By IVES GALARCEP
A tournament that started out in nightmare fashion wound up concluding in very encouraging terms for the U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team.
The team that will make up the bulk of the U.S. Olympic qualifying efforts defeated England, 2-1, in the Toulon Tournament’s third-place match on Sunday, completing an impressive turnaround after the team’s ugly opening loss to France.
Benji Joya converted the match-winning penalty in the 65th minute, and goalkeeper Cody Cropper and the U.S. made the lead stand up and helped the U.S. complete the best Toulon Tournament finish an American team has ever enjoyed.
The U-23s played the match without star forward Jordan Morris, who left the team to join the U.S. senior team for its friendlies against Netherlands and Germany. Morris’ departure came after the Toulon Tournament group stage, when it appeared the Americans were heading home early. A France blowout win against Costa Rica opened the door for the U.S. to qualify for the third-place match and Andi Herzog’s side took full advantage.
The U.S. needed just seven minutes to open the scoring after an England foul in the penalty area gave the Americans a penalty kick. Alonso Hernandez converted from the spot for his second goal of the tournament.
That lead didn’t last very long, with England equalizing minutes later on a loose ball in the penalty area.
Cropper was the star for the Americans, making a handful of key saves to keep England off the board before Joya’s winning penalty kick.
The U.S. Under-23s return to action in October for the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Cropper seemed to have something to prove. Nice.
I can not ever recall a week like this by the way-and I mean since the 90s. Toulon, u20s, champions league and the women in Canada all at once. love it! And more to come. Fun summer ahead.
Interesting what the perception of US Soccer is abroad…and how it’s changing markedly.
The English are bemoaning the stagnation of their own system, and lamenting the fact that a USA B team missing a lot of its primo MLS players and key U-20’s (who are at the U-20 World Cup in New Zealand) put down the English U-21’s.
They think the USA is moving past them and becoming a superpower in front of their eyes. Interesting how they’re also claiming how MLS is “training their players to be more technical than the English system.”
I guess perception is all in where you’re standing. The English observers also thought the USA controlled the game and generated better chances.
This the day after Hiddink said publicly “I hope we learned a lesson today. The Americans never give up…some of us, I think, are not used to that.”
Doubt it? Check out the comments section in this Daily Mail article about the Toulon tournament. They’re enlightening. Wins like this matter…however ugly.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3114489/England-U20-1-2-USA-Young-Lions-suffer-penalty-heartbreak-Americans-clinch-place-Toulon-tournament.html
Good stuff – thanks for posting this.
You make your own luck. If you aren’t creating chances, getting in the box “luck” doesn’t happen. Can we as American Soccer please quit with the inferiority complex?! We have good teams, filled with good players. We now can compete with anyone…and yes, JK deserves much of the credit.
The credit for the improvement in US players goes to the players parents, really. Those parents (mostly) actually played soccer, if only at a rec. level, and encouraged their kids with more than cheers when one of them kicked the ball long or headed the ball in some random direction, expecting some semblance of control.
It might not seem like much, but multiplied literally millions of times it made a difference.
When parents, who were in the wave of youth soccer in the 90s, of today’s toddlers begin having their children play soccer, expect more sophisticated play on the youth fields all across the country, not just in pockets of new immigrants. That will be the real source of improvement in soccer in the USA.
Yes, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. England looked like the better team, but made horrendous mistakes in the box that led to penalty kicks in the box. Having a good keeper on the day helped to.
I think the U20’s got a bit of luck. The key there is getting past Columbia, no easy task, but they have not looked unbeatable in this tournament. On the US side of the bracket, the US would not face Germany until the semis. If the US get past Columbia they would meet the winner of the Serbia Hungary match. Germany plays only African teams in the r o16 and the quarters. Ghan does look good, but I do not fancy thier chances against Germany
Had the US beat the Ukraine, they would have played Senegal and continuing, most likely meet Austria (one of the favorites) and Brazil in the Semi’s.
Although, all matches are difficult at the win or go home stage. Some matches may seem to be easier than other, and some teams match up better with the US than others.
Are you suggesting that we threw the match with Ukraine?
During a water break the commentator pointed out that Herzog was standing to the side and not interacting with the players.
He also said that Herzog was a “languid” player – and has a coaching style to match.
What’s up with that? That seems like the antithesis of Klinsmann’s style.
