Onderwerp: [U21] USA vs Latvia

Friendly Match

The United States



#41

vs

Latvia



#40


Coming off one of their worst results in recent memory, the US might not be blamed for merely looking to avoid another embarrassment here. Yet the mood around camp was surprisingly confident in the buildup.

"We had a team meeting, cleared the air a little bit," commented the captain, Winslow, "the manager had some things to say, let us know that it wasn't all on us, and that helped us get our heads right. We know we're better than that and we aim to prove to it."

The rookie manager who started so well has been taking some heat in the national media over the last two weeks after a disappointing draw versus Slovenia and the near total capitulation against Lithuania. This weeks match is crucial for the manager to reestablish his credentials at this level. Latvia is a side of near equal ability to the Americans, and a solid performance here will be essential.

When asked if he was disappointed with the performance of any one individual in last week's debacle, the manager had this to say:

"Yeah, me, I had the worst performance of my career. I got away from what I do well, and put the players in positions where they were out of their depth. The boys didn't play well, that's obvious, but really this one is on me. I told them that. I also told them that we're going back to playing our style and when we do that we can play with anybody."

Whether that's true remains to be seen. After last week's loss the US dropped from 37th to 40th in the rankings and will need a long streak of solid performances to even entertain the thought of a favorable World Cup draw next season.

This game is tomorrow and should be about the same time as last week's, 18:29 SK time.

Go here to watch:

http://online.sokker.org/glowna.php?teamID=404
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Well a disappointing result, but a good performance. It sucks to lose another ranking point after playing so well but that kind of effort will get us 3 points most days.