While the U.S. senior national team was busy getting a result in Slovenia, the U.S. Under-23 side training in Germany played to a draw and lost in a pair of friendlies against Bayer Leverkusen reserve and youth sides.
A few days after topping VfL Bochum's reserve team and drawing against Azerbaijan's U-21 side, the U-23s jumped out to a lead on a team comprised of Leverkusen's reserves and U-23s but settled for a 1-1 draw.
Terrence Boyd, who tallied a goal against Bochum, scored the lone goal for the U.S. U-23s, finishing off a flick from Mixx Diskerud from short range to give the Americans the lead in the 72nd minute. Leverkusen, which had U.S. senior international David Yelldell start in goal, found the equalizer with a late free kick.
The United States, fielding a mostly U-20 side, dropped a 3-0 result to Leverkusen's U-19 team after being scoreless at halftime in the second match of the day.
Here are the starting lineups for the two matches according to U.S. Soccer:
USA U-23s vs. Bayer Leverkusen's U-23s/Reserves
———————————David Bingham——————————-
–Sheanon Williams–G. Agbossoumonde–R-D Fennel–Zarek Valentin–
————–Amobi Okugo——-Jared Jeffrey———Dilly Duka———-
——Tony Taylor————Andrew Wooten——–Juan Agudelo———
USA U-23s vs. Bayer Leverkusen's U-19s
———————————–Cody Cropper———————————
—-Caleb Stanko—Perry Kitchen—John Anthony Brooks—Greg Garza—-
———–Sebastian Lletget———Luis Gil———Jose Villarreal————
——-Jerome Kiesewetter—–Jack McInerney——Tyrone McCargo—–
——————–
Overall, the U-23s went 1-1-2, scoring four goals and conceding four in its friendlies. All four were scored by the side comprised of older players. Boyd — a Borussia Dortmund reserve forward — tallied two goals, while Taylor and Duka scored the others.
Here's a video from the U-23 camp, which will conclude on Wednesday:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhrWynoRQzw]
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What do you think about the latest results? Who from this player pool do you want to see more of as Olympic qualifying approaches?
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