Feilhaber's injury nightmare

Playing in a meaningless game in a meaningless tournament might have cost Benny Feilhaber his chance at Olympic gold.

The U.S. under-23 midfielder tore his meniscus in his right knee while playing Wednesday against Turkey in the 2008 Toulon International Tournament and will need surgery.

The prognosis is that Feilhaber will be out four to six weeks, which means that he might be able to play in late June or early July. That gives him around a month to regain fitness, so a return is certainly not out of the question. But knee injuries often take longer to heal than anticipated and it often takes even longer to regain pre-injury form.

USA draws tough Olympic Group

The U.S. men's Olympic team will face the Netherlands, NIgeria and Japan in a competitive Group B in the Beijing Olympic Games this summer.

Like the World Cup, the top two teams in each group -- there are four groups -- will advance into the next round. While the Netherlands and NIgeria are solid teams at the senior level, neither team qualified for the 2004 Athens Games. Of course, the U.S. also failed to qualify after needing to win in Mexico City to secure a berth. Japan finished last in their group in 2004, but because it is essentially an under-23 tournament, four years is a long time and teams that were once good could be terrible, while teams that were laughably bad good be amazing -- except, of course, the Argentineans who always seem to field strong youth sides.

Cote D'Ivoire, Argentina, Australia, and Serbia will compete in Group A. Host-country China, New Zealand, Brazil, and Belgium were selected for Group C, while Korea, Cameroon, Honduras, and Italy will clash in Group D.

Here's coach Peter Nowak on the draw from ussoccer.com:

“It’s a difficult group definitely, but that’s what we expect in a tournament that includes the top 16 teams in the world. They are very quality teams we will face and we have to be up to the challenge. This is a great challenge for us and we can gain a lot of experience from these kinds of games and this kind of tournament. The goal is still to go from the group stage to the second round.”

Beijing Bound: US hoses Canada

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

Nowak to lead USA Olympic effort

The USSF announced on Wednesday that former DC United coach and U.S. national team assistant Peter Nowak would be the new coach of the U.S. under-23 tasked with qualifying for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

"We have 12 months to prepare for the most important tournament in this age group, and I am anxious to build on the work that we have already started with many of these players," Nowak said. "As we saw in the U-20 World Cup, we have some great young talent, and I will spend the next couple of months getting a good look at the whole group. Our job is not only to qualify for the Olympic Games, but to continue to prepare these players for service with the full national team."

So, you think Freddy Adu is happy to see his old coach take the reins of a team that he was likely to be one of the central figures. Why wouldn't he be? How quickly we forget. You see, Nowak and Adu didn't see eye to eye. Here's a trip down memory lane courtesy of Freddyadublog.com.

Then to the surprise of many, after what appeared to be a stellar game for the young Freddy Adu coach Nowak subbed Matias Donnet in the 65th minute for Adu. With Adu out, that changed the pace of the game and the Revolution were able to wind down the clock and come out victorious to move on to the finals. Although Nowak said he wanted fresh legs in the game and that was the reason for the substitute it came at an unusual time sparking debate over whether the substitution was just a stab at rumors that Freddy Adu might be moving to play in Europe.

Here's another one from a more traditional source (USA Today):

Adu vented his frustrations to reporters in October while United was preparing for the opening game of the playoffs. He said he should be playing "a lot more," even though he had started 16 of 25 regular-season games and averaged about 60 minutes per appearance as a second-year player. He said his lack of playing time had wrecked his chances of making the U.S. World Cup team and left open the possibility that he would leave United at the end of the season.

So, the drama is set to start again and soon, as Nowak has announced his attentions to organize some friendly matches to test the waters of the U-23 player pool before qualification begins next March. Looking at the players available this could be the U.S.'s strongest Olympic team ever.

Here's what Nowak had to say about the player pool on ussoccer.com:

“We feel very good about what is available to us. I think the bulk of the group will come from the players who played in the U-20 World Cup in Canada. There are also a lot of older players who are playing abroad – guys like Charlie Davies, Benny Feilhaber, Kamani Hill, Lee Nguyen and Jonathan Spector - that could play important roles. We know that working with the schedules of these players will be difficult, so that is why it is critical to move forward as quickly as possible. As for other players, we will certainly keep an open mind throughout the process.”