Photo by ISIphotos.com
The U.S. Olympic team was just a minute away from the most impressive result in U.S. men’s Olympic soccer history. One minute from a place in the quarterfinals, and one minute from potentially avoiding Argentina in the quarterfinal draw.
All that changed when Gerald Sibon drove a low free kick under the U.S. wall from 23 yards out to give the Netherlands a last-gasp equalizer and force the Americans to settle for a 2-2 tie in Olympic action on Sunday.
Sibon drew the late free kick on a clumsy challenge from Stuart Holden, who crashed into him at the top of the penalty area. Sibon capitalized, sending a hard and low shot below the airborne U.S. wall and past a helpless Brad Guzan.
The equalizer negated goals from Sacha Kljestan and Jozy Altidore, who helped erase a Dutch first-half lead with their own second-half strikes.
Now the Americans must secure a result a Nigeria or risk missing out on the quarterfinals. They will have to take on Nigeria without the services of Freddy Adu and Michael Bradley, who both drew ill-advised yellow cards, giving them each two for the tournament and an automatic one-match suspension.
The U.S. team won’t be the only one missing players for the crucial match. Nigerian defenders Onyekachi Apam and Olubayo Adefemi are also out do to yellow cards.
The tie leaves the United States at 1-0-1 heading into the final group match against Nigeria, which defeated Japan, 2-1.
The Americans can now secure a place in the quarterfinals with a tie against Nigeria. Here’s why. If the Netherlands defeats Japan and the USA ties Nigeria, that would leave the Dutch, USA and Nigeria tied at five points. The Americans would win a tie-breaker against Nigeria based on goals scored, which is the second tie-breaker (goal differential is the first tie-breaker and Nigeria and the USA would be equal there if they tied.). The U.S. team heads into its match against Nigerial having scored three goals, while Nigeria has scored two.
The U.S. team can also reach the quarterfinals if the Netherlands fails to beat Japan in its final group match.
I will offer a more detailed breakdown of the match later today. For now, please feel free to share your thoughts on the match below.
Eugene,
I don’t how Rossi worked his way into your comment(s)…so I won’t address it.
I watched the match. The USA was easily on par or above the Dutch team in every aspect of the game. I don’t know how you are rating them so high. They were nothing special. Are you simply buying into the hype? Are you falling for Thomas Rongen’s accent? (The old “he has an accent, therefore he must know what he is talking about when it comes to soccer/football.” line of thought).
Well apparently ‘good ol’ Thomas the Dutch Master did a public number on Subotic and was just plain wrong. Did it ever occur to you that Rongen may not know what he is talking about and that his misguided comments about a player cost the USA a future contributor to the USMNT?
Is it just me or is MLS going to lose a few more players this winter? Edu, Wynne, Klejstan and possibly Holden and Rogers look like they are close to ready, if not ready for a move abroad. Granted, it was one game with a few major performance flaws, but none of the aforementioned players looked totally overmatched by their counterparts who earn their wages with Real Madrid, Liverpool, Ajax, etc.
The wall situation was unfortunate. I do not fault them for jumping. How many guys actually attempt to shoot under the wall anyway? Many have struck it, but most will try to clear the wall and pin it where the keeper can’t get to it. Needless to say, it’s time to stop talking about who did what or that the wall shouldn’t have jumped. It happened and now let’s move on and focus on Nigeria and cheer for the Red White and Blue.
I was disappointed with the result at the very end, but the U.S. team had settled into a very defensive mode for the last portion of the game. You don’t want to be overly aggressive with the lead and unnecessarily expose yourself to quick counterattacks, but repeatedly clearing the ball without a target seemed to let the Dutch have unchallenged possession. Overall, before the game had started, I bet the U.S. would have thought a tie would have been a good result (just not this way, conceding a last minute goal), and hopefully they will play well against Nigeria.
Just a little bit disgusted . . .
I came home from church pumped (Good Sermon) to see the game!
Boy was I let down . . .
Just wish the wall would have stayed down. (Why Jump?)
Not much to add that hasn’t been covered, although I will add to the questioning why Holden didn’t pass to Sacha who was WIDE OPEN.
Other than that, I’m just hoping to see Dax in the next game.
Wow, there are people that think Klejstan has played well? Are you guys watching a different game? Or are you just blind supporters of Chivas?