The FIFA U-20 World Cup has come and gone. But there are still lingering question about the future media coverage of soccer in Canada.

For the first time in the history of soccer coverage in Canada, the three-week global tournament saw a total of 110 broadcasts and over 220 hours airtime, in addition to hundreds of stories in the print media across the country.

This is a remarkable feat.

“It often takes something like this to push soccer off the back pages,” said Rob Brodie, night sports editor at the Ottawa Sun.

Soccer does not get huge coverage in the Canadian news media because a large number of the decision makers in the newsrooms do not come from a soccer background according to Brodie.

However, with the success of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, he and some other Canadian journalists, who covered the tournament, hope newsroom decision-makers will now see soccer more as part of all news that is fit to cover.

“What’s needed is a major shift in mindset among the decision-makers,” he explained. “I know at our paper, we have made a concerted effort to increase world soccer coverage because we know interest is growing. But more time and energy needs to be put into coverage at the grassroots level in our own communities. We all put a lot of effort into minor hockey coverage, simply because it’s something that’s always been done.”

“But twice as many kids in Canada play minor soccer now. At some point, I believe, that has to be acknowledged in coverage levels. What that requires is somebody deciding it has to happen, and somebody willing to put in the time to make it happen. At a lot of papers, that kind of thinking and that kind of staff level doesn’t exist right now.”

Soccer has grown significantly in Canada since 1987, when Canada hosted the FIFA Under-17 World Cup — in Toronto, Montreal, Saint John (New Brunswick) and St John’s (Newfoundland).

In 2006, there were over 850,000 registered players across the country — 84% of them between the ages of 5 and 18. About 370,000 of these registered players played in Ontario.

Canada 2007 set a new FIFA U-20 World Cup attendance record, with a total attendance of 1,195,239. The 52 matches played in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Burnaby, Victoria and Edmonton from June 30 to July 22 gave FIFA the highest attendance in the history of the 30 year-old tournament. The previous attendance record of 1,155,160 was set in Mexico ’83 U-20 World Cup.

Despite the growing popularity of soccer in Canada, the absence of expertise among the sport reporters also affects its coverage. Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun has 21 year experience in journalism, covering football, hockey, golf and baseball among others. But soccer is not his thing.

Apart from a feature story he did on a local kids tournament about a decade ago, he has not written anything about soccer until the FIFA U-20 World Cup came to town. Covering the tournament was a tough task for him.

“Others are more familiar with the sport than I, so they have a greater appreciation of it,” said Brennan who has been with the Ottawa Sun since 1988. “I think if I knew it better, it would be easier and more fun to cover.”

Unlike Brennan, Ottawa Citizen’s Mohammed Adam did not have that difficulty. With a wealth of experience covering the game in Ghana under his belt, he took a voluntary leave from the news desk to team up with Richard Starnes, the Ottawa Citizen’s sports desk only soccer writer/columnist, for the World Cup coverage.

Although he described his experience covering the U-20 World Cup as being great , there are still many hurdles to cross to keep soccer in the news in his view.

“Being a hockey country, the fundamental problem is getting people, even editors to pay attention,” he said. “Once the hockey season begins, the emphasis will shift again. You need ongoing events to keep the coverage running but there won’t be many.”

“If there was a professional league, things might be different. I imagine there will be more coverage in Toronto papers like the Star because the city has a team that will generate weekly stories.”

Peter Mallett, who juggles page layout with soccer reporting at the Globe and Mail, had seen it all. He said people still roll their eyes when they hear soccer stories are going on the front page because they see soccer as a foreign sport.

Things are changing gradually around the sport desks at the Globe and Mail according to Mallett. Since Toronto FC joined the major league soccer this year, Larry Millson, who is a renowned baseball writer/reporter, has now been drafted to cover the team and the league on a full-time basis.

As the soccer fever slowly spreads to the newsrooms, Mallett believes it is only a matter of time before soccer starts to rival the coverage of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Canadian Football League (CFL).

