Olympic Sized Preview ( too bad we lost

By: nicholas | March 20th, 2008

As the big game for both the United States and Canada draw eerily closer let’s take at the nuts and bolts of what is needed for each team to win. In an earlier post I mentioned what would be the ramifications of each teams win on my beloved TFC. But after a few seconds and a few green beers to think about it, the obvious answer would be for Canada to win, because really and truly National pride comes before Club pride on this side of the pond. Plus we knocked out one big gun in this tournament, why not go for broke.

THE UNITED STATES PREVIEW

The United States is the favourite in this tournament from the get go and beside from a few rumoured fights in the locker room and a bad result against Cuba, they have all the tools to do the deed. Every Sports caster worths its salt is favouring the USA to win the match, but I have watched more than my share of soccer games and trust me it’s a funny ole game

It seems that the United States means business because they called in the BIG Hammer to ensure that they qualify for the Olympics. The Addition of Jonathon Spector will no doubt make the USA a much stronger team. The 22-year-old defender is no stranger to pressure situations, having competed in two World Youth Championships. Spector played for the team that finished in fifth place in the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Finland, and then participated in the 2005 U-20 World Youth Championship in the Netherlands two years later.

The United states has used three different starting line-ups in the first three games in the tournament. The only players to play all three games were Sacha Klijestan, Robbie Findley, Charlie Davis , Eddie Gaven and Dax MaCarty.

The Starting line expected for this game for the United States would be: Seitz, Sturgis, Spector, Orozco, Wynne, Edu, McCarty, Holden, Klijestan, Adu, Altidore. ( There are no real surprises in this line-up beside the fact that Orozco is starting for Ianni and the fact that Klijestan is starting instead of Eddie Gaven).

U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team Olympic Qualifying Roster:
GOALKEEPERS (2): Dominic Cervi (not under contract), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (7): Hunter Freeman (New York Red Bulls), Kamani Hill (Vfl Wolfsburg), Patrick Ianni (Houston Dynamo), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United), Nathan Sturgis (Real Salt Lake), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Eddie Gaven (Columbus Crew), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Dax McCarty (FC Dallas), Sal Zizzo (Hannover 96)
FORWARDS (4): Jozy Altidore (New York Red Bulls), Chad Barrett (Chicago Fire), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake)

THE CANADIAN PREVIEW

The Canadian team has been a refreshing change from the stale norm of the USA – Mexico final, and to continue that change would be the goal of this sports writer and the rest of the great white north . Let’s put into contrast the preparation of both the United States and the Canadian national team. The United States had countless camps to just choose the preliminary roster and another camp just to choose the team. The Canadian team was called into camp less than 2 week before the tournament and was told with limited resources to go and win the tournament (Preparation -Americans). Beside an weird result against the Cuban the United States had little trouble qualifying through the tournament, because 10 members and an assistant coach had defected from Cuba to US, basically destroying all hope for the Cubans qualifying and making group A , a race between 3 teams. The Canadians had go through; the Mighty Mexicans who had to get a shady penalty call to just tie the game ; they also had to lose to the cheating Haitians who doesn’t know that FIFA mandate Fair Play and they had to score 5 goals against the Guatemalans whom had already qualified just to have a chance of qualifying. (Ease OF Qualifying – AMERICANS).

AMERICAN CONNECTIONS: Two players on the Canadian roster are in college in the United States – Jehan Jakovic at the University of Alabama and Kyle Hall at Syracuse. Two others, Tyler Hemming and Andrea Lombardo, join a pair of American players, Maurice Edu and Marvell Wynne, on the roster of Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC.

A CLOSER LOOK: In addition to those who play in the United States, the Canadian roster features 10 players who earn their living abroad. Four players – Marcus Haber, Graham Ramalho, Jacob Lensky and Will Johnson – ply their trade in the Netherlands. Nikolas Ledgerwood and Ryan Gyaki play in Germany, while England, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Scotland are represented by Portsmouth’s Asmir Begovic, Sparta Prague’s Andrew Hainault, Esbjerg FB’s Andrazes Ornoch and the Berwick Rangers’ Keegan Ayre, respectively.

The Starting lineup expected for the Canadians would be: Wagenaar, Ledgerwwod, Jakovic, Hainault, Ramalho, Ayre, Hemming, Ricketts, Johnson, Rosenlund, Ornoch,

Canada Under-23 Men’s National Team Olympic Qualifying Roster:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Asmir Begovic (Portsmouth FC), Joshua Wagenaar (no club), David Monslave (no club)
DEFENDERS (7): Graham Ramalho (FC Groningen), Andrew Hainault (Sparta Prague), Nikolas Ledgerwood (1860 Munich), Andrazes Ornoch (Esbjerg FB), Ryan Gyaki (Hansa Rostock), Diaz Kambere (Vancouver Whitecaps), Tyler Hemming (Toronto FC)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Jacob Lensky (Feyenoord), Jehan Jakovic (Alabama-Birmingham), Tyler Roselund (no club), Keegan Ayre (Berwick Rangers), Isidro Sanchez (no club)
FORWARDS (5): Andrea Lombardo (Toronto FC), Will Johnson (de Graafschap), Tosaint Ricketts (UW-Green Bay), Kyle Hall (Syracuse), Marcus Haber (FC Gronengen)

If history has anything to show the Canadians – USA at the U-20 level has not always been kind to the Canucks with only 2 wins and one tie in 10 games.

US win

tie June 6, 2007 - Canada 4, United States 0
June 3, 2007 - Canada 1, United States 4
December 20, 2006 - Canada 0, United States 2
July 9, 2006 - Canada 1, United States 1
July 7, 2006 - Canada 1, United States 2
May 18, 2005 - Canada 1, United States 2
December 20, 2004 - Canada 0, United States 1
December 12, 2004 - Canada 0, United States 1
August 2, 2003 - Canada 1, United States 2
November 17, 2002 - Canada 3, United States 2