I’ve got to say I was pretty surprised to see so many cars on the 405 South this morning as I made my way to the Fox Soccer Channel studios this morning at 4.45am for the US v Turkey Match with Max Bretos.

For Peter Nowak’s U-23 Toulon Tournament squad, it’s about getting results while giving an important look to the younger, less established players for the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In todays opening match against Turkey, they didn’t get the result they were looking for as they fell to the much more organized Turkish outfit which was led by Full International Nuri Sahin, Adem Buyuk and Ilhan Parlak.

But it was truly a tale of two halves as Turkey stormed to a 2-nil halftime lead behind goals from Gungur and Captain Sahin. Changes were made at halftime and immediately the United States started seeing more possession.

A goal by center-back Eric Brunner made it 2-1, but Turkey immediately (within 30 seconds) responded through Parlak putting Turkey at 3-1.

Sammy Ochoa would score what would be the goal of the Tournament so far with his first time finish out of the air in the 72nd minute, finding the upper right corner to pull the US within a goal at 3-2, where it would end.

Kamani Hill was the only player to do himself any favors looking ahead to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as his introduction at halftime changed the game as far as possession and attacking chances. We’ve seen Hill start as a forward, then a right back in Olympic Qualifying and now as a central midfielder which will make him a very viable option when the Roster decision time comes because of his ability to play multiple positions.

But it’s only the first match for a team that’s been together for less than five days. We’ll see how they do Friday against an extremely athletic Ivory Coast, a team that just lost to Italy 2-nil and then maybe we can judge where this team truly is.

image via LaTimes