Good evening folks. We’re close to kick-off of tonight’s USA-Cuba Olympic Qualifying match. I will be providing a running diary of the match and you are welcome to follow along with the match here and share you comments below.
As a reminder, you can watch the match on Fox Soccer Channel at 8pm, as well as on ESPN360.com.
Enjoy the match and follow the commentary after the jump:
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FINAL- That’s all from me. Thanks for following along and be sure to check in to SBI for all your U.S. Olympic qualifying news.
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FINAL- USA 1, Cuba 1. A thoroughly disappointing result and Peter Nowak’s squad has to know it threw away two points today. Nowak will also have to answer for his decision to pull Altidore at halftime. I’m sure it had to do with fatigue, but Altidore’s absence allowed us to get a good (and ugly) look at the options behind Altidore.
On the bright side, the Americans still control their own fate. Wins in their final two matches will lock up first place in the group, but playing like they did tonight won’t win them a single game in this group.
And before I forget, you can book this one: The Cuban goalkeeper today will be starting in MLS by 2010. Just a hunch.
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93rd minute- A flurry of chances in the area go begging for the USA and the match is OVER.
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92nd minute- Another US corner and another Cuban player down with "cramps". Hopefully the young referee adds to the stoppage time.
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91st minute- Adu’s free kick misses wide right.
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90th minute- A great free kick chance earned by Edu.
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88th minute- Barrett has been just plain awful.
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86th minute- Kljestan with a great header chance off a good ball from Adu, but it’s deflected out for a corner. The corner produces nothing. The clock is ticking.
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82nd minute- An Ianni head goal is disallowed for offside. Good call.
And Cuba just lost Linares to a second yellow card, for of all things, kicking a ball into the net during an offside call. Terrible, terrible decision by the referee.
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80th minute- Nice work by Gaven on the left flank to earn a corner kick.
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77th minute- Eddie Gaven is coming into the match for Findley.
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72nd minute- Okay, so McCarty is starting to grow on me. The kid is showing good hustle and skill. The Americans are awake now. We’ll see if there is enough time for them to find a game-winner.
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70th minute- Nice run and shot by McCarty, who has been much better in the second half, but another great save by the Cuban goalkeeper Miranda. The U.S. team is starting to find a good rhythm.
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63rd minute- Cuba with a dangerous chance but the shot is saved easily by Seitz.
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62nd minute- Edu has been much better in the past 10 minutes.
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61st minute- Barrett coming in for Charlie Louganis, I mean Davies.
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59th minute- Looks like Chad Barrett is set to come into the match.
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55th minute- Findley scuffs a wide-open look on goal after Adu springs him with a beautiful pass. Those chances simply cannot be squandered.
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53rd minute- I must say that Maurice Edu looks a bit shaky, committing some bad turnovers.
And Freddy Adu misses just wide with an 18-yard blast. Nice pass from Edu on the play.
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51st minute- Another wasted free kick from the Americans.
As for the tactical changes. the clear purpose is to take control of the possession battle. Will it work? If it doesn’t I don’t see the Americans winning tonight.
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48th minute- Here is how the lineup looks now.
———–Davies———Findley——–
————-Adu———Kljestan——–
————McCarty——-Edu—————
Freeman—-Ianni——Sturgis——–Hill
———————Seitz——————-
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46th minute- Sacha Kljestan comes in for Altidore. Apparently Altidore was worn out playing as the lone striker. Not sure how the formation shakes out now.
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HALFTIME- Linares of Cuba was the goal-scorer, the same player I said looked like Sammie from Prison Break. Speaking of Prison Break lookalikes in this game, McCarty looks like LJ Burroughs.
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HALFTIME- What changes could Nowak make at the half? That’s a good question. I haven’t really been crazy about Dax McCarty so far and wouldn’t mind seeing Sacha Kljestan get a look. I wonder if Cuba will start looking to go after Hill on the right flank. He looked a bit vulnerable the final 20 minutes.
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HALFTIME- We are tied at halftime and Peter Nowak CANNOT be happy with the effort in the past 15-20 minutes. I can’t help but wonder if there just aren’t enough ball-winning defensive-minded types on the field. Other than Maurice Edu, Nathan Sturgis and Patrick Ianni, who in the lineup is winning challenges?
Adu started off strongly, but faded. Altidore can’t get service and the wingers (Davies and Findley) haven’t gotten much of the ball. Not much is going well.
On the bright side, the Cuban defense looks ripe for the thrashing. Now all he Americans need to do is get the ball to Altidore in the final third and the goal will come.
