A Bout With Unlucky

After an "eh, okay" first half and a barrage of shots from the US in the second half, the US and Cuba ended last night's match tied at 1-1 in the first round of Olympic qualifiers.

Adu had a pretty good night with several shots that just barely missed, he even put in a few great passes and one perfect set-up for a shot to Findley who tried to rush the shot, all but handing it to the Cuban keeper. But even Adu had a few rough spots sprinkled here and there. Rough spots aside, it was the bad luck that really hampered the U.S. With 19 shots and too many "near misses" to think of, luck was definitely not on the side of the U.S. Even the goal that Cuba scored seemed to get deflected a couple times, just enough to get past the keeper and into the net.

With all this working against them, the U.S. side still looked strong and patient and I think with a little more pratice together (they'd only been together for 10 days prior to the match) and a few inspiring words from the coaches, they will do even better in their next match, which is Thurday evening (8pm ET), March 13, against Panama. I can only hope a few more soccer fans make it out to this (or the next) match, as the attendance was only a little over 4,300. After not qualifying for the 2004 Olympics, this was not our best start, but we still have two more qualifiers to go and they did end rather strong in the second half.

(Sidenote: I know it's a part of the game, but it was frustrating for the last 10 minutes of the match when Cuba was obviously dragging their feet to get time off the clock. The red carded Linares, who scored Cuba's goal, took over a minute just to walk off the pitch after being ejected...though I also disagreed with the call, that's ridiculous. Not to mention their captain who went down no less than three times with an appearant cramp that needed tending to.)

A quote from Captain Edu:
“In the second half we started pressing them again and were creating a few chances. We were unlucky not to finish one. If he had put one of those in the net, the game probably would have been out of reach, but that happens.From here we just move on and we know we’ve got to get points in the next game.”

One of the many close opportunities as midfielder Kljestan goes up for a ball crossed over in front of the goal in the second half. His shot went just wide of the goal.