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Olympic Qualifying: USA U-23s vs. El Salvador (Match Night Commentary)

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Win or stay home.

That's what the U.S. Under-23 national team faces tonight in a must-win match against El Salvador in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying in Nashville (9pm, Universal Sports Network/mun2/universalsports.com/concacaf.com).

Anything but a win and the Americans will be eliminated from the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, while a win would send the United States through into the semifinals as the winner of Group A (thanks to Cuba's stunning 1-1 draw vs. Canada tonight)

Before the Americans can think about the semifinals, they must contend with a dangerous El Salvador side that has looked sharp in the qualifying tournament. The Central American side has yet to allow a goal in the tournament, and has shown some dangerous qualities in attack.

SBI will be providing live commentary on tonight's crucial Olympic Qualifier, so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action (Commentary is after the jump):

 

Comments

  1. this is just as much his fault as the players. instead of taking Hamid out when he got injured (who already had a bad game against Canada), he leaves him on and Hamid lets two goals in.

    after we do a great job coming back and going up 3-2, instead of using a second sub, he does nothing until the last 5 minutes. 3 games in 5 days and he thinks it’s ok to not make subs when you are only up by 1?!

    THEN, when he does make a sub, he takes out Adu and Corona. Adu should have never come out, it’s simple. and Corona, who didn’t start having a good game until right before and then after he scored, should have stayed. Mixx, Boyd and Shea looked GASED, and yet Porter leaves them in. further, he lets Gyau sit on the bench when he is the type of player who could EASILY kill a game with his speed.

    poor time management and team management.

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  2. The United States choked? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA? LOL Mexico and hell, El Salvador are going to the Olympics. AT THE EXPENSE OF THE USA AKA BARCELONA JR. HAW HAW HAW HAW. ME-XI-COOOOO.

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  3. altho i feel caleb and jurgen shouldn’t be lumped in together. from what i’ve seen of the coaches (and i’ve seen much less of caleb) jk is another class.

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  4. yeah. more concerning to me was the general play of the team. they really struggled (even more so against canada) to possess the ball and meaningfully build up play for significant chunks of the game. as far as the much hyped caleb porter goes, he’s getting a lot of criticism. the question is how well-deserved is it?

    he’s still young and can grow, but what’s concerning to me, is that for a coach lauded for possession oriented “pretty” play, his team- against “on paper” inferior opposition- had a lot of trouble with possession and build up in two consecutive games. in addition, the team wasn’t particularly well-organized or defensively strong.

    as an aside i hadn’t necessarily been buying into the boyd hype but the kid played really well today. he’s good.

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  5. Judging from the amount of disbelief, devastation, and vitriol bordering on hatred in these posts (which, btw, I share), one thing I can say is that collectively we as a group seem to feel ripped off. If we had played hard and aggressively the WHOLE game, with intensity and purpose, and still lost, I don’t think I’d be so upset. But its the mixture of complacency, spotty effort, head scratching decisions, and unforgivable gaffes (see goalkeeping) that make this one so tough to swallow. Why, in Olympic qualifying, we couldn’t get an all-in, 100% consistent effort is beyond me.

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  6. Was this loss as bad as:

    A) USA 2nd Round loss to Ghana (2010 World Cup)
    B) USA blowing 2-0 lead to Brazil to lose 2009 Confederations Cup (3-2, final)
    C) Steve Sampson, 1998 World Cup (and/or Mike Burns, 1998 WC as well)

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