Olympic Bound

US Men Earn Spot With Rout of Canada

March 21, 2008

Adu netted the first two goals on free kicks in the 27th and 48th minutes, while Sacha Kljestan finished off the Canadians with a close-range strike in the 78th minute.

The 2008 Games, held in Beijing, China, will be played from Aug. 8-24 in five venues.

Freddy Adu scored his thrid and fourth goals of the tournament Thursday. (Chris Aduama/aduama.com)

“I was really proud and pleased to see everything that we had discussed before this kind of tournament come to fruition,” said U.S. head coach Peter Nowak. “I think that from the beginning to the end there was only one team that was going to win this game, and it was us."

The U.S. moves on to the championship match on Sunday, March 23 against Honduras, who also qualified for the Olympics last night by defeating Guatemala in penalty kicks, 6-5, after a scoreless 120 minutes in regulation and overtime. The final will kick off at 4 p.m. CT at LP Field and will be televised live on Fox Soccer Channel and ESPN Deportes.

Altidore set up Adu’s first free kick goal of the night when he was tripped up by Nikolas Ledgerwood near the right corner of the penalty area. Adu whipped an in-swinger towards the goalmouth that skipped in front of goalkeeper Joshua Wagenaar, who may have been frozen by Kljestan’s attempt to get a foot on the service. Kljestan ended up not getting to it in time, and Wagenaar’s late reaction allowed the ball to get past him and land in the far-left netting.

Learning from their first match of the tournament against Cuba, the U.S. didn’t take their foot off the pedal and pressured Canada’s backline during the rest of first half. Their continued pressure was evident just two minutes after Adu’s goal when Altidore hustled after a bobbled shot by Wagenaar and clashed with the ‘keeper and two defenders.

The game started to get a bit chippy, but the U.S. defense was able to overpower most challenges that came their way. Canada only got two shots off in the first half – and nine in the entire game – and none of them on goal, meaning U.S. goalkeeper Chris Seitz didn’t have to make single save while earning his second shutout of the tournament. Through four matches in the qualifying tournament, the U.S. held their opponents scoreless three times.

The U.S. didn’t give Canada a chance to catch their breath in the second half, coming after them right from the second half whistle in an attempt to double their lead. Adu was given an early chance two minutes in when Altidore was taken down near the top of the box after beating Canada defender Andrew Hainault, resulting in a yellow card for the captain and a 20-yard free kick for the Benfica-based midfielder. Adu curled his shot over the wall and into the upper-right corner, for his fourth goal in as many games in the tournament.

"Jozy made two great runs that resulted in two free kicks,” said Adu. “Jozy made a great run and the build up was great. We had a little bit of possession and the ball ended up at Jozy's feet. He turned around ran at the guy and got the foul.”

With the Canadians against the ropes and struggling to mount a comeback, the USA took advantage of a break to score its third goal of the game. Adu played a ball out wide left to Stuart Holden, who held the ball while waiting for help before feeding a square ball to Kljestan who darted into the box. Kljestan did the rest, taking a perfect first touch past his defender and firing a low shot to the near left post.

“It’s exciting. Everyone is really happy right now, we’re all really confident that we’re going to Beijing now,” said Kljestan. “We’re happy to finally celebrate with Coach Nowak and we’re all just excited. The whole tournament our team unity was good.”

The U.S. and Honduras join 13 other teams who have already entered the 16-team tournament, with one spot still up for grabs for a team from Africa. The draw for the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament will take place on April 20 in Beijing.

U.S. UNDER-23 MEN’S NATIONAL TEAM GAME REPORT:

Scoring Summary:
USA – Freddy Adu (unassisted) 27th
USA – Freddy Adu (unassisted) 48th
USA – Sacha Kljestan (Stuart Holden) 78th

Lineups:
USA: 1-Chris Seitz; 2-Marvell Wynne, 3-Michael Orozco, 17-Jonathan Spector, 5-Nathan Sturgis; 16-Sacha Kljestan (14-Robbie Findley, 88) , 6-Maurice Edu (capt.), 10-Dax McCarty, 7-Stuart Holden; 11-Freddy Adu (20-Eddie Gaven, 82) 12-Jozy Altidore (9-Charlie Davies, 75)

CAN: 18-Joshua Wagenaar; 2-Graham Ramalho (9-Andrea Lombardo, 54), 4-Dejan Jakovic, 5-Andrew Hainault (capt.), 6-Nikolas Ledgerwood, 7-Andrazes Ornoch, 10-Will Johnson, 11-Tosaint Ricketts, 14-Tyler Hemming, 15-Tyler Roselund (17-Marcus Haber, 76), 16-Keegan Ayre (13-Kyle Hall, 30)

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