Jozy Altidore by Bob Levey/Getty Images
The U.S. men’s soccer team has only qualified for the Olympics once in the past century — finishing fourth at the Sydney Games in 2000. The CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualifying tournament, which begins Tuesday, provides a chance to improve on that dubious legacy. The top two squads in the eight-team field will advance to the upcoming Beijing Olympics.
Olympic men’s soccer is limited to players under 23 years old (to ensure that the World Cup is the sport’s biggest event), so the American roster is even more anonymous than most U.S. soccer teams. One exception is the overexposed (and thus far mostly underperforming) Freddy Adu. But the player to watch is Jozy Altidore. The Livingston, New Jersey, native scored nine goals for the New York Red Bulls during the 2007 Major League Soccer season. He also found the net four times at last summer’s Under-20 World Cup. The U.S. looked unstoppable in group play at that tournament, but lost in the quarterfinals, an experience that "definitely left a bad taste in my mouth," Altidore says. "If we qualify for these Olympics it will be a different story. Hopefully we bring a different attitude and we show the world once again that soccer in this country is growing."
The U.S. opens group play on Tuesday against Cuba (March 11, 8 pm/ET, Fox Soccer Channel and ESPN Deportes), and continues with Panama (Thurs., March 13, 8 pm/ET, Fox Soccer Channel and ESPN Deportes) and Honduras (Sat., March 15, 7 pm/ET, Fox Soccer Channel and ESPN Deportes). The semifinals are March 20 and the championship game is March 23.
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