Mike Miller
A long suffering fan of Canadian soccer since 1971 when I started
attending games of the Montreal Olympique of the pre-Pelé NASL.
Highlights
This wasn’t Canada’s night. Nick Dasovic’s boys were up against a well prepared and discplined USA team. The Canadian defence had to with stand wave after wave of American attackers in the first half.
The Americans seemed to find the weakness in the Canadian team as they constantly pressured the attack down the right wing. Despite being badly outplayed in the first half, Canada was only down 1-0 on a Freddy Adu goal.
Adu seemed to be open all night and where Adu was, there was the ball. Peter Nowak the USA Olympic team coach, also coached Adu at the club level when both were with DC United.
Verbatim
Commenting on Adu after the game Nowak said “When Adu was younger he didn’t always understand the bigger picture, now he has started to believe in his ability to change a game.”
When asked about Adu’s free kick abilities, Dasovic said “I hate it”.
Dasovic also said that keeper Wagenaar “wasn’t happy with his performance.”
1ST HALF GAME BREAKDOWN
Minutes 1-10
Adu got away the first shot of the game, high and wide. Canada looked disorganized on defence, a bad clearance by Jakovic resulted in a corner for the USA. The Americans continued to pressure Canada. Adu had some nice touches, he also benefited from sloppy defence to gain a scoring opportunity.
» Advantage … USA
» Score … 0-0
Minutes 11-20
Adu was prominent again, having a lot of space to work. A bad pass by Rosenlund broke up Canada’s first foray into the USA’s end. The USA continued to pressure down the right wing. A dangerous Adu pass to Altidore failed to connect. Canada started to show better possession towards the end.
» Advantage … USA
» Score … 0-0
Minutes 21-30
More Adu, he was body-checked out of the play at one point, created space to get a shot on net at another. Graham Ramalho showed good control on the ball and played it out of danger. Canada unable to string together enough passes in order to be effective.
Adu finally opened the scoring with a free kick that eluded keeper Wagenaar.
On the goal, Adu said “I played the ball in hard to the far post, Kljestan made a hard run towards the ball, which froze the keeper, and the ball tucked into the corner.”
» Goal USA … Freddy Adu 27′
» Sub CAN … Kyle Hall for Keegan Ayre 30′
» Advantage … USA
» Score … USA 1-0
Minutes 31-40
Canada had their first shot on net, a curving shot from Will Johnson went just over the net. Dax McCarty didn’t connect on square pass into the box.
» Play … Even
» Score … USA 1-0
Minutes 41-45 +1
Johnson had another opportunity but couldn’t connect on a through pass. Canada lacked the final touch in the midfield. Tosaint Ricketts puts a shot over the net.
» Play … Even
» Score … USA 1-0
2ND HALF
Minutes 46-55
An early free kick from the USA was headed over the net. Adu gets another free kick opportunity, and his curving shot beats the wall and finds the top corner. Adu’s fourth goal of the tournament. Andrazes Ornoch creates some offence and earns a corner with an open run down the right side.
» Caution CAN … Andrew Hainault
» Goal USA … Freddy Adu 48′
» Sub CAN … Andrea Lombardo for Graham Ramalho 54′
» Advantage … USA
» Score … USA 2-0
Minutes 56-65
Canada started to play their best soccer of the game. Space opened up in the midfield and Canada was able to maintain some possession. Kyle Hall earned a corner kick.
» Advantage … CAN
» Score … USA 2-0
Minutes 66-75
Adu misses just wide on a volley. Ornoch’s header, on a pass from Johnson misses the USA seems to be sitting on their lead.
» Caution USA … Jozy Altidore 66′
» Sub USA … Charlie Davies for Jozy Altidore 75′
» Advantage … CAN
» Score … USA 2-0
Minutes 76-85
Teams start to tire or lose interest (so do I), sloppy play on both sides. Lombardo puts a shot over the net. Sacha Kljestan scores after receiving a great pass from Stuart Holden.
» Sub CAN … Marcus Haber for Tyler Rosenlund 76′
» Goal USA … Sacha Kljestan (Stuart Holden) 78′
» Sub USA … Eddie Gaven for Freddy Adu 82′
» Advantage … USA
» Score … USA 3-0
Minutes 86-90 +3
Yes there were two teams out there, Canada earns a corner.
» Sub USA … Robbie Findley for Sacha Kljestan 88′
» Caution CAN … Will Johnson 89′
» Advantage … USA
» Score … USA 3-0
InsideSoccer Gamesheet
This report helps track the game to game player changes made by coach Nick Dasovic.
| Canada Olympic Qualifying 2008 |
| Player | MP | G | A | USA | GUA | HAI | MEX |
| Nikolas Ledgerwood D | 360 | 0 | 0 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 |
| Dejan Jakovic D | 360 | 0 | 0 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 |
| Andre Hainault D | 360 | 0 | 1 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 |
| Andrzej Ornoch F | 335 | 0 | 1 | 90 | 89 | 90 | 66 |
| Tyler Hemming M | 318 | 0 | 1 | 90 | 90 | 57 | 81 |
| Tosaint Ricketts M | 315 | 2 | 0 | 90 | 90 | 45 | 90 |
| Keegan Ayre M | 291 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 81 | 90 | 90 |
| Tyler Rosenlund M | 252 | 1 | 1 | 76 | 90 | 86 | 0 |
| Will Johnson M | 253 | 3 | 0 | 90 | 87 | S | 76 |
| Kyle Hall F | 190 | 1 | 0 | 60 | 9 | 90 | 31 |
| Diaz Kambere D | 180 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 90 | 90 |
| Jacob Lensky F | 104 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 59 |
| Graham Ramalho D | 144 | 0 | 0 | 54 | 90 | 0 | 0 |
| Ryan Gyaki M | 42 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 9 |
| Andrea Lombardo F | 67 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 3 | 4 | 24 |
| Marcus Haber F | 15 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Isidro Sanchez-Macip M | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Keeper | MP | GA | GAA | USA | Gua | Hai | Mex |
| Joshua Wagenaar G | 360 | 6 | 1.50 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 |
| Asmir Begovic G | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| David Monsalve G | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Legend
| G | Goals | A | Assists |
| MP | Minutes played | S | Suspended |
| GA | Goals against | GAA | Goals against average |
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