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45th minute- We are tied and this game has a strange feeling to it. The U.S. team has lost any sense of control of this match. This is the type of game Maurice Edu and Freddy Adu need to take over and they have been barely visible the past 15-20 minutes.
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42nd minute- GOAL CUBA. It was bound to happen. Cuba with a nice passing sequence leads to a tap-in from close range. The U.S. team just got too lazy. USA 1, Cuba 1.
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40th minute- A yellow card for Kamani Hill, who commits a foul right on the edge of the penalty area with a high boot. Hill has looked shaky the past few minutes.
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39th minute- Charlie Davies with a horrendous attempt at a dive in the penalty area. If he had just stayed up the US team probably scores a goal. Apparently that gets called in Sweden.
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38th minute- I like what I’ve seen from the Cuban goalkeeper, who looks like he could be Benny Feilhaber’s long-lost brother.
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36th minute- Cuba is knocking the ball around pretty well at this point. No chances yet.
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33rd minute- Cuba forces a save out of Chris Seitz after a forward who looks like the bad guy from Prison Break tries a bicycle kick.
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31st minute- The subsequent corner is terribly defended by Cuba but the American’s can’t convert it. The set piece defending has been pretty bad by Cuba so far.
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31st minute- Adu’s curling free kick forces a diving save by the Cuban goalkeeper.
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30th minute- Altidore catches an elbow to the head, drawing a dangerous free kick. A rough day so far for Altidore.
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28th minute- The American fullbacks have looked good today. Kamani Hill is doing well on the right and Hunter Freeman has been solid at left back. You wonder if Juan Carlos Osorio will consider him a candidate to play the left-sided defender role on his team (I doubt it, Osorio loves Freeman’s passing from the right too much).
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27th minute- Still waiting for Altidore to make an impact, someone needs to get him the ball first.
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24th minute- Somebody tell Christopher Sullivan to stop pretending to be Ricky Ricardo, saying Coo-bah. The American English pronunciation is Q-bah.
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23rd minute- Imagine being a fan at this game who bought their tickets months ago to beat the rush. Okay, so maybe nobody did that but it would be funny if they did.
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22nd minute- Still waiting for a second U.S. goal. The midfield needs to do a better job of keeping possession.
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16th minute- Nice to see Patrick Ianni getting the start today. I wonder if he’s still seeing Gamba Osaka forward Bare in his dreams.
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15th minue- Nice job by Findley to lay the ball off to Adu, and a good job by Charlie Davies to jump out of the way of Adu’s shot, which left the Cuban goalkeepers screened.
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13th minute- GOAL USA. Freddy Adu curls in a shot from the right flank that looked more like a low cross than a shot. USA 1, Cuba 0
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12th minute- Still waiting for the midfield to start stringing some passes together. Part of it is the grass but the U.S. midfield could do better.
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8th minute- Adu with a long-range blast the forces a diving save. Cuba’s midfield looks non-existent early on.
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7th minute- Altidore gets in behind the Cuba defense but his shot is saved. Altidore is going to score at least one goal today.
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4th minute- The waterlogged field isn’t helping the speedy squad Nowak is using.
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PRE-GAME- Here is the US lineup, which boasts SERIOUS speed:
——————–Altidore—————-
Davies————–Adu———–Findley
————McCarty——-Edu———-
Freeman—-Ianni——Sturgis——–Hill
———————Seitz——————-
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PRE-GAME- Looks like a packed house at Raymond James Stadium (kidding).
Good night, folks. On to Thursday. And hopefully a better night.
Freddy missed a hat trick by a combined 3 inches. Nowak’s fault?
Put away the chances, get any type of game from the invisible Jozy, and this game is 4-1.
scott said it best…so reminiscent of our senior team. play well enough to seem like we have a good team but poorly enough to blow easy games we dominate
good thing we didn’t need feilhabers creativity against one of the poorer teams in concacaf…o wait
So basically, Nowak subbed Barrett for Altidore… um… wow. This was the worst coaching I’ve ever seen. Why didn’t we give Klinsmann what he wanted? Because he probably saw how godawful our coaching and player development is and insisted on changes but the power hungry idiots in charge of U.S. Soccer saw him as a threat (b/c he actually knows what he’s doing). This was pathetic.
got to love US Soccer Fed mentality. yeah lets keep giving playing time and roster spots to players based solely on how they perform in a camp instead of the players who are actually better. If a player of Messi’s quality showed up and had a bad camp, surely Nowak would have sent him home and kept barrett. What a schmuck. They won’t even qualify for the Olympics if they have to beat Mexico in the semis/
Kooba Shmooba.