In the meantime, he urges the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) to improve the game both on the field and off the field.

“On the field we need to improve our technical ability,” he advised, “and off the field the administration of the game needs a complete overhaul if it is to really transcend and become as popular in Canada as it is in other countries.”

By Tokunbo Ojo

Montreal — Four goals in extra-time were all that Chile needed to put an end to the Nigeria’s U-20 World Cup dream on Sunday afternoon at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.

With the scoreline standing at 0-0 after regulation time, the third quarter-final game of the FIFA U-20 World Cup between Nigeria and Chile went into extra-time.

The 30 minute extra-time – 15 minutes each half – was barely six minutes old when Chile’s Hans Martinez beat Nigeria’s offside trap and lobbed the ball over the on-rushing goalkeeper, Ikechukwu Ezenwa. Jaime Grondona quickly ran into the ball and gently nodded it into the empty net.

The Flying Eagles furiously protested the referee’s decision to allow the goal, which they considered to be an offside goal. But English referee, Howard Webb, stood his ground and then gave Ezenwa the yellow card.

Ladan Bosso, Nigeria’s coach, shared the sentiment of his boys about the goal. At the post-match press conference, he called into question FIFA’s anti-racism campaign and indirectly his team’s defeat to aversive racism.

“When you are looking for something (an offside call) and you don’t get it, all your doubt becomes negativity and it becomes very hard to fight,” Bosso said.

“What I’m saying is that it’s good to fight racism but it’s important not only to bring in the idea, you have to follow it to the letter so that implementation is done.”

From the moment the goal was allowed, things started going bad for the Flying Eagles. The Nigerians had evenly matched their opponents in every department of the game.

Nigeria went on to concede three more goals against the Chileans. Chile’s confidence grew with lots of diagonal counter-attack runs into the Nigerian half after that first penetration through the tight Nigerian defence.

“When you concede a goal and you feel is not a goal, you feel you’ve been cheated. But you can’t do anything about it,” said Bala Ezekiel, Nigeria’s captain.

Traditionally, Nigeria has a poor record against South American teams at the FIFA U-20 level. Prior to the Sunday’s encounter, Nigeria had played South American teams six times in the U-20 World Cup and lost five times. Nigeria tied against Brazil at the 2005 U-20 World Cup in Netherlands .

Sunday was the first time that Nigeria and Chile met in the U-20 level. The only previous meeting between both teams was in Sydney 2000 Olympic soccer tournament. Chile beat Nigeria 4-1 in that encounter. It was also at the quarter-final stage.

Chilean coach Jose Sulantay, who is now looking forward to his team’s semi-final against Argentina, in Toronto on Wednesday, does not believe racism was a factor in Sunday’s game. He believed that his team played well enough for the victory. But he clearly pointed out that “no one would have expected us to put four goals past such a solid team.”

The last time that Chile made it to semi-final stage of this tournament was 20 years ago when the country hosted the tournament. That fourth-place finish on the home soil, 20 years ago, was Chile ’s best performance so far in the U-20 World Cup.

By Tokunbo Ojo

Nigeria’s Flying Eagles tore apart Zambia’s Copper Bullets Thursday evening in second round play at Frank Clair Stadium. The game ended 2-1 in Nigeria’s favour.

It was a tough one said coach Ladan Bosso of Nigeria, “But we went for a win and we got it.”

From the kick-off, the Flying Eagles took the game to the Zambians. Their dazzling runs were worrisome for the Zambian defenders. Bala Ezekiel inspired the Nigerian attack.

Before Zambian goalkeeper Jacob Banda and his team could realize what was going on the field, the overlapping Nigerian defender, Uwa Echiejile, came from behind to nod home the Flying Eagles’ first goal.

It came off a corner kick taken from the left flank in the 3rd minute. Although Rodgers Kola put Zambians back in the game 30 minutes later, the Zambian defence was so porous that the Nigerian could have scored at least four goals in the first 20 minutes if they had converted their many chances.

