US men's soccer team gets by Japan in first match

News Type: Event — Thu Aug 7, 2008 9:48 AM EDT

sports, soccer, japan, football, olympics, us-mot

Fly like an Eagle, Stuart Holden celebrates his goal against Japan.

The US Men's Olympic Team did not play particularly well but managed to defeat Japan in their opening match of the Beijing games.

Japan out-played the Americans in the first half. It seemed like Japan constantly had possession of the ball in the attacking third of the field. However US goalkeeper Brad Guzan and his defenders played well to keep the game scoreless at the break.

Then just after halftime the US scored. Marvell Wynne sent in a cross, the Japanese defender tried to clear it but the ball found its way to Stuart Holden who shot and scored from about 10 yards out. The second half was just a few minutes old and the Americans led 1-0. The US offense then played better and the goal held up to be the game winner.

The US men will have to play better than this to defeat their next opponent, the Netherlands.

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The Big Picture

Format for Men's Olympic Soccer
There are four groups of four teams. (The US MOT is in Group B with Japan, Netherlands and Nigeria.) In the group phase each team plays the other teams in their group once. Then the top two teams in each group move on to the knock-out phase (quarter finals, semi-finals, final). Competition Format in detail.

Next Match

7:45am ET Sunday morning
US MOT v Netherlands

Also the US WNT plays Japan
5:00am ET Saturday morning.

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3.0

{"commentId":2389016,"authorDomain":"michaelsautter"}

Michael Sautter

This wasn't the greatest soccer match ever, but worth getting up early for. I'm looking forward to the Netherlands match.

{"commentId":2389016,"threadId":"327442","contentId":"1728003","authorDomain":"michaelsautter"}

2 votes

#1 - Thu Aug 7, 2008 9:52 AM EDT

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MICHAEL SAUTTER

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US men's soccer team gets by Japan in first match

The Big Picture

Next Match

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