Under21 World Cup: USA vs South Korea

Eurosport is broadcasting the Under21 World Cup in Canada at the moment so I caught a glimpse of USA vs South Korea, who were playing against each other at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. The US team is always considered to be somewhat of a "sleeping giant" with so many young people playing football (yeah, well, I know they call it soccer) over there. And they have one of the top prospects in international football with Freddy Adu. German newspapers were hailing him as the future superstar a few years ago, when he was only 14 years old.


But South Korea kept him in check and although the US took the lead in the first half Korea dominated the game. In 2002 the national team was one of the surprises of the World Cup when they reached the semifinal against Germany. Back then people were always talking about the effort the "Reds" were making during a game. They were running and running and running and running. They did the same yesterday but at the same time they were creating wonderful chances. In the first half there was a long pass almost over the whole pitch to the left side were the winger only had to stick out his foot to touch the ball. A brilliant pass, something I hadn't seen in a long time. This had a touch of Bernd Schuster, the maestro of long passes back in the days. And the Koreans had good chances in the second half when they could have outscored the US boys by tow or three goals. That seems to be their big problem. They have to score goals to win. They have the technique for sure.
I was a little disappointed with team USA. But at least the play the tournament, the German team didn't make it to the final round again. And that really is a pity.

Tonight Japan will play against Scotland, let's hope Eurosport is on that one as well...