good coaches, and quality competition are growing exponentially every day. So the ploddingly slow progress we experienced over the 80s and 90s and into the present is accelerating on a log curve – good things are coming, yes brothers, good things are coming, good things.

    Reply
  27. That’s a good idea since Porter has such a great knowledge of the game and looks to continue his winning ways based on the progress with U-23’s so far, but… Nat’l team coaches tend to be a little older yes? I wonder who is the youngest WC coach? JK maybe? Maybe Caleb needs a few year’s managing some professionals first.

    Reply
  28. Though I suspect its still some years away, we are really going to miss Bocanegra’s fight, skill and leadership when he hangs up his boots. He’s been one of the Nat’s better captains, IMO.

    Reply
  29. Thinking same thing, I checked Dempsey and Bradley transfer market prices today.

    Dempsey’s at $18m.

    Bradley’s dial hadn’t moved back up yet from ~$2.8m, but I agree his stock is rising.

    Reply
  30. True, but point it aiming to produce another Dempsey and Donovan is wrong target. Target is a full squad of players on their level.

    We are not there but quality and depth is improving.

    Reply
  31. The Senior team was impressive, yes.

    The U-23 team was dominating. Gyau has serious wheels on him, Mix had a commanding performance that should’ve shut the doubters up, and Agudelo had good reflexes. Adu looked like he was proving he belonged on the senior team–hard to believe he’s U-23, but he’s been playing professional soccer for 9 years.

    Reply

Leave a Comment