But they just could not score because of selfish individual play upfront. Instead of releasing the ball to the best-positioned player, at the top of Zambia’s box, the Nigerians chose to score from impossible angles.

“They see scouts around them and they try to be individualistic,” said Bosso at the post-match press conference.

At the half, Bosso reminded his boys about the need to play as a team. Nigeria’s coach believed that his half-time talk yielded some results. In the second half, his team played more as a unit.

In the 57th minute, a well-set up play from the midfield sealed the victory for Nigeria. Having received a pass from Ezekiel, Akabueze fired a canon shot few metres away from the Zambian 18th yard box. Zambian keeper could not get his hands on the ball as it dropped into the net.

Despite the fact that Nigeria was favoured to win, the Zambians did not give up the fight till the final whistle. They fought hard for the ball and tried to catch Nigeria on the counter-attack by taking advantage of the huge gaps often left behind by both Nigeria’s overlapping full-backs.

The Zambians created some second half panic moments for the Nigerians, with their counter-attack play. These efforts, however, were not strong enough to make a difference against Nigerians.

“We may have fallen, but we have gained experience for the future,” said Zambian coach George Lwandamina. “The guys showed determination and ambition. They should have no regrets.”

He added that a better team won at the end of the 90 minutes encounter in which both teams gave a good account of themselves in the presence of about 21,000 fans that came to see the match.

This Lwandamina coached team is the second Zambian team to make it to the knock-out stage of any FIFA organized tournament since Zambia Football Association became an affiliate of FIFA in 1964. The other Zambian national team that made it to the knock-out stage of the FIFA tournament is the team that played in the 1988 Olympic Football Tournament in Seoul. Coach Lwandamina was a member of that Zambian team, which upset Italy, in the Seoul ‘88 Olympic.

By Tokunbo Ojo

Ottawa – Argentina, the defending FIFA U-20 champion, is through to the second round, following a 1-0 win over Korea DPR on Friday in the last Group E game at Frank Clair Stadium.

Argentina is the sixth team to make it out of the group stage to the second round. Other qualified teams are Chile, Mexico, Czech Republic, Nigeria and Japan.

Friday’s game, which turned out to be tension-soaked, started on a slow pace with both teams playing cautiously. Argentine’s short passes and splendid ball footworks were good in getting the ball into the Korean box, but the final touch was missing.

It was not until the 26th minute that Aguero tested the North Korean goalie, Kwang Min Ju. He fired a canon shot that Min Ju made a full dive to punch over the bar. This sparked the fire in both teams, as they came out of their shell and played the game of their lives.

Argentina’s captain, Sergio Aguero, put his team on the score-sheet in the 35th minute. His well-taken free-kick at the edge of the North Korean 18th yard beat Min Ju.

Minutes later, he almost made it two from another well-taken free-kick at virtually the same spot. But this time, the ball hit the left goal post and bounced out of the 18th yard box with no Argentine close enough to pick up the rebound.

On the resumption of play in the 2nd half, the North Koreans were having a field day offensively. They won most of the balls in the midfield and easily penetrated through the tight defensive unit of Argentina.

The North Koreans became a nightmare for the Argentines. Coach Hugo Tocalli — who has an impressive record as the Argentine youth coach at the FIFA junior World Cup, having taken the 2001 and 2003 Argentina U-17 teams as well as the 2003 U-20 team to the top-four finish — was forced to make three substitutions within the span of 14 minutes.

However, his quick substitutions did not make things better for the Argentina this time around — Tocalli himself, and thousands of Argentina’s fans, sat at the edge of their seats till the sound of the final whistle.

The North Koreans, who played highly tactical soccer and followed their coach’s constant instructions from the sideline, kept the pressure on the Argentines. But Argentine goalie, Sergio Romero, was at his best. His good positioning and reflexes came handy in keeping his side in the game, especially in the last five minutes of the game.

“They played very well and fortunately I put in a good performance,” Romero said the post-match press conference.

