USA falls to Germany in horrendous display

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Sep 28, 2009

[UNDER-20 WORLD CUP] Not much was expected of the USA at the 2009 Under-20 World Cup in Egypt, and it certainly did nothing to dispel its doubters with a horrendous display in the opening game. Germany got two goals two minutes apart on the half hour and cruised to a 3-0 win Saturday in Suez.

USA-Germany Report Card

Thomas Rongen's U-20s were below par in every facet of the game: poor touches, aimless passing, lax marking, you name it and it was a problem. Except for the first part of the second half, the Americans were never in the game.

It would been one thing if they were playing a top-level opponent, but Germany traveled to Egypt without many of its best players, retained by their Bundesliga clubs, and was further depleted by injuries and suspension.

Germany took the lead in the 30th minute when Brian Ownby was slow to track down Bjorn Kopplin and fouled the German in the penalty kick. Two minutes after German-based Semih Aydilek put the Germans ahead from the penalty spot, a corner kick sailed over a sea of U.S. defenders to an unmarked Florian Jungwirth, who made it 2-0 with a shot that goalie Brian Perk could only parry into his own goal.

The Americans' best chances came in the 62nd minute when Norwegian-American Mikkel Diskerud was put through by second-half sub Bryan Arguez but stopped by goalie Ron-Robert Zieler and in the 66th minute when Jared Jeffrey hit the crossbar from 25 yards out.

Any ideas of a comeback were quashed six minutes later when Cihan Kaptan, Germany's other Turkish-based player, was given acres of space on the right wing and fed Manuel Schaeffler breaking down the middle to put away the third goal.

"This clearly wasn't a good day for us," said Rongen, who anticipated that changes will be made for Tuesday's game against Cameroon (TV: ESPN2, live, 12:40 pm ET; Galavision, delay, 5 pm ET/PT).

Sept. 26 in Suez
USA 0 Germany 3. Goals: Aydilek pen. 30, Jungwirth 32, Schaffler 72.
USA -- Perk, Mayen, Agbossoumonde, Opara, Davies (Flores, 36), Powers (Arguez, 46), Jeffrey, Diskerud (Duka, 78), Ownby, Shea, Taylor.
Germany -- Zieler, Jung, Jungwirth, Lars Bender, Vrancic, Sukuta-Pasu, Holtby (Kaptan, 71), Kopplin, Aydilek (Vrzogic, 81), Funk, Kempe (Schaeffler, 64).
Yellow Cards: USA -- Ownby 29; Germany -- Jungwirth 63.
Referee: Yuichi Nishimura (JPN)