Take that Toronto FC fans. The U.S. under-23 team beat up on Canada 3-0 in the semi-finals of CONCACAF's qualifying tournament for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on the strength of two Freddy Adu free-kick goals and an extra goal courtesy of Sasha Kljestan. The win qualifies the U.S. for Beijing regardless of the outcome in the final.
The U.S. will finish out the qualifying campaign against Honduras tomorrow, also at LP Field in Nashville, Tenn. Honduras qualified for the Olympics by defeating Guatemala on PKs.
For the U.S., their attack was once again powered by double-As -- Altidore and Adu. Jozy set up both free-kicks for Adu, who shot to the top of the tournament top scorer's chart.
"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.”
Nowak gave Jonathan Spector his first minutes with the team and put him in central defense, a position he has never played before for either the senior or youth national teams. Spector aquitted himself well, along with centerback Michael Orozco.
The draw for the Olympics will take place on April 20.
Goals:
USA – Adu (unassisted) 27th minute
USA – Adu (unassisted) 48.
USA – Kljestan (Holden) 78.
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)
Patriot of the Pitch©: Freddy Adu
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