Nowak fielded a bad team. US gave this one away, they had everything for them. they had a weak opponent that was tired because they came late. Cuba lost one man at the end of the second half. Most importantly they had opportunities and all were missed. Mr. Nowak please explain yourself, because this team look terrible at the end of the first half and at the slight beginning of the second half. Your team selection was questionable and your substitutions seemed kind of late and questionable, like taking out Altidore or putting in Gaven.
So this is easy to call…
GOOD: Adu, Dax, Seitz.
OK: Hill, Sturgis.
BAD: Gaven, Jozy, Sacha, Edu, Freeman, Davies.
WORST: Barrett, Ianni (for not getting a foot on that ball that led to Cuba’s goal), Findley, Nowak.
Well the chances of one of the semi-finals I get to watch in Nashville next week being USA v Mexico just went up dramatically. The US has no margin for error in the next two games. I really thought that Nowak had had enough time to learn his lessons from his tenure at DC. I can see that I was mistaken.
this was bad the final should of have been 4-1 US…. oh well thats how this games go sometimes.
maybe better result thursday,,,,
also, one last thought, I still like this jersey than the new one.
poor result, should have ripped this team to shreds. Cuba could have qualified for the pool related olympic events with the amount of diving on display tonight. Us came out very gung-ho lacked oganization, one forward up to simply didn’t work, Jozy kept getting isolated.
that was so reminsicent of the senior team its scary, and not in a good way
It was “complete football from the U.S. in the second half.”
Fire Nowack…now. Not after the tournament. Not later. Now
And yes, I know this seems knee jerk, but I think 90% of SBI questioned his squad selection. And probably an equal number questioned his team selection. And his substitutes. So tell me, what the hell does Nowack bring to the table?
Reminds me of the old cliche of Dumb Polak….sorry to those I offended (other than Nowak)
I thought Altidore sucked, but Barrett made him look like Etoo.
Yuk!
That had got to be the most frustrating US match I have ever seen. Ouch.
What an awful result. Pathetic.
Wow. Barrett is bad in every way. Maybe he just needs someone to place a ball right in front of his head three yards away from goal, with the opposing keeper pulled to do something right.
Somewhere in U.S. soccer there should be a project called “Operation Goalscorer” under way. Forget the project to win the World Cup by 2010.
almost an own goal. now they are killing time
so after watching this game all my optimism about having a wc contender in my lifetime is gone. i think its time we lay off nowak and get after the guy who keeps letting these horrible coaches get hired. us soccer will blow with gulati at the helm
that was close
Adu needs to look and find his inner Bullard. Oops. Nope.
I have a feeling Freddy puts this one away…
Which team IS Barrett playing for? Cuz he keeps passing it to the blue shirts. Maybe he’s color blind (though in that case he should get 50% of them right)
This ref has done a great job? Really?
I have to disagree ADG. That was a really boneheaded thing to do by the Cuban. He was a good 3 or 4 yards offside, and he knew it. He was just wasting time. Why even take that chance when you already have yellow card?
Wow, poor, poor finishing from Klejstan, Chad Barret looks like and makes idiotic fouls like Rooney, is that how he made this team?
Barret Sucks that is all
Freddie’s been pure brilliance. How did Sacha miss that? ugh
Wayne Rooney looks like a blockhead.
good play Adu
Barrett has yet to do one good thing. Except look like Wayne Rooney.
red card? that’s crazy
Great ball movement leads to a corner at least.
El Luchero.
Even as a US supporter, that red card is a HORRIBLE decision. Just poor
The Milkman just got a red, breathing life into a chance for a US win.
Wow, what an idiotic way to get sent off…
I’m not sure why so much is expected of this team. It really doesn’t seem like a very strong team. How far are they expected to go?
It seems like the only way we could field a good team would be if we were able to field the very best player we have at each position. We don’t have enough depth to be playing so many second or third best players at their position.
I don’t think anyone will save the day. Cuba is now playing for the point and will not let in another. U.S. needs two wins in the next two in order to avoid Mexico in the semis.
I don’t think anyone will save the day. Cuba is now playing for the point and will not let in another. U.S. needs two wins in the next two in order to avoid Mexico in the semis.
Oh boy this game is over if Gaven is playing. I just don’t think he is USMNT material.
Good stuff Eddie. Someone tell me again why we left Rogers and Feilhaber behind?
Why was altidore taken out? He should have been left on top…he would have been the difference maker.
Way to lean back on the shot like an eighth grader, Eddie. I can’t believe I used to think this guy was going to be great!!
Eddie Gaven… there you he the answere.. nice shoot dude….