Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Haiti-U20 Creeping Blog

Nice recovery from the U20's for the victory over a full senior team, albeit from a small country.

Post-game player interview - Ferrari blamed himself for Haiti's goal, since his possession loss led to breakaway, so he was looking to redeem himself twice over.

Post-game interview - Coach Rongen is happy with final result, but not that team suffered defensive letdown and missed chances. He cites fighting character of team, aggression late in game as positives. He also notes backline did well considering absence of Sturgis and other previous U20 starters on defense.

Final- U.S. 2-1 Haiti
Stoppage - Ferrari makes up for his earlier miss! He finishes off a ball headed across the goal by McCarty.

83 - As soon as I post that, Szetela is subbed off for Jalil Anibaba

79 - U.S.' control of the match has come to nothing except what might have been. On the plus side Danny Szetela has had a pretty nice game.

77 - the U.S. has got to be ruing their missed chances, especially since a header by Haiti just goes off the crossbar.

76 - Dax McCarty (my fave name on the squad) is in for the U20's

75 - Goal Haiti 1-1 USA
Haiti equalizes! Sub Epheine on a breakaway - Sarkodie burned on that a bit - and he didn't seem to understand which side Seitz wanted him to try to cover when Seitz came out and Sarkodie was trying to recover.

74 - Blake Wagner in for RR

73 -Haiti on the attack - a whiff in the box does the U.S. a favor.

72 - Spoke too soon, some shaky play right now as Tony Beltran is on the sidelines waiting to sub in. Beltran goes in for Altidore.

70 - The U.S. backline has pushed up much farther and is passing better, setting up opportunities for their players. Much better.

68 - Adu lines up corner - Haiti is making a sub (U.S. hasn't subbed yet). Keeper catches.

66 Now it's Ferrari's turn to miss from point-blank range. A sweet dribble by Zizzo beats the defense, and the cross finds Ferrari in front of an open goal. Somehow he skies it - well, it was a little tricky as it was served slightly behind him.


63rd - good ball movement right now from U.S., lots of switched and nice possession

58 - game opening up, U.S. earns two FK's looking to another goal, Haiti coming in hard on the counter

55th Goal Freddy! US 1-0 Haiti
Igwe nice pass to Freddy Adu, who dribbles two defenders to get into the box, dances there with the ball, almost teasing the Haiti players, gets fouled. It's not a dirty foul, but pretty clear, especially when Adu sprawls out spectacularly. Freddy buries the PK - no nightmare of the Holland misses from two years ago.

Half thoughts - not just Rogers, but the entire team has to have a bad memory about his miss. Real teamwork set up the chance, and they'll have to do that again to get on the board here. I'd like to see Quavas Kirk come in, as he adds some offensive punch to the backline.

45+ Haiti's Marceline gets a yellow. Impoverished Caribbean country or not, Haiti's men do not want to lose to a U.S. youth team. They're playing very physically and the referee has warned them already.

44th At the risk of being accused of having a Galaxy bias, I can really see now how much Sturgis sets up and creates for this team. It's not that the backline is bad, but except for Ward, there's not much offensive help from them.

40th The U.S. doesn't look like they have much in the way of ideas. Wallace is a good sized physical defender, but his passes are off by a fairly large margin.

35 Chris Seitz comes out to tackle ball away from breaking Haiti player. He saved a likely goal. I think he'll start for Real Salt Lake this season.

33 First Haiti corner leads to clearance off the line. U.S. didn't defend well there, poor marking.

28 Adu pass sets up U.S. break, ref doesn't call advantage on foul on RR.

22nd - just realized Fabrice Noel is playing in this game for Haiti. Former Colorado Rapids player - sad story about brothers getting killed in the conflict in Haiti.

Ward is looking good for the U.S.

Rogers missed a sitter.


US lineup

Chris Seitz, Anthony Wallace, Amaechi Igwe, Ofori Sarkodie, Tim Ward, Freddy Adu, Danny Szetela, Robbie Rogers, Sal Zizzo, Josmer Altidore, Gabe Ferrari

The U.S. team already misses Nathan Sturgis. Ofori Sarkodie gives up FK outside box.. Seitz covers it well as it goes over bar.

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