U-17 World Cup 2011, USA Vs. Germany: Germans Trouncing U.S., 3-0

If the United States had any hopes of upsetting favored Germany, those hopes have been long since extinguished. The Americans had a couple bright spots, but for the most part it has been all Germany and the scoreline shows a deserved 3-0 halftime lead for the favorites. It would have been much worse for the U.S. had it not been for a sensational Kendall McIntosh, who has made several fantastic saves to keep the German lead from growing.

It was actually the U.S. who had the first good chance of the game, firing a shot from 15 yards that forced Odisseas Vlachodimos into a good save. After that the Germans came storming back. Three times they forced McIntosh into good saves, but even the U.S. keeper couldn’t keep Germany from tallying in the 19th minute. Levent Aycicek cut in from the left and delivered a good ball from the center that towering centerback Koray Guentar, who was still up from a corner kick just moment earlier, nodding home for a 1-0 Germany lead.

McIntosh stood on his head some more, making fine save after fine save to keep the Americans down by just one. Alejandro Guido almost leveled for the U.S., but the shot went wide and not long after Mitchell Weiser scored off of a pass from Samed Yesil to put Germany ahead by two. Three minutes later Yesil scored one of his own. It looked like the linesman may have missed an offisde call on the play, but it can’t be argued that Germany didn’t deserve the goal.

Going to the second half, the U.S. will try to at least keep the scoreline from getting out of hand, but that’s about all they can hope for. The simple fact is that Germany may have the best youth system in the world and it is showing in this U-17 World Cup. The Americans, no matter what progress they may have made, just isn’t ready to compete with the Germans yet.