Peter Nowak and his staff ran their first Olympic Team practice yesterday at Stanford University.
For all the up to date information from the team itself, check YNT-USSoccer.Blogspot.com.
image via YNT-USSoccer
The names are set (for the most part) as Piotr Nowak has released his Beijing Roster and yes, there are a few surprises.
2008 U.S. MEN’S OLYMPIC TEAM ROSTER BY POSITION
GOALKEEPERS (2): Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (5): Patrick Ianni (Houston Dynamo), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution), Nathan Sturgis (Real Salt Lake), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Danny Szetela (Brescia Calcio)
FORWARDS (4): Jozy Altidore (Villarreal), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Brian McBride (out of contract), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)
U.S. Men’s Olympic Team Alternates List
Goalkeeper: Dominic Cervi (Out of Contract)
Defender: Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew)
Midfielder: Dax McCarty (FC Dallas)
Forward: Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake)
We always knew there would have to be one or two surprises, so let the second guessing of Piotr Nowak’s roster begin.
Who am I surprised about? Benny Feilhaber and Nathan Sturgis, based on injuries alone. The inclusion of Marvell Wynne instead of Kamani Hill tells me (reading through the lines) that Nowak is going with three in the back.
Players missing from the Concacaf Qualification Tournament - Kamani Hill, Dax McCarty, Chad Barrett, Hunter Freeman, Jonathan Spector,Sal Zizzo, Dominic Cervi, Dax McCarty and Robbie Findley (although the last three are alternates).
The team will get together Sunday July 20th in San Jose, California for a week of training before heading out to participate in the ING Tournament in Hong Kong with fellow Olympians Ivory Coast (July 30th) and Cameroon (August 2nd).
Keep something in mind. Nowak has until July 25th to submit his FINAL roster. That means a full week of training and two matches before the team gets to Beijing. Just saying…
Great article and image from the OC Register
NBC has a new Olympics website up where you can find the schedule of all games and events. Just about every event is on tv live and streamed online. The US Men’s team opens against Japan on August 7, the Netherlands August 10th, then Nigeria August 13th in the opening round.
These games are early too, the Japan game kicks off at 4:00am Eastern/1:00am West Coast.
Image via Flickr
“NBC Universal, which will broadcast the Beijing Games in the United States, will start four new dedicated cable channels in August that could be available to 80 million TV households, company officials said.
One channel will be devoted exclusively to carrying men’s and women’s soccer games 12 hours a day, while a second channel will carry men’s and women’s basketball games 14 hours a day….”
FC Uptown
Image via Engadget
Check out Graig Carbino’s take on the selection for the upcoming Olympics and what coaches like Bob Bradley have to take into consideration.
West Ham defender Jonathan Spector will miss out on the 2008 Beijing Olympics for the United States after learning he’ll need surgery on his right hip to repair his labrum.
The surgery has a 6 month recovery period, making it impossible for the 22 year old to recover in time for the Games.
The big question is how will Peter Nowak replace one of his most experienced defenders? Will this have a major impact on his choices for the 3 over-age players and how big was Michael Orozco’s performance at the Qualification looking like now?
image via Cache
It was the final game of the 2008 Toulon Tournament for the young United States squad, bowing out with a 2-nil loss to Semi-Finalists Italy.
With goals by #17 Abate and #20 Dessena in the first half, Peter Nowak’s men had their backs against the wall in the second half, but were still able to create a couple of chances on the Italian goal with better possession during the last 45 minutes.
For the United States this tournament was a great opportunity for the younger players to get some great experience (2009 U-20 World Cup will have Bryan Arguez, Kyle Davies, Ellis McLoughlin and Brek Shea eligible) and for head coach Peter Nowak having a look at the final group of players who he’s hasn’t seen yet, but wanted to give an opportunity to.
When I was watching this Italian team, I couldn’t help but wonder how soon we would see #13 Coda, #20 Dessena, #17 Abate, #10 Giovinco, #19 Pelle and #9 Osvaldo in the full Italy squad?
Group A
Chile - 9 pts
Japan - 6 pts
Holland - 3 pts
France - o pts
Group B
Italy - 9 pts
Ivory Coast - 6 pts
Turkey - 3 pts
United States - 0 ptsSemi-Final matches Tuesday, starting at 12pm ET on Fox Soccer Channel with Chile facing the Ivory Coast in Semi-Final #1 and Italy versus Japan in Semi-Final #2.
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.
