SANDY, Utah – The dream of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics is still alive for the United States thanks to a bounce-back performance from the Under-23 squad against Canada.
The US got the result they needed in a 2-0 victory Tuesday night over Canada at Rio Tinto Stadium, securing third place in the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship and setting up a two-leg playoff against Colombia in March for the final Olympic spot. Despite a woeful performance against Honduras in the semifinals Saturday, the Yanks rallied in the final game of the tournament to continue their journey toward the Olympics.
“We have four wins out of five,” assistant coach John Hackworth said after the match. “In a compact tournament like this, that’s pretty impressive. Although, to be completely honest, we leave here a little disappointed that we didn’t accomplish our goal of qualifying for Rio on Saturday.
“But with the quality we have on that team, we do feel like we have enough to challenge Colombia in a home-and-away series. While we feel a little disappointed that we didn’t accomplish goal No. 1, our dream is still alive to qualify for Rio.”
The US had their breakthrough goal in the 70th minute from San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Marc Pelosi on a long-range shot that made it through a crowd of players and hit the roof of the net.
“I would say Marc was a true warrior today, because he comes on, he plays left back, a position that is not normal for him,” Hackworth said. “He does an outstanding job getting forward, and in the end he scores the pivotal goal for us that unlocked [Canada] and gave us a little bit of a cushion. He certainly came through for us today.”
US forward Jerome Kiesewetter then drew and converted a penalty for his tournament co-leading fourth goal, punctuating the dominance of the Yanks throughout the match.
Despite the Honduras loss serving as the only black mark on an otherwise solid tournament performance, the US can still erase the setback with a win in the playoff.
“Honestly, I thought four out of five games we played really well,” Seattle Sounders academy alum and Stanford star Jordan Morris said. “Unfortunately, the one game we didn’t play really well was the game that mattered the most. It’s a bummer that it happened, but I’m glad we got the win today. I think we’ll move on to March, so I’m excited about that.”
