Maybe it's something about U.S. soccer teams playing the first games in FIFA tournaments held in Africa. Saturday in Suez, Egypt, the U.S. Under-20 national team was beaten 3-0 by Germany at the U-20 World Cup Group C opener for both teams. (If you remember, the U.S. senior national team lost to Italy 3-1 in the Confederations Cup opener played in South Africa in June.) It was a rough day all around for coach Thomas Rongen's men, who had a tough time finding their footing. A two-goal blitz by the Germans that netted consecutive scores in a span of three minutes midway through the first half put the game away.
The Germans missed a couple early chances inside the first 15 minutes when Richard Sukuta-Pasu missed wide twice from inside the penalty area.
By the 30th minute, though, the Germans broke the deadlock from the penalty spot after Brian Ownby brought down Bjorn Kopplin in the box. Semih Aydilek ripped a shot to the left, which sent U.S. keeper Brian Perk the wrong way.
It only got worse for the young Americans from there. Less than three minutes later German captain Florian Jungwirth found himself unmarked at the back of the penalty area after a corner and ripped a shot that Perk got a hand to, but it was hit with so much power it sailed into the right corner.
After the halftime break the play improved for the Americans. In the 62nd minute they got their best chance when Bryan Arguez, who's on the books at Hertha Berlin, slipped in a pass to Mikkel Diskerud, but the Norweigan-born player couldn't attempt a shot as German keeper Ron-Robert Zieler raced off his line to smother the attempt.
Three minutes later, after more positive play, Jared Jeffrey beat Zieler but his blistering shot thumped off the crossbar and back into play.
Germany made the U.S. pay for the missed chances when it sealed the game on a 72nd counter attack pushed in on the full run by substitute Manuel Schaffler, making it 3-0.
The Germans finished with a 12-4 advantage in shots.
For whatever it's worth, there was a fairly large disparity between the composition of the rosters of Germany and the U.S. The Germans brought in players from the country's mega-clubs (Bayern Munich, Schalke 04, Bayer Leverkausen, Werder Bremen, etc.) and even had one player -- Zieler -- who calls Manchester United home. Meanwhile the U.S. roster was mainly players from MLS and nine currently at NCAA Universities. Is that the reason they lost by three goals Saturday? No, but it bears some consideration as the U.S. progresses as a soccer nation.
Much like the Confederations Cup team, the U-20s can't afford to get too down on themselves after the opening-game throttling. The remaining group stage matches are against Cameroon and South Korea, which should be a little more winnable than Germany.
Dropping the opening fixture shouldn't be that disconcerting, either. At the 2007 edition of the tournament in Canada, the U.S. drew Korea 1-1 in the opening match, then when on to stomp Poland 6-1 and upset Brazil 2-1 en route to a place in the quarterfinals where it was surprisingly dropped by Austria.
The U.S. returns to action Tuesday against Cameroon live on ESPN2 at 12:45 p.m.
