U-17's Scrape It Out, DC Follows Suit

I don't get Fox Soccer so I didn't see the match yesterday, and honestly, from the sounds of things, I'm rather glad. I saw Fred's goal from the highlights on mlsnet.com and that was about all I needed to see. Shout outs to Clyde Simms for holding down the starting position yet again and to Guy-Roland Kpene, who showed more spark in the second half than Addlery and Dyachenko combined. Perkins, I hear, had an outstanding game. However, it goes without saying that the sooner Olsen and Luci recover, the better.

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I really want to talk about our U-17's posting a 2-0 shutout win versus Belgium and Tunisia going 100% in group play for US to take second place and advance to the knockouts. Here's how close it was: the US, Belgium, and Tajikistan are all tied for points with 3 each. The US and Tajikistan both have better goal differentials than Belgium with -1 (!!) each. The US advances over Tajikistan only because we have more goals scored, our 6 beating their 4.

In sum: our last two goals, scored in the last match of group play, are the only reason we advance to the next round. Check it out. Watch the goals here.

Looking at the match, however, our level of play is much improved than the dismal performances we saw versus Tajikistan and Tunisia, who turns out to be a youth-soccer powerhouse. Who knew?

Anyways, we possessed the game (61% possession; see wut i did thar?) and used our technical abilities to their utmost, our second goal a beauty of a set play from the corner. Unstoppable. Let's hope our boys use this win as momentum and motivation for the next round.

Where's Alex Nimo? Much has been made about Nimo and his story as a refugee footballer hoping to make it as a professional, a kid with a big heart and big skills who has the potential to be the next Freddy Adu (caveat emptor...). Why hasn't he shown up yet? Despite playing 269 of 270 minutes total, he's only notched only 0 goals and 1 assists. If the hype about him is true, I'd say he's due for a standout performance sometime in the near future. If it doesn't happen, then I'd say he's got some esplaining to do.

Enjoy.