Soccer Buzz

In U-20 World Cup action, the United States defeated Uruguay 2-1 in extra time to advance to the quarterfinals on Saturday where they will meet Austria. Uruguay, who had the better of the play during many stretches of the match, broke through in the 73rd minute when Luis Suarez pounced on the rebound of goalkeeper Brian Perk.

The score looked like it would stand until the 87th minute when Danny Szetela knocked down a clearance from a corner kick and sent a low cross across the face of goal that deflected in off a Uruguayan defender. Uruguay nearly won the game in regualtion, but Manuel Diaz’s header hit the goalpost. The US made Diaz pay for his mistake in the second extra time period off another corner when Michael Bradley redirected Jose Valentin’s shot from a corner kick.

This game wasn’t pretty for the United States by any means. They could not open up the game the way they did against Brazil and Poland. Freddy Adu, in particular, never had much of an opportunity to work his magic as Uruguay seemed intent on keeping him in check. The Americans will have to reevaluate their tactics and mental approach if they expect to advance further in this tournament. Still, even the best teams often have to find a way to win ugly, especially in knockout competitions.

Finally, at the risk of stepping on toes, the behavior of Uruguay’s national teams the past two days have been disgraceful. Uruguay has earned a reputation over the years as a team that will employ dirty tactics during games and are sore losers after. Aside from the typical diving and acting during the course of the game, their defenders seemed intent on injuring Jozy Altidore. In the first half, a defender stamped him before a corner kick, and Uruguay succeeded in knocking him out of the match early in the second half with a horrible, two-legged, scissor tackle from Martin Caceres.

Just as the senior team did against Brazil after losing in penalties in Copa America, the U-20 team decided to initiate a melee after the game. Michael Bradley was particularly upset during the scuffle at it appears he was the victim of a sucker punch (or at least an attempted sucker punch) from Mathias Cardacci, and he had to be held back by coaches and teammates. Luckily, he regained his cool, and merely flashed the ultimate comeback: “2-1″. It would have been a shame had Bradley been forced to miss the next game because Uruguayans couldn’t accept the fact that they actually lost the game.

Here is the video of the incident. Note that this is a Canadian broadcast team calling the “action”, not a homer American crew.

Against both Brazil and the United States, the Uruguayans showed that they are more than capable of playing top-class soccer. Unfortunately, they have a long way to go in terms of acting like top-class players.

FIFA U-20 World Cup, US Soccer, Uruguay Soccer, Luis Suarez, Danny Szetela, Michael Bradley