U-20 World Cup update

Wednesday July 11, 07
USA U20 E 2 - 1 E Uruguay U20
Austria U20 2 - 1 Gambia U20
Japan U20 P 2 - 2 P Czechia U20
Spain U20 E 4 - 2 E Brazil U20

I TIVO'ed the USA-Uruguay game so, alas, I was unable to see the decisive overtime. I generally thought Uruguay had a better offense, confidently pushed the ball forward more than USA and had a coupla players that really impressed me (Surako, for example, had skills and smarts). USA shored up the D pretty well (Uruguay's goal was a nice one but came during a period of sleepy defense), but offensively Freddy Adu has got to get to the ball more often--you're not the best player on the field if you only touch the ball 10 times in a game, Freddy! I wish he was as sneaky on D as he is with the ball, there is the next stride he needs to make in his game. Right now he gets marked right out of the game, marvelous when he gets the ball but he doesn't get it nearly often enough and its his own fault (uh-oh, sounds a little like Landon Donovan). USA needs to play with more urgency--not panic--from the gitty instead of waiting for the chips to be down. Coming back and winning after what looked like a decisive Uruguay goal is nice but I would rather see them taking the initiative instead of finding themselves up against it.

I did catch the OT of Spain-Brazil and I gotta say Brazil really gave up at the end. That's Brazil, man, they either dominate or they stink up the joint. This is a very disappointing result for Brazil's junior squad. And it doesn't give a clear picture of how good Spain actually is.

And I caught the penalty kicks between Japan-Czech and I gotta say Japan's shots were all terrible--even the ones that went in! And Japan's goalie had a shot go right through his hands, that just can't happen in a shootout.

Didn't see any of Austria-Gambia. Austria scored more goals so I'm comfortable with calling them the better team.