The 2nd penalty was a lucky iffy call. Minutes before the 2nd penalty, the US also had a non-call penalty under almost the exact situation. The ref probably decided to give the US 1 out of 2 calls. Fair enough!
Congratulations to u23’s. But let’s understand that we can’t keep going crazy over friendlies and friendly tournaments. Kill me if you want but it is true and we shall see what Ramos’ team does. They are in a real tournament environment.
We’ve also got Olympic Qualifiers coming up. Fun summer.
steam… only saw the last 25. England was the more dangerous side, but then again they were throwing everybody, including the keeper, forward to try to get the equalizer.The USA absorbed the pressure though and Cropper seemed to always be in the right place to clean up any problems. Though Cropper had to make some saves, I wouldn’t say that they were lucky to hold on, only lucky to get the lead with a bad penalty call in which the ball hit the body of a English player and then bounced onto his arm.
Thanks. Sounds like overall it’s a good result. Better than we ever finished, so it seems like it’s a successful tournament though not necessarily inspiring.
It appears that the referee awarded the second penalty after completely missing or better yet not calling one a minute earlier on an obvious hand ball (hit an English players outstretched arm). Watched the game live and on replay. I am not a fan of make up calls , but the ref was allowing very physical play from the English team, even the spanish commentators were saying. It feels good to finally get a break instead of the usual crap . I was expecting a lot of Pelosi he dissapointed me this tournament , maybe his injury still is lingering. Happy we won.
Totally agreed!
Congrats to Cropper for his outstanding performance in the third place win today by getting call into the senior team replacing Rimando in the Wed Germany friendly.
Just wondering who still wants to fire Andy Herzog. Call him lucky, whatever. It’s hard to get rid of somebody who wins with what was thought to be a team missing too many of its key players.
LoL There are ALWAYS someones that want to get rid of whoever the manager in whatever circumstances. And polar opposites in support. Best hope is that those doing the evaluating make good, rational decisions based on the heaps more pertinent information and experience they are privy to.
Thing is, it’s only been around 6 months since he’s been hired. People have to be stupid to ask for his resignation now.
Can someone comment on how they played? Was this a good win? Sounds like France was excellent, and we weren’t the only team to get stomped on. I didn’t get to see the game. Thanks!
Watched the game (streamed live). The US was OK, but not real good. A lot of defensive lapses and not much on offense.They missed Morris and Green was mostly MIA in this game..
The English team was composed of the U-21 and consisted of players from EPL reserves, academies and somelower division clubs, although there were a few EPL subs. The team included two players from Southampton who did not show much. That they kept these guys and let Cropper go, speaks volumes about Southampton’s future.
Cody Cropper, on the other hand, if he doesn’t sign with Bristol City, will get more than a few call to his agent from interested teams, he had a few hiccups but made some fine saves to preserve the win for the US. There are a lot of scouts from Euro teams at this tournament, although with most teams fielding U20/U21 teams you have to figure that most have pro contracts. Still for someone like Cropper, who is essentially a free agent, and even for Green, who will probably be loaned out again next season, exposure in this tournament, especially finishing third, cannot harm any the US player’s future.
I agree with your assessment of the game… pretty much my thoughts as well.
But I think you’re being a bit hard on Southampton, who did not really have a particular need for Cropper at the moment and probably did him a favor in terms of supporting his development. To suggest that Southampton are poor talent evaluators flies in the face of what has just happened over the past season, as well as preceding years. For a team with their budget, they are pretty much the envy of the league in this regard…. Even after having most of their first-choice XI poached by rivals last summer (not to mention the manager), they stayed in contention for European spots well into spring.
Cropper is a GK– and Saints are stacked pretty deep here. Cropper is 22 and he’s now at the point where he should be seeking first-team match experience on a regular basis. He won’t find it at Southampton or anywhere else in the EPL — he simply hasn’t earned that (not that many GK’s his age do, and nobody is mistaking him for David De Gea just yet). So he should go “make his own luck”. He has plenty of years in front of him. Nothing wrong with moving to another league/division, so he can get match experience that will truly help him improve.
They were pretty underwhelming. The first quarter of an hour was pretty frantic, but then the heat settled both teams down. England wasted too many chances, should have had 2 or 3 more goals. The US had a hard time maintaining possession in the midfield. Most passes in possession were backwards, or boom balls up front. Pretty lackluster, but a win is a win.
Second penalty was dubious call. US got lucky. But I guess a team needs some of that to succeed.