US forced to play a man down for 87 minutes, eliminated from the Olympics

[bullets13]

i want to vomit.

Michael Orozco is an idiot.  He got a straight red in the 3rd minute for what was closer to a nudge than an elbow.  I won't say it should not have been a red, but i think it was light enough, especially considering the situation, to warrant only a yellow (although the Nigerian player went down like he'd been hit by a truck).  Regardless, what the hell was he thinking?  Combining this with his unimpressive play throughout the tourney, i'll be happy if i never see him in a US jersey again.

The US looked fantastic, despite being a man down.  They were on their heels in the first half, and gave up a goal due to a tremendous individual effort leading to a cross and easy tap-in.  In the second half, they were the better team throughout, having two chances that probably should've been finished to tie the game at one early on in the second.  By the 75th minute, the US was playing on dead legs, and gave up a nice goal when Parkhurst basically just fell over when the Nigerian player made a simple cut, and subsequently curved the ball into the corner inside the back post.  The US earned a PK in the 89th minute and converted, making the score 2-1.  They subsequently earned a freekick just outside the box, which was headed goalward by Fehlheber (i think) and smashed off the crossbar.  Had it gone in, it would've marked one of the greatest comebacks in Olympic soccer history. 

This is very unfortunate for the US, who certainly played well enough to win the group.  If not for a freekick goal by the Netherlands in the 93rd minute against them the game before, they would've taken three points from that match and won the group.  As it was, they came into today's game needing a tie or a Netherlands loss/tie to advance.  Obviously, playing a man down for THE ENTIRE GAME made a tie pretty difficult for the States, but they damn near pulled it off.  To make matters worse, the Netherlands beat Japan 1-0 on a terrible PK call in the 74th minute, meaning a US team very deserving of a quarterfinal berth is instead packing their bags. 

The good news for the US is that we've got some fantastic young players who are capable of breaking into the full side in the near future.  I was very impressed with Marvelle Wynn, Sascha Kliestjan, and Stuart Holden.  Throw Freddy into the mix, and some of our USMNT midfielders better start watching their backs.  Guzan was also fantastic, and should be the heir apparent when Howard calls it quits (unless he surpasses him). 

[BigNEDdog21]

i want to vomit.

Michael Orozco is an idiot.  He got a straight red in the 3rd minute for what was closer to a nudge than an elbow.  I won't say it should not have been a red, but i think it was light enough, especially considering the situation, to warrant only a yellow (although the Nigerian player went down like he'd been hit by a truck).  Regardless, what the heck was he thinking?  Combining this with his unimpressive play throughout the tourney, i'll be happy if i never see him in a US jersey again.

You took the words right out of my mouth..

I was impressed with how well the US played despite begin down a man. I was also really impressed with Marvelle Wynn, he had a couple great runs and played well on the defensive side. I was a little disappointed with Kliestjan. He seemed to lose the ball or get it stolen from him every time he was in possession. And also, the sub that came in at the end..Davies? he looked pretty good from what little time he had to work with. I thought Davies had the header that went off the crossbar for the equaliser  ??? could be wrong though.

[bullets13]

you're right, davies did hit the bar at the end.  I wasn't real pleased with the choices that Novak made.  when you're down a man, your best chance is to use speed to get a breakaway.  instead, he takes jozy out and leaves McBride in.  Also, he waited until the very end of the game to put in Davies, who with his speed drew a PK and a free kick that led to the shot that hit the crossbar.  It seemed like Novak didn't really try that hard to tie the game up until he realized it was the only way they were going to advance.  I don't understand why they didn't try to get the equalizer earlier on, when they knew there was a possibilty that a loss would knock them out.

[BigNEDdog21]

I was thinking they were going to take Mcbride off and leave Jozy on, I was a bit shocked when I saw it was the exact opposite. And I thought Rogers would be replaced also, he was getting torn up the whole game by the Nigerian attack..And they did wait too long to try and get an attack going, Nigerian's defense was playing absolutely horrible and lazy the whole second half.  :-\