The U.S. U-23 national team gave up three early goals in a 3-1 loss to host France in its opening game at the 43rd annual Festival International Espoirs de Toulon. The U.S. bright spot: another goalfrom Jordan Morris.
Down 3-0 after 21 minutes, the Andi Herzog-coached U.S. squad was thoroughly outplayed in the first half but raised its play in the secondhalf, which featured Morris’ 65th minute goal.
Morris scored in the last U-23 outing, a 3-0 win over Mexico April 22 in Carson, Calif. The 20-year-old Stanford student also scored forthe full national team in its April 15, 2-0, friendly win over Mexico.
The French, however, had little trouble keeping Morris’ frontline partner, Julian Green, at bay,and the German product was replaced in the 62nd minute by Alfred Koroma Shams.
The Americans’ disastrous start began when Daniel Metzger coughed up theball in midfield and after keeper Cody Cropper deflected a shot, Will Packwood gifted the ball to Fares Bahlouli, who shot from 18 yards low into thefar corner of the net.
A pass by midfielder and captain Benji Joya was intercepted on the ensuing kickoff by Lemar Thomas. He beat Packwood and unleashed ashot that Cropper parried up to Enzo Crivelli for close-range header.
Stephane Sparagna’s low, long-range free kick slipped through a crowd Americandefenders and Cropper to make it 3-0 at the 21st minute mark.
Morris scored his goal by taking a pass from Marc Pelosi before spinning past a pair of French defenders beforebeating keeper Thomas Didillon.
“I think we had a real bad start to the game,” said Herzog. “This was a shock for our players who completely lost their confidence. … I thinkthe second half was OK, but I know that a team like France leading 3-0, they don’t play 100 percent anymore. But it was good to see my team show the character to score at least one goal and keep thegame a little bit open.”
The USA faces the Netherlands, which opened with a 3-2 win over Costa Rica, on Friday.
Photo courtesy of U.S. Soccer.
May 27 inToulon
France 3 USA. Goals: Bahlouli 10, Crivelli 11, Sparagna 21; Morris 65.
France — Didillon;Diarra, Sparagna, Kimpembe, Dussau, Santamaria (Hunou, 61), Bodiger, Thomas, Habran (Madiani, 51), Crivelli (Nnomo, 65), Bahlouli (Kaabouni, 61)
USA —Cropper; Okwuonu, Packwood (Strong, 73), O’Neill, Ocegueda (Serna, 62); Joya, Metzger, Pelosi; Keisewetter (Hernandez, 73), Morris, Green (Koroma Shams, 62)
Was this France A team we played against being that Euro U23 was won by France just now as well?