The U.S. Olympic Men’s Team closed out its latest window of preparatory matches on Monday ahead of this summer’s tournament in Paris, France.
Marko Mitrovic’s squad battled back to tie Thierry Henry’s France squad 2-2 in Sochaux on Monday. Griffin Yow and Cade Cowell both found the back of the net, helping the Americans erase a two-goal deficit.
Yow’s blistering right-footed effort in the 86th minute cut the USMNT U-23’s deficit in half before Cowell’s deflected strike earned the Americans a road draw. Both Yow and Cowell came off the bench in the match.
Duncan McGuire, Aidan Morris, Paxten Aaronson, and Patrick Schulte were among the starters on Monday. Jonathan Tomkinson, Esmir Bajraktarevic, and Nathan Harriel also featured off the bench.
The Americans also defeated Guinea 3-0 last Friday, using goals from Nathan Harriel, Gianluca Busio, and Johan Gomez to earn the victory. Yow, who scored in Monday’s draw, assisted on all three goals.
Maximilian Dietz, George Campbell, Chris Brady, and Caleb Wiley were among the USMNT U-23 starters in the match.
The Americans will face France, New Zealand, and the winner of the Asia-Africa playoff at this summer’s Olympics.
U20s lost 1-0 to Morocco. Only saw last 30 minutes. US hit the woodwork in the upper left corner in the 86th minute. Campbell does look pretty good.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2fNu01AELYk&t=7s
Full match if you are interested.
One or two of Sargent, Wright, Pepi, Vasquez, Balogun won’t be chosen for Copa America. Whichever one is not chosen should be the Olympic team starting striker. If I was a betting man and all are healthy come Copa America it seems likely either Pepi and or Vasquez will be available for the Olympic team.
Don’t get forget Ferreira. Whichever club agrees to release their overage player might be who goes. Jesus can play W, 10, or 9 makes him valuable if rosters are limited to 18 total again.
the highlights are on youtube and it looked to me like yow was the dominant player of this bunch. lot of sloppy finishing first half of france game. would get silver platter chances and whack em over the goal and not even close.
That’s why they’re on the U23 team.
Overall a good camp for this team.
Mitrovic needs to have Aaronson at CAM for this team not on the wing. He is playing as a two way 8 for Vitesse.
Cowell definitely gave Mitorovic a look like see this is what I can do after he scored. Love that mentality.
Team wasn’t over awed by France and gave as much as they got.
Bajarkterivic struggled when he came on. Might be to soon for him. I expect to see him be a key guy for our U20’s.
Morris struggled a bit. But I think he does better when a true CAM is in front of him. He isn’t going to push the game that’s not his cup of tea.
Good job guys. Keep up the good prep for the Olympics.
Bajarkterivic is 18 he is the youngest player on the team. He needs to be tested and thrown in the inferno. Playing against kids and teens around his age is not going to help his development. He needs to be playing against grown men over age 21. Give him time not everyone can can be lucky Endrick and get his first senior nat team goal at 17. Look at Juan Agudelo, he fell off after scoring his first senior national team goal against Argentina at age 19-20 and couldn’t make it in Europe.
And he will be fine with the u20’s. No need to rush players anymore. He has talent, but he needs time like I stated. Yow is a perfect example. He is now flourishing. He could barely get on the field for DC United.
Bajarkterivic is another who needs more time to refine his game. A lot of talent but let him progress at his own pace. Don’t get all critical like many did against Jedi was he was young and featured for USMNT.
Of course they’re going to make mistakes because they’re young players. Let it happen, but not at senior level but against lower opposition.
I think Cowell has really benefited from playing in Mexico.
Yep, been following him every week since his move to Chivas. Those Liga MX defenders can’t deal with his power and fun watching him terrorize them.
This is a place where he can work out his game. You can see it is more refined against France, since his move.
Helium he played 7 minutes and the shot took a deflection. How can you tell he’s more refined? He ran fast and cut inside on his right and shot. That’s all he ever does. The difference this time was it deflected off the defender and in. If it doesn’t hit the defender, everyone’s saying “man Cade hasn’t gotten any better still can’t shoot.”