USA vs. Canada: U.S. Wins Possession, but Loses the Game in Olympic Qualifying

There's an old adage in sports: if you let an inferior team stick around long enough, they'll beat you. The United States U-23s found that out against Canada in Olympic qualifying tonight.

Despite a first half that saw Canada only get a few meaningful touches of the ball, the United States failed to create any truly dangerous goal scoring chances. The only real difference in the second half is that while the U.S. still created few real chances, they allowed Canada more of the ball.

Thursday night's hat trick hero, Joe Corona, was invisible in an attacking center of the field that U.S. coach Caleb Porter's team would treat like a no man's land throughout the match. When he was withdrawn at halftime for Joseph Gyau, fans could be forgiven if they'd forgotten Corona was on the field in the first place.

Unfortunately, Corona's removal meant that Freddy Adu moved into the black hole and would subsequently be ignored by his teammates for the majority of the second half.

The problem in the attacking center extended to the striker position. Juan Agudelo was replaced in the starting lineup by Teal Bunbury after suffering a meniscus tear in his knee during Thursday's win against Cuba. First Bunbury, and later his replacement Terrence Boyd, would be completely uninvolved in the United States attack.

Whether ignored or ineffectual, every player who set foot into the center of the U.S. attack ceased to exist in a meaningful way against the Canadians,

Lot of the Ball, Nothing to Show for It

Here's all you need to know about the first half. Brek Shea lived in a cubic mile of space on the left. The United States found him several times through long cross-field balls. He put several crosses in. None of them amounted to anything remotely threatening.

Mix Diskerud and the rest of the talented American midfield was forced to drop incredibly deep to pick up the ball throughout the first half. Canada was effectively able to usher the United States to the sidelines and then defend the resulting crosses. Diskerud and Corona were never able to combine through the center of the field.

The second half saw the United States put the ball in the goal first when Ike Opara headed home from Adu's free kick. But Canada had held their line well as the kick was taken and the assistant referee correctly raised his flag against Opara.

Then Opara's night got much, much worse.

A Tale of Two Corners

With little to show in the way of possession to that point, Canada would go ahead in the 58th minute off a corner kick. Opara lost track of Doneil Henry as the ball dropped in the middle. Henry cut across U.S. keeper Bill Hamid and rose to give Canada the 1-0 lead from five yards out.

Porter's team would create a pair of quality chances in response. First a cross in the 65th minute from left-back Jorge Villafaña would find an unmarked Adu in the area. The U.S. captain's shot forced the first of several big second-half saves from Canadian goalkeeper Michal Misiewicz.

Just a couple minutes later, Shea would get his best opportunity of the game when a cross from the right side found its way all the way across to the winger. Shea will never have more space in the area than he had when the ball reached his feet. But his shot from the narrow angle succeeded only in rippling the side netting.

As the United States chased the game, more of their attacking players disappeared into the abyss in central attack. Boyd came on for Bunbury to no effect. Adu moved central and lost all influence on the match. And Diskerud wasn't able to establish an impactful role further forward.

That left Canada with more of the ball than they'd enjoyed in the first hour of play. It paid off for head coach Luis Fonseca's team in the 83rd minute. Canada played a short corner to Philippe Davies, who got off a quick cross.

Opara stumbled over his mark (Canadian forward Lucas Cavallini) and went sprawling as Cavallini squared his shoulders and headed past Hamid from point-blank range.

In the last few minutes, the U.S. would create a flurry of chances. But Misiewicz was equal to them all. At the final whistle, the United States walked off with the loss visibly weighing on the side.

One statistic is indicative of the evening. Despite monopolizing possession for a majority of the game, the United States only managed to put four shots on goal. By contrast, Canada forced three saves from Hamid in addition to their two goals.

The injured Agudelo took to Twitter after the game with a simple message. From @juanagudelo17:

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"Hurt to watch :,("

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Freddy Adu thanked fans and took an optimistic tone. From @freddyadu:

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"Thanks for all the support. Yes we are all disappointed but we gotta put it behind us. Win and we re through."

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What's Next?

The Americans' loss and an El Salvador win against Cuba means the United States currently sits in third place in Group A. They must beat El Salvador on Monday to advance into the semifinal round.