US U-23 Through To Next Round Of Olympic Qualifying...

I know, I'm tardy with my report. Please accept my apologies for going to a good friend's wedding in Austin this weekend. I won't let it happen again. :)

I haven't had a chance to watch the DVR of Saturday's game, so I'm going based on other people's game summaries. It sounds like the team played similar to how they had in the first two games. There were some periods of dominating play, and there was some time where you were left wondering if the team would embarrass us again by not making it to the Olympics. The final result is good, but damn guys...can't you get a goal in the run of play?

I'm worried my friends. This Thursday the US is playing the Canadian U-23 team who hasn't had an issue putting points on the board. The US attack badly needs to get in gear and score a goal while the teams are playing. The last time they did that was Freddy's sublime goal against Cuba. This is a team of professionals yet they are playing portions of the game as if they're in college. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself considering what happened in 2004, but if the US makes it to China I look forward to seeing the senior, experienced, additions added to the fold. Can you imagine Landycakes running all over these young defenders? I can.

To get there the US will have to beat Canada in Nashville, TN this coming Thursday. While the US got to this point four years ago and failed, this time is different. Last time they were the visitors against fierce rivals Mexico. This time we're hosting Canada. While I doubt the crowd will throw bags of urine on the opposing team like our friends to the south, home soil is good for something. Also helping the US will be four days of rest since the last game on Saturday. The three games in six days undoubtedly took a toll on the players.

I hope that something can be done to settle down the attackers so they can score some goals. Let's not leave everything to the last minute like they did this past week.