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U.S. Ties Cuba

Photo by KELVIN MA/staff

U.S. striker Freddy Adu slide tackles Cuba defender Erlys Garcia Baro in the first half at the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifier at Raymond James Stadium on March 11, 2008.

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By BILL WARD, The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 12, 2008

TAMPA - If the goal of the U.S. men's under-23 national team was to make the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament more interesting and lure a few more fans to Raymond James Stadium, it certainly achieved that Tuesday night when it played to a 1-1 tie with Cuba.

The result put the Americans - a squad of full-time professionals - in a position they likely didn't expect after one match. Gaining one point for the draw, they are tied for second place with the Cubans in their four-team group, two behind Honduras, which knocked off Panama 1-0 early Tuesday.

"Obviously, yeah, today we're going to be mad that we should've won this game," U.S. midfielder Freddy Adu said. "But we didn't lose; we got a point. At the end of the day, we have another game on Thursday and we have to concentrate on that."

Next up for the U.S. team in its quest to reach the Beijing Games: Panama on Thursday at 8 p.m. at RJS. On Saturday, it faces Honduras at 7 p.m.

Despite the lack of supporters in the stands - a little more than 4,000 turned up in the 65,000-seat stadium - the U.S. probably deserved a better outcome. Led by Adu and midfielder Dax McCarty, the Americans had plenty of scoring chances during the 90-plus minutes of play. In fact, they created almost one-way traffic toward the Cuban goal in the second half and sent more than one ball skimming off the posts and crossbar.

But it could be argued Cuba deserved the draw, too. After falling behind 1-0 on a spectacular goal by Adu in the 14th minute, Cuba equalized on a well-crafted goal of its own. That came off a ball redirected into the goal by Roberto Linares in the 42nd minute. From there, Cuba, which had some local supporters in the sparse crowd, seemed to be lifted to another level of play.

Yes, the Americans outshot them 19-6 for the match, but the Cubans had to play the final 10 minutes a man down when Linares was sent off for his second yellow card.

"Some people thought we wouldn't be as prepared as the other teams, but I think we showed what we can do tonight," Cuban coach Raul Gonzalez said through an interpreter. "Hopefully, we can do more."

From the outset, Adu displayed how much he has improved since leaving Major League Soccer and joining storied Portuguese first-division club Benfica. Only two minutes into the game, he blasted a shot from 16 yards off the far post. Six minutes later, he sent a 25-yard rocket to the near post that forced Cuban goalkeeper Jose Miranda to go fully horizontal to push wide.

Adu's persistent attack paid off when he got the ball just inside the corner of the 18-yard box and shot another left-footed bomb to the opposite post. This time, teammate Charlie Davies dummied on the shot by stepping out of the way as the ball sailed toward him. That move appeared to screen Miranda as the ball sailed right past him and into the goal.

Despite all the chances U.S. coach Peter Nowak's squad had the remainder of the match, the bottom line for the Americans was they were not able to finish those chances.

That was never more evident than in the 55th minute, when forward Robbie Findley got a breakaway ball for a one-on-one with the goalie, only to hit it right at him.

But as Adu astutely pointed out, this is "just one game." The Americans have two more to get enough points to finish in the top two, which would advance them to semifinals play in Nashville, Tenn.

Reporter Bill Ward can be reached at (813) 259-7456

or wward@tampatrib.com.

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