“I owed the team a display like that, seeing as in our previous game it was the forwards who caught the eye by scoring six goals.”

North Korea, dumbfounded and in tears at the sound of the final whistle, could not believe their efforts did not result in at least a goal to tie the game.

“It’s upsetting to have lost,” said Jo Tong Sop, Korea DPR coach.

“But we gave it our best shot. We just weren’t composed enough in front of goal to take the chances that came our way in the second period.”

The defeat puts the hard-fighting North Koreans in Group E’s third position with only two points. Korea DPR teams have always qualified for the second round of every FIFA event they have been — 1966 World Cup in England, 1976 Montreal Olympics and 2005 U-17 World Cup.

But this time around Korea DPR U-20 team has to wait till games in other groups are played before knowing its fate. The four best ranked third placed teams will join the top two teams in each of the six groups in the second round, which is the knock-out stage of the tournament.

By Tokunbo Ojo

Ottawa – The soccer giant, Brazil, fell 2-1 to the US in the final Group D match at Frank Clair Stadium on Friday night.

“This is huge for us. To beat the giant,” said the US coach Thomas Rongen.

“As Dutch (by birth), I always look to Brazil for technicalities. I respect their soccer and learn from it. It (victory) is very important for us and we hope this will push football to a higher level in our country (USA).”

Brazil has never lost to any team from the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) in the FIFA U-20 World Cup — despite the fact it has previously played teams from the region 9 times at various stages of this 30 year old tournament.

Friday’s match, Brazil’s 10th against a CONCACAF team at the U-20 World Cup, was the 4th time Brazil met the USA at the U-20 World Cup. Brazil won the three previous matches.

Freddy Adu, who captained US team, was extremely battle-ready for the match (which was completely sold-out weeks before it was even played). The Americans ran and contested every ball against their highly skillful opponents. It wasn’t long before the US efforts yielded a result.

In the 24th minute of the first half, Adu dispossessed Brazilian Renato Augusto in the midfield. Adu then knocked the ball to Josmer Altidore, who did not waste time putting the ball past an on-rushing Brazilian goalie for the first goal.

The Samba Boys then pulled out all their tricks in an attempt to get an equalizer. It came in 64th minute via a scramble in the US 18th yard box.

The Brazilians, their destiny in their hands and their fans dancing, saw Adu steal the show from them again when he made a beautiful solo run down the right flank into the Brazil’s box.

His low level cross, which the goalie narrowly missed, found unmarked Altidore in the box. Altidore gently tapped the ball into the net to give his team the much-desired victory over the almighty Brazil.

“A great game by Adu,” said Coach Rongen. “He took the rest of the team with him.”

Brazilian coach Nelson Rodrigues also praised Adu for his vision, leadership and great game on Friday night.

Rodrigues, who spoke through a translator, believed that the efficiency of Adu and his team-mates gave them the upper hand against Brazil. He admitted that Brazil is in a bad situation, given its third-place standing in Group D.

Brazil is at the verge of elimination, depending on the results in other groups.

Four best overall ranked third placed teams will join the top two teams in each of the six groups in the knock-out stage of the tournament. Rodrigues hopes that his team will make it to the next round as one of the four best ranked third placed teams.

The US leads the group now with seven points and is through to the second round. Poland also advances to the next round, by the virtue of being second in the group following its 1-1 tie against South Korea on Friday night in Montreal.

By Tokunbo Ojo

Ottawa – Argentina U-20 team did not let down thousands of their fans that stormed Frank Clair Stadium for the team’s second group game against Panama on Tuesday night. The team pulled a 6-0 victory over Panama on the night that soccer thunderstorm hit the Canada’s capital city.

With the exception of Panama’s early threat, in the first 12 minutes of the game that was watched by over 21,000 fans, Argentina dominated the game from the start to the finish.

In a span of seven minutes in the first 30 minutes of the game, the Argentines, who played goalless draw against Czechs in their first game on Saturday, scored four goals.

