The ingredients for a championship team? Easy.
Take some talent and skill. Use a chef -- ummm, a coach -- who knows what he's talking about. Add a little composure during pressure situations. Sprinkle heartily with some determination. Add generous doses of luck when needed and avoid injuries, especially the stars. Then stir and pray everything comes out right at the end.
Actually, winning a championship of any kind is easier said than done, let alone a world one.
Over the past two weeks, the U.S. under-20 national team has demonstrated it has those needed ingredients to win the FIFA Under-20 World Cup.
Now, whether can they accomplish it is another question.
At the moment, they are two wins away from reaching the U-20 final at the National Soccer Stadium, a feat no other U.S. men's outdoor team has accomplished in a major FIFA competition.
First, they will have to get past Austria in Saturday's quarterfinals here and then the winner of the Spain-Czech Republic match in Wednesday's semifinals, if they are fortunate to advance that far.
So, let's check out those ingredients.
• Talent. OK, we know the team has several players who can make a difference. The three getting the most publicity -- Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore and Danny Szetela -- have connected for three goals apiece and nine of the USA's 11.
• Depth. The U.S. is not just a three-man show, although it seems it can be at time. There is a supporting cast of players on and off the field.
Goalkeeper Chris Seitz went down with a badly bruised thigh he suffered in the win against Brazil. In his place was a 17-year-old college kid who had barely seen action at the U-20 level -- UCLA's Brian Perk. Perk acquitted himself quite well and then some, either catching or knocking away everything sent his way but one ball. Score one for potential and inexperience. The U.S. also survived an injury to Altidore, who suffered a charley horse that aggravated a calf muscle problem.
If you're going to play six or seven games over a three-week period or a month, you need healthy and fit bodies. When Italy managed to reach the final at USA '94, for example, coach and mastermind Arrigo Sacchi used every player but the No. 3 goalkeeper his team was so wracked by suspensions and injuries.
• You've got to have heart. When things aren't going right, sometimes you have to grind it out. The best teams learning how to win and win in different ways, including ugly. As we have learned in the modern age of soccer, teams don't play beautiful soccer to win World Cups anymore (check out Germany 2006). Teams must learn to win ugly to survive because more and more games are like that, like it or not. Wednesday's encounter will never win a beauty contest for games, but then again the entire U.S. contingent couldn't care less.
The U.S. needed to pull out the stops to equalize in regulation and then win it in extra time in the 2-1 victory against Uruguay at the National Soccer Stadium. Taking a tactic out of their physical foes' "playbook," the U.S. fouled Uruguay all over the field and were slapped with five yellow cards. Not the best way to win friends or influence the soccer powers that be, but an effective way to win and stay alive.
• Coaching. Needing an equalizing goal, coach Thomas Rongen threw caution to the wind Wednesday, using midfielder Dax McCarty on defense in the second half. Sometimes you have to throw the dice and hold your breath when you have nothing to lose in a knockout game. Rongen admitted it was a gamble that paid off. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. But the worst thing a coach can do is to second-guess himself for a move he didn't make while watching the championship match of that tournament from his living room.
• Luck. No matter how good you are, you need luck. Luck can come in many forms. Sometimes it is the luck of the draw when a team gets an easy first round draw and/or road to the final.
Then there is luck on the field. Luck can be avoiding injuries to key players. Luck also can play a key role to literally get the ball to bounce your way, whether it's a controversial penalty-kick decision going your way or a botched offside call by the linesmen that gives your opponents a goal.
On Wednesday, if Juan Manuel Diaz's shot that ricocheted off the left post in the 90th minute is slightly more to the right, it goes into the net and there is most likely another result and Adu and company are playing for their respective MLS or club sides over the weekend rather than preparing to take on Austria in a quarterfinal confrontation here Saturday.
And speaking of Freddy, Adu did his best teenage impersonation of Marco Etcheverry on Wednesday.
Etcheverry, remember, was marked out of the very first MLS Cup in 1996 by Chris Armas. But the former Bolivian international and D.C. United managed to put the ball in front of teammates and find a way to win -- setting up teammates on three dead-ball situations, the last on a corner kick that then rookie Eddie Pope headed into the net for a dramatic extra-time win against the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Adu certainly did not have one of his best U-20 games Wednesday night after he built some anticipation after two overwhelming performances in the opening round. But Adu found a way to play a key role in the U.S.'s 11th-hour revival, initiating a couple of corner kicks that were turned into goals, the last a game-winner by former MetroStars midfielder Michael Bradley in extra time.
Adu is growing up, learning how to win (which can be difficult at times while playing for 1-7-6 Real Salt Lake), realizing his limitations and knowing when and where he can perform some magic.
Someone like Adu can be an X-factor in this tournament. For example, Diego Maradona did not have a memorable final against Germany in the 1986 World Cup, but he found a way to thread a pass to a teammate to set up the game-winner in the waning minutes that broke a 2-2 tie and the Germans' hearts.
That's the mark of a championship player on a championship team.
Does the U.S. team and players have that? We'll have to wait until Saturday to watch their latest effort.
Michael Lewis has covered every MLS Cup Final and is editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
