The United States were bounced out of the U17 FIFA World Championships 2-1 on Wednesday afternoon by a typical Italian side, defensively strong with moments of offensive brilliance to capture their two goals.
Coach Wilmer Cabrera went with the same starting eleven he had used in the final group game win over the United Arab Eremites.
The US looked sharp out of the gate as the opening kick was fed to Stefan Jerome, who galloped past the Italy defenders down the right side and put in a cross for Alex Shinsky.
Unfortunately the diminutive left-winger could only bounce his header into the arms of Italian 'keeper Francesco Bardi, who was seeing his first action of the tournament after regular Mattia Perin was ruled out with a foot laceration.
The Italians wouldn't wait long to get into the action themselves, as they had two good opportunities off set pieces, the second resulting in a one-time Federico Carraro shot that flew high over Earl Edwards goal.
Jack McInerney got into the act twelve minutes in to the game, ripping a shot from distance that Bardi did well to turn away.
The Americans got a huge break in the 16th minute when an Italian defender handled a throw-in from a teammate in his own penalty area, giving the US a golden opportunity through a McInerney penalty chance. But the forward could not make good on the chance, sending his low shot careening off Bardi.
The Italians grabbed the momentum and ratcheted up the pressure substantially, with the American back-line hardly able to keep up with the constant counterattacks. Every time the US went forward in numbers, they turned the ball over, and Italy came back the other way.
It took only a quarter hour for the Italians to put one in on the break, as AC Milan's Giacomo Beretta controlled in front of Eriq Zavaleta and sped past, slipping one past Edwards for the lead.
Beretta early double the lead just ten minutes later, but the striker was signaled for being in an offside position before chipping the ball over Edwards and into the American net.
The second half would start well for the US when Jerome made another run down the right side, cutting back into the middle. When the defense closed on him, the ball bounced free to McInerney, who rifled a shot on frame which Bardi got his fingertips on, pushing it onto the crossbar.
Two minutes later the US were awarded an indirect free kick when Bardi apparently handled outside the box as he distributed. The resulting free-kick from McInerney caromed off an Italian defender for a corner kick.
Luis Gil put in a perfect ball form the corner flag for Nick Palodichuk to rise over his Italian defender to head home and even the score at one goal apiece.
The lead would not last long, despite the Americans continued push forward. In the 56th minute, forward Pietro Iemmello found just enough space to rifle a shot home from 25-yards, and Italy was back in their comfort zone.
"They are clinical to finish the opportunities that they had," Cabrera told YA after the game. "They had two, three opportunities and they put the ball in the net."
They nearly increased their lead a few minutes later when the US central defense once again stumbled and Baretta ended up in alone on Edwards, but the AC Milan man was stoned by the future UCLA 'keeper.
Federico Carraro had the next best chance in the 76th minute when he gathered the ball at the top of the American area, but curled his shot well over the bar.
As time wound down, Cabrera emptied his bench, bringing on Dominick Sarle, Victor Chavez, and Juan Agudelo, and the Americans upped their effort and attacked with vigor.
Their best chance came in the 86th minute when Chavez was put in alone on Bardi. His weak effort beat the goalie but rolled well wide and out of play.
"We have chances, we created lot of chances," Cabrera continued." We had more possession than any of the team we played against, but we couldn't find the way to finish our chances."
The US had a couple more half chances, but with the help of referee Carlos Amarilla, who sent off Eriq Zavaleta late, successfully killed off the match and moved on, sending the Americans home in the first game of the knockout stage to the disappointment of their head coach.
"I leave the tournament proud of my kids, because they respect the game. Everywhere we went we tried to play, to put the ball on the ground, create several options. We showed that personality." |
Thursday November 5, 2009
12:37 pm |
Well, the solution is the USSF organizing tournaments with money to the winner team, every MLS team must have an under 20 team and allow only 2 players from other country
— Jose
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Thursday November 5, 2009
11:14 am |
OK.....if you have what is supposed to be the best talent for 2 years and: A. they can't cross the ball B. possess the ball for 50+, but give it away cheaply C. have bad touch D. prefer more 1v1 than tactical team play E. can't play team def, and speed of play lacking. You have failed bad. I watched all of that in USSF playoffs, but none of those players made the roster???. Obviously this shows the selection procees is flawed. This also showed that Bradenton was a waste of money and time to the development of those players.
— Merriwx
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Wednesday November 4, 2009
4:49 pm |
My point was that if the US had won 2-1, and had played like Italy did, there would've been people on here complaining that we were playing "kick and chase", and about how if we don't start playing the possession game we're doomed as a nation.