Maximiliano Moralez, who opened the goal harvest for his team in 20th minute, said his team had closely studied Panama’s game and knew the weak point to take advantage of when they got on the field on Tuesday night.

“We knew that Panama played with a flat back line and that’s why we tried to knock long balls over the top,” said Moralez who scored two goals and provided assists in two other goals. “It paid off for us and we scored four goals in a short space of time to kill the game off there and then.”

Despite being four goals up in the first half, the Argentines still approached the game in the second half with all seriousness. They created chances and made the high-fighting Panamanians to chase them around the field for the ball.

Twenty minutes into the half, Angel Di Maria, who had come in as a substitute, set up Spain-based Atletico Madrid striker, Sergio Aguero, for the fifth goal of the game. Few minutes later, Aguero, who was a nightmare for Panamanians, rewarded Di Maria by nicely setting him up for the 6th and last goal of the night.

“We played extremely well and we came away with an excellent win,” said Hugo Tocalli, Argentina coach. “This game gave us opportunity to show our talent and tactics.”

In spite of the team’s goal feast, coach Tocalli still believed that his team is not yet playing like a real champion. Tocalli told the media in the post-match press conference that his boys played much better soccer against Czech Republic than they did against Panama.

He hopes that things will get better for his team, especially now that his team is at verge of making it to the knock-out stage of the tournament. Tocalli’s team, which currently sits on top of the Group E table, will play its last group game on Friday against Korea DPR. Either a draw or a victory in that encounter will see the Argentines through to the knock-out stage of the tournament.

North Koreans drew 2-2 against Czech Republic earlier in the day. Both Koreans and Czechs are tied for the second position in the Group E standing.

Panama forces Korea DPR to a goalless draw
By Tokunbo Ojo

Ottawa – In the opener of the Group E FIFA U-20 World Cup, Panama forced Korea DPR to a goalless draw.

But Panama has its goalkeeper, Luis Mejia, to thank for the result. Without his brilliant goalkeeping, Panama would not have survived the onslaught of Korea DPR.

“He was our best player, no doubt about it,” said coach Julio Dely Valdes. And he deserves special praise because he’s only 16. He was brilliant in the first half and, while he had less to do in the second half, he still saved us on two or three occasions. We’re very happy for him.”

The Korean offensive plays were so well-executed that the Panama’s defensive line was caught off-guard several times. But Mejia, who is the second youngest player in this tournament, stood firmly behind the Koreans and goals. He was his team’s rock of Gibraltar on the day that Panama played for pride and honour in the U-20 World Cup.

Saturday game was the first time that Panama picked a point in its U-20 World Cup appearance. The country’s two previous appearances in the U-20 World Cup were disaster because it lost all its games.

From the blast of the whistle, the Koreans who are making debut in the U-20 World Cup were out for goals and victory. Playing 4-3-3 formation, the Korean striking trio of Kum II Kum, Chol Min Pak and Chil Min Jong played 1-2 touch soccer that forced Panama midfielders to lend helping hands to their defenders who made a catalogue of mistakes throughout the game.

With the midfielders playing more defensively and cautiously, the supporting striker Pablo Gonzalez had to drop to the midfield to pick ball and then force long ball to his striking partner, Gabriel Torres. But those efforts did not yield any tangible result because the Korean midfielders and defenders were quick in closing down any gap that could be used by their opponents.

However, with the second opener game of group between Czech Republic and Argentina also ended in a goalless draw, the group is now open for any of the team to pick up a space in the second-round.

The double header games of Tuesday will determine which team might make it out of the group.

Czech, Argentina prefer natural grass at Frank Clair stadium
By Tokunbo Ojo

If both Czech Republic and Argentina had the choice to choose the artifical turf and natural grass for their Group E FIFA U-20 World Cup opener on Saturday, they would have chosen natural turf instead of the artificial turf at Frank Clair Stadium in Ottawa.

