U.S. under-23 men

Americans face stern test in Olympic qualifying.

Zak Whitbread left Liverpool's reserve team to join the United States for its Olympic qualifying tournament -- Liverpool web site photo --

(Sunday, February 1, 2004) -- Four years ago in Hershey, Pa., the United States under-23 men had little trouble getting through to the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying final and earning for a trip to the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney.

Led by the fine play of players such as forwards Chris Albright and and Josh Wolff, midfielders John O'Brien, Ben Olsen and Peter Vagenas, defenders Ramiro Corrales and Evan Whitfield, and goalkeepers Tim Howard and Adin Brown, the team, coached by the late Clive Charles, easily moved through group play and on to the semifinal victory that secured an Olympics berth.

Things are likely to be quite different in Guadalajara, Mexico, when, starting Tuesday, the U.S. tries to qualify for the 2004 Games late this summer in Athens. Not only will the Americans have to face hostile crowds at every match, but the U.S. will be missing a number of key players.

The U.S. starts play in Group A Tuesday against Panama Tuesday, then faces Canada Thursday and Honduras Saturday. The top two teams from Group A and B advance to the February 10 semifinals where both winners qualify for the Olympics. The February 12 championship and third-place match are for honor only.

Group B contains Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Trinidad & Tobago.

European professional clubs do not much care about the Olympics, and neither for that matter does FIFA, soccer's world governing body. So FIFA does not require club teams to release players for Olympic qualifying. Thus Germany's FC Karlsruher refused to release striker Conor Casey and Belgium's RAA Louviere would not let defender Oguchi Onyewu go. Three other top players are sidelined with injuries -- midfielder Ricardo Clark after knee surgery , striker Edson Buddle with Achilles heel tendonitis and midfielder Kyle Martino with a bad hip.

The U.S. is bringing a potentially potent strike force led by three senior national-team stalwarts in forward Landon Donovan, and midfielders DaMarcus Beasley and Bobby Convey, as well as seasoned pros in striker Ed Johnson and midfielder Brad Davis. The U.S. should be able to score goals; the real question is whether it can prevent opponents from scoring more.

The clear American weakness is an inexperienced and untried defense. U.S. Olympic coach Glenn Myernick choices in Guadalajara include Zak Whitbread, who plays in England for Liverpool's reserve team, Nat Borchers, who went undrafted by Major League Soccer a year ago, but then played decently for the Colorado Rapids, the Chicago Fire's Kelly Gray and the Kansas City Wizards' Jose Burciaga, who is coming off two severe knee injuries.

Stanford's Chad Marshall and Chris Wingert of St. John's were drafted into MLS, but have yet to play a professional game, while D.C. United's David Stokes, a year removed from University of North Carolina, is yet to play a league game with D.C. United.

Myernick clearly recognizes the limitations of his defense. "We have worked very hard with this defense group getting them to play their positions and to defend as a unit," he said Friday on a phone conference from Guadalajara. "This is not the kind of defense which is going to push up into the offense or send in crosses to attackers. This is a defense whose jobs will be to hold together, help one another and get the ball to the midfielders who will start the offense."

Myernick also said one of the biggest problems he faces is the limited time between matches. There is only a day off between group matches and, after the completion of group play, two full days off before the semifinals, a total of four matches in seven days. Then there is only one day off before the final.

Group B has an advantage over the U.S. and other Group A participants. Group B finishes on Friday night, Group A Saturday afternoon, providing an extra half-day rest before the semifinals.

"This is not like the World Cup where you have enough time between matches to both rest and recover and plan for your next opponent," Myernick said. "Here we have only one day between matches. All we can do is try to recover. There's no time to really prepare for your next opponent. You just have to go out and play."

Despite the obstacles, Myernick says he remains confident that the U.S. can make it to Athens: "We have not come here to play three games in five days; we've come here to play five games in 10 days."

Tuesday, February 10
Semifinal losers, 9 p.m.