Then, Italy plays what was essentially a "kick and chase" counter attack (mainly because Italy didn't appear to have any quality midfielders who could control the pace), and we play a possession brand of soccer, and now it's a systemic failure. Italy's not a superior team by any stretch. Over-simplifying, if McInerny had a solid match the US wins comfortably, but as it turned out things didn't fall that way.
At the end of the day, Italy routinely gets outplayed, yet somehow gets results (defensive shape, strong goal keeping, defensive midfielders) time and again at the senior level. Honestly, Gil looked Zidan-esque at times today (the Zidan from back at Bordeaux), and our mids forced Italy to play longball for much of the match.
Also, I was referring to South Africa w/ Spain, not this tournament.
— flatliner
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Wednesday November 4, 2009
4:16 pm |
@flatliner,
The difference is in the quality. Spain only really played 10-15 hard minutes against us ... because that was all that was required, even being a man down. They scored their 2 goals, and that was it. We couldn't reply and lost 2-1. Italy has enough quality to play defensively, because they know that their two forwards, who are excellent, can score against just about anybody. We don't have such quality, so we have to throw quantity, rather than quality at the opponent, and are thus vulnerable on the counter. So we possessed the ball more; they did more with it. Again, quality possession versus possession quantity. Despite the obvious difference in player quality, I like Wilmer Cabrera's approach. I like the way he trained the players, and I liked the various tournament he took them to in preparation for the U-17 WC. However, he just doesn't have the same talent to work with as the UEFA teams, such as Italy, Spain, or Germany.
We have to make major improvements in our player development system. We really need to upgrade our youth coaches throughout the entire system, and we need to figure out how to better integrate Hispanic players. This requires more educated coaches at the youth level who know more than just English style play. To be honest, simply having the youth coaches even *KNOW* the basics of English play would be a major upgrade, but I digress. John Hackworth is the key man. We need to improve the Youth Academy. We need more access at less cost. Unless we own up to our deficiencies, we are doomed to many more"battling draws" or "narrow losses".
— MarkO
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Wednesday November 4, 2009
3:46 pm |
I'm not sure what all the disgust about, the US largely outplayed Italy. Especially in the midfield, the US controlled the match. Now, defensively, the US was shaky, especially the halfbacks. Offensively, the side just doesn't have the technique that Italy had in its two main offensive threats (I can't remember their names, but one had a chip shot called for offside).
Duran and Gil were very solid, at least from the 20th minute on when I tuned in.
I'm starting to find a lot of American soccer fans to be a bit irritating. When the US beat Spain, we were lucky (which we were to a large extent). We lose to Italy, even while possessing the ball nearly 60% of the match, missing a penalty & hitting the crossbar, and we're all of a sudden lacking skill and tactics? We were lucky to beat Spain, and Italy was lucky to beat us today.
— flatliner
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Wednesday November 4, 2009
3:13 pm |
I agree get rid of bradenton and just start selecting the best out of academies from all types of economic means rich to poor. The poor are hungry kids and the ones with skill. These Bradenton kids are just middle class and dont stride to get far . Mcinerney is too short and has no ball control what so ever the goals he scored were ugly as heck and the miss on the penalty was horrible. The U.S. relies too much on physical aspect of game but, needs to understand that we need more knowledge and technique of the game than anyone in Concacaf. Without money the U.S. would be one of the worst in Concacaf.
— chris
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Wednesday November 4, 2009
2:40 pm |
ultimatum: "if you choose your club duties over bradenton, you wont be on the roster"
ussf must get rid of that policy. If kids like lletget and gyau challenge themselves overseas, they should not get punished. development must be left to both local and european clubs, bradenton is just a complete waste of resources
— kerlon
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Wednesday November 4, 2009
2:16 pm |
All this happen ,because we are losing ours best players to another country ,, don't blame the players ,blame the sistem,, if our National team hire a first class coach ..all players ,incluiding Rossi ,,will lining up to ware the american Jersey .. they know that with Bradley no other team will take them serius . what can they learn from Bradley or other american coach?????
— Jose
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Wednesday November 4, 2009
1:35 pm |
too much money being wasted on bradenton.. The truth is you cant force talent into any player. Most of these players had already been chosen like 2 yrs ago to live in florida. Once they got there, they had NO more competition outside bradenton.
Get rid of bradenton and work with the development academy. Teams like spain, italy and germany have kids who train with their individual club. many american coaches suck but that's just what we have at the moment...the goal is to start winning these tournaments even if the nats play ungly football!!!!!
— kerlon
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