“Although we know the turf and we’ve also played on the similar turf before, the natural grass would have been better,” said Pavel Frybort, the technical leader of the Czech Republic. He pointed out that the artificial turf did not have negative impact on his team’s game against Argentina, which ended goalless goal, because of their previous experience on the synthetic turf.

Argentines felt that the artificial turf at Frank Clair stadium could hinder a free-flowing soccer if the weather was hot as it was when they first trained on the turf before their Saturday encounter with Czech.

Argentina’s striker Pablo Piatti walked away with bruises from the first practice on the turf in Ottawa. But Argentina’s coach, Hugo Tocalli, said that he is not complaining about the turf because all teams would play on the same turf.

“If FIFA says it is okay, I am not making any noise about it,” he said repeatedly after the game on Saturday. “But natural grass is better for ball movement and flow”

Highly disappointed Tocalli would not comment on whether the field was responsible for his team’s goalless draw against Czech. Nonetheless, he said “no coach in the world would be happy with a tie.”

At the inspection of the stadia for the U-20 World Cup last year, FIFA gave the turf at Frank Clair Stadium 2-star rating, which is the highest rating that a stadium could receive by the FIFA rating standard.

About a half millions dollar was spent in installing the turf, which is made of a monofilament fiber that is aimed at maximizing pace and speed of the players as the natural grass turf would have provided.

Baby Blue And White Army Goalless
By Kris Fernandes

Ottawa – The dark clouds and heavy rain did a number on traffic and the artificial pitch at Frank Clair stadium today in Ottawa as the FIFA U20 World Cup finally got underway, although you would’ve thought otherwise when staring at the large number of travellers that came out to support Argentina’s squad against the Czech Republic.

The jubilant supporters came brimming with excitement with cheek-to-cheek smiles while singing catchy Spanish tunes. Almost all carried, at least, a miniature Argentina flag complimented by the famous baby blue and white striped jersey that has become extremely popular worldwide, except in Brazil for obvious reasons.

The fans had endured a surprisingly exciting 0-0 draw between group rivals Panama and North Korea and were in full spirits, and full of beer, before kickoff. Many had travelled from Argentina directly while the majority were ex-pats now based in Southern Ontario.

One of those who drove up from Toronto was Vlad Lukan, a Ukrainian who lived in Argentina for 5 years.

“It’s one of the biggest games of the tournament and just one of those games you have to be here live to get the full experience. I am going for Argentina all the way as I feel like it’s in my blood. If Canada played Argentina in any round I honestly wouldn’t want to answer who I’d cheer for.” said Lukan.

One person, who would cheer for Canada, is 13 year-old Spencer Smithers, who plays left striker for the U13 boys of the Ottawa Youth Soccer Club. Though the stadium was packed with more than its fair share of Argentina supporters, Spencer represented a significant amount of young Canadian players that came out in droves with their parents.

“Oh yeah I’m cheering for Canada. My dad bought us tickets but couldn’t make so I’m enjoying the game with my brother and some friends, it’s great here. I hope everyone keeps playing soccer in Canada.”

Surely that is the music that the CSA is hoping to hear.

Listen to Your Nana
By Kris Fernandes

Get the inside scoop on what it’s like to play for Team Canada at the U20 World Cup right from one of Canada’s brightest young players, defender Nana Attakora-Gyan. Share his thoughts on what it’s like to play in the World Cup at home and what the team does to prepare for games.

Listen To Nana NOW!

By Tokunbo Ojo

Nigeria’s under-20 Flying Eagles, is scheduled to depart Nigeria at 23:25 pm (6:25 pm eastern time in Canada) on Thursday aboard British Airways, flight number BA 0074.

Nigeria’s contingent of 21 players and 10 officials will spend 9 hours in transit in London before connecting another flight to Vancouver. Once in Vancouver, the team will then make a trip to Victoria where it will play all its Group F matches against Japan, Costa Rica and Scotland.

Conspicuously absent from the Nigerian final roster (released a few days ago) is the Belgium based star player, Emmanuel Sarki.

