This is what preparation looks like as Christian and myself had the early Group B match between 2008 Olympic Qualifiers Ivory Coast and United States in the 2008 Toulon Tournament in France.

The first 45 minutes were ugly for the US as they barely had any of the ball, couldn’t create chances going forward and ultimately defended for the entire half with Keeper Chris Seitz coming up with three big saves to keep a nil-nil scoreline at halftime.

The second half saw a lot more possession for the US (similar to what we saw in their first match against Turkey) with their best chance coming from FC Dallas’ Brek Shea, hitting the far post with a diving header off the cross from right back Tonly Beltran.

That miss would kill them as barely 5 minutes later Beltran would make a bad mistake, taking down #9 Niango. Instead of continuing to push him towards the corner with Corey Ashe to his left, Beltran dove in and the foul resulted in a deserved Penalty Kick.

#15 Djakpa, the captain and best player on the day for the Ivory Coast would step up and lace a driven ball to the lower left hand corner of Chris Seitz’ goal. Seitz guessed the right way, but was not able to get on the end of it due to the placement and power.

Seitz would again come up with another huge save, this time a wide open opportunity from substitute #12 Dja Djedje, pushing the shot that was heading to the upper right corner out for a corner (11 in total for Ivory Coast).

It would end 1-nil for Ivory Coast, who now have the chance to continue on to the Semi-Finals with a result against Turkey on Sunday. For the US, not soo much.

Just goes to show how important it is for clinical finishing at the International Level.