US U20's bow out

It's really hard for me to know exactly what to say. I feel for the boys, I really do. Credit to Austria, who are deserved winners though. The second half offered little from the US. They were unable to string together any effective counters as they had in the first. Adu and Altidore went missing for large chunks.

Austria on the other hand came out with much greater purpose and belief. Okotie caused us problems the entire night. About midway through the second half Beltran was replaced for Tim Ward. A horrible sub in my opinion. That was a sub to not lose the game rather then a sub to win the game. And Ward didn't look any better then he did against South Korea. An absolutely terrible showing all around from the fullback.

Starting extra time, however, the US looked bright and should have scord twice in the opening period. Rogers did very well to get by his mark down the endline and sent in a floating ball to the back post. Zizzo, however, rather then go for goal headed the ball back acrossed the box where it was easily cleared. I don't know what exactly he was thinking as Zizzo had a lot of the goal to look at. Moments later Freddy Adu made a nice run through the Austrian defence and after collecting the pass decided to round the keeper rather then shoot. His touch led him too far, however, and his shot from a difficult angle didn't find the net.

After those two misses, I really had a bad feeling about the game. It just felt like the US couldn't get things to fall there way, and they were made to pay for it. As the first extra time period came to a close, Anthony Wallace made a rash and very unneeded tackle near the half-line. The ref had little choice, but to show 'Wally' his second yellow of the match. From the resulting free kick, Okotie managed to get his head to it. The ball flicked to the back post where an unnoticed hand ball by Michael Bradley kept the ball in the danger zone. Two failed clearances and a last second lunge by substitute Hoffer found the ball rolling into the US net.

The US applied pressure onto the Austrian defence for the remainder of the match. Austria did counter effectively once after a cleared free kick led to a 2 on 1 (Seitz) where the Austrian player struck the upright. The US would get 2 more quality chances, but rather then play the ball across the box, Altidore and Adu went for glory and found their shots saved for corners.

And that was all she wrote, as Austria came out victors 2-1 over a devastated US.

Player Evals-
Seitz- 4.5- I feel bad for the kid. He will probably put a lot of the blame on himself for giving up the rebound that led to the tying goal. But Rongen should never have played him. He struggled through the match with his injury.

Beltran-4.5- Didn't really do too much right today. Defensively he was beat several times, and he was quite poor on the ball

Valentin- 6.0- The best defender on the night. Defended very well and was much better on the ball then he has been lately.

Sturgis- 5.5- I think Sturgis will be slightly disappointed with his overall performance throughout the tournament. Gave away the ball a few times in some dangerous areas. Defensively was ok, but I think many of us expected more from him.

Wallace 4.5- A very poor tackle to get himself sent off. Was caught out of position several times, although he was able to get himself back into the play with his athleticism. Distribution was off.

Bradley- 7.0- Best player on the field for the US. Fantastic work on the defensive side of the ball. A very solid all around game from the Herenveen midfielder.

Szetela- 5.5- An ok match I guess. Ok defensively and got himself in some decent positions a few times on the other side of the ball. Once again though, he was a little too careless in possession.

Zizzo- 5.0- Went unnoticed for large stretches. Didn't really do anything wrong, but didn't do anything right either. Pretty much a non-factor, and he should have scored in extra time

Rogers-5.5- I'm sure some will disagree with this eval. But lets be honest, for all the good work he did to get by his mark what did it accomplish? Only 1 good ball across the box that I can remember. Also slowed the attack on numerous occasions. 3 out of 5 times, he has no idea what he wants to do with the ball when he gets it, which is the reason for his numerous turnovers in games past, and for slowing the play down today.

Adu 6.5- Played with a lot of heart, and did all he could to spur the US on. Some very very nice moments, although occasionally tried to be too tricky. In the second half, he got lost in the match though. Extra time performance was very good, but way way to selfish on his chance near the end to go for goal rather then playing it across the box to a teammate.

Altidore- 6.0- Scored the lone US goal from a great ball by Adu. Great header to finish. But his touch let him down several times when we needed him to hold the ball up. Yes, I realize he was under pressure and had a tough job with a very physical Austrian defense. But, guess what...that's his job and at times didn't do it well enough.

Subs
McCarty- 5.0- Did a few things well, but not well enough. Took to long to adjust to the pace of the match, and gave away the ball in some bad spots because of it. Once he adjusted he did better, but really not good enough.

Ward 2.0- Terrible. Did nothing right.

Ferrari- Not much time to make an impact.

Man, this sucks. Austria....Austria is the team to knock us out! No disrespect to them, but come on. This should never have happened!