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Hungry for wins Success is sweet, but now U.S. men want more
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Carrying a burden it didn't want, the U.S. men's Olympic soccer team broke new ground. The group composed mostly of young professionals, none of whom had anything to do with the failures of the past, advanced to the quarterfinals by winning their group with a 3-1 victory over Kuwait on Tuesday. Now they're hungry for more. "We all expected to get through our group," said Landon Donovan, who scored one of the goals. "U.S. soccer is not a point anymore where we're saying, `Let's try to get a point here and pull off a win there.' "We're going into every game thinking we can win it." Dating to 1924, the Americans had never advanced beyond the first round of an Olympic tournament. Their record was a dismal 4-12-6 in 11 Olympic appearances before Sydney. But this team was the first one made up almost exclusively of professionals, a byproduct of the development of Major League Soccer since its inception four years ago. There has never been a U.S. Olympic squad anywhere near this good, and the team advanced by tying strong teams from the Czech Republic and Cameroon before shutting down the unpredictable Kuwaitis. "The youth national teams really haven't done that well for U.S. soccer," said Danny Califf, who scored the first U.S. goal. "This is a really big, big step for us." The U.S. team's quarterfinal game will played Saturday in Adelaide. A victory there puts the Americans in good position for their first-ever Olympic medal. "I don't think we're going to be satisfied with just getting out of our group," defender Jeff Agoos said. "I know it's a major accomplishment for this team and this sport, and we recognize that and we appreciate that and we're thankful to be a part of that. Hopefully, we've got some more games to play. We came here to get a medal." The Americans got an assist from Winter Olympics weather at these Summer Games. It was a cool, rainy night at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and the sun-and-sand Kuwaitis were so uncomfortable that their substitutes stood rather than sit on the bench during the first half. They looked like miserable commuters waiting for a late bus in Seattle. "That was a factor for our players," Kuwait coach Radojko Avramovic said. "They aren't used to these conditions, and that's part of what stopped them playing. We tried to tell them to play, to play, to play, but nobody was listening." The Americans dominated every facet of the game, out-shooting Kuwait 17-8 and taking 10 corner kicks to Kuwait's one. After several close calls, Califf finally broke through with his goal in the 40th minute. Chris Albright followed in the 63rd and Donovan in the 89th. "To be totally honest, we felt we played better in the first two games than we did today," coach Clive Charles said. "But we were fortunate enough that we were able to score at the right time." Substitute Bader Najem scored in the 83rd minute for Kuwait. Califf's goal was a solid header off a corner kick from Agoos. Albright got his goal when he beat Jamal Abdulrahman to a long ball to the left of the net and slotted a tight-angle shot past goalkeeper Shehab Kankone. Najem's goal, on a counterattack, made the U.S. bench nervous, but Donovan scored on a 2-on-1 break with Josh Wolff to secure the win. The Americans left the field all wet, but happy. "There's a buildup of U.S. soccer," Olsen said. "We're the next generation of U.S. Olympians, and every year we try to improve and this year we're doing it. And who knows what happens from here? We'll see how we do, and the next group has to do better."
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