Interim-coach Ladan Bosso, who took over from an ailing Musa Abdullahi, dropped Sarki, Everton’s Victor Anichebe and Simon Zenke of France’s Racing Strasburg for not reporting to camp on time.

Abdullahi took over Nigeria’s head-coach position from Godwin Uwua who was fired after Nigeria failed to win the African Youth Championship (AWC) in Congo last February. Bosso was Uwua’s assistant at the AWC.

Nigeria U20 World Cup Roster
Goalkeepers

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Olufemi Thomas, Moses Ocheje and Ikechukwu Ezenwa

Defenders
Suraj Sodiq, Uwa Echiejile, Oladapo Olufemi, Adeniyi Ayodeji, Ambrose Efe, Robert Egbeta, Akeem Latifu, Nazifi Inuwa and Kingsley Salami

Midfielders
Nduka Ozokwo, Solomon Owello, Blessing Okardi, Moses Adams and Chukwuma Akabueze

Strikers
Akeem Agbetu, Brown Ideye, Bello Kofarmata and Ezekiel Bala

Bosso has a strong faith in his chosen team

“I have picked the best players I believe will do Nigeria proud in Canada. We won’t disappoint Nigerians when we get to the World Cup. The chosen 21 are also the fittest for the competition.”

In addition to the hundreds of Disaspora Nigerians who will be cheering the team from the stands, the Canadian embassy in Nigeria has also given visas to 105 members of the team’s official supporters club. The first batch of the cheering team is expected to leave Nigeria on June 25.

OTTAWA – Canada’s U20s lost 4-1 to the USA in a friendly played Sunday at Ottawa’s Frank Clair Stadium. The game, which had less than 3,500 fans in attendance, started on a high tempo. Canada created a nightmare for the US defence in the first 15 minutes of the game.

Despite Canada’s impressive offensive play in those early minutes, it was the USA that scored first. In the 9th minute of the game, unmarked Andre Akpan gently lobbied the ball into the right angle of Canadian net. The score came from a well-taken free kick at the left edge of the Canada’s 18 yard box.

It was a wake-up call for the Canadians who failed to bury two clear chances in the first 5 minutes of the game. Dynamic right defender, Nana Attakora-Gyan, got Canada’s equalizer in 15th minutes. But the celebration did not last long as the US scored its second goal 10 minutes later. From that moment onward, it was the US dictating the pace of the game till the final whistle.

“Although we are still looking at players for our final rosters, we missed our depth tonight. We missed our key players – Will Johnson, Jonathan Beaulieu-Bourgault, Dave Edgar and Jaime Peters – today,” said Coach Dale Mitchell of Canada. “We missed Dave’s experience and communication at the back.”

The USA also played without many of its regular players, like Fredy Adu. However, the American midfield, under the control of Sal Zizzo, shut down every Canadian move.

This forced Canada to play long-range passes down the right wing. Tosaint Ricketts, the Adidas man of the match, used his good ball control and speed to punish the American left defender, Amaechi Igwe. But poor finishing robbed Canada from making the best out of Ricketts’ crosses to the US 18th yard box.

With the dominance of Americans in every department of the game, Mitchell was forced to make three quick substitutions in the 2nd half of the game. But things did not work as Mitchell thought. The game was still under the control of the Americans. They scored their 3rd and 4th goals, three minutes apart, in the 82nd minute and 85th minute.

“We took advantages of their substitutions and capitalized on our chances,” said the US coach Thomas Rongen. “It could have been 2-2, but they did not take their chances.”

Two of the four goals Canada conceded were from set-pieces play. “The Americans punished us today on set play. We really have to work on the set play because it will be a big part of the World Cup,” said Mitchell.

Sunday’s game was the first friendly of a two-game series with the United States. Canada gets another a chance to evaluate players for its World Cup final roster, in the second game of the series, on Wednesday, in Kingston.

Canada will play its last pre-tournament international friendly in Edmonton against the Czech Republic on June 18. Canada’s first FIFA U-20 World Cup game is on July 1, against Chile in Toronto.