Beijing - For weeks U.S. Olympic men’s soccer coach Peter Nowak toyed with his lineup.
“The first game of the tournament is very tough,” Nowak said. “You prepare yourself for a couple of weeks and then play a couple of games and try and find the right recipe.”
Nowak found the right ingredients in Team USA’s 1-0 first round opening victory against Japan Thursday that not only gave the Americans their first Olympic victory since 2000 but put the U.S. in first place in Group B. Netherlands and Nigeria tied 0-0 in Group B’s other match Thursday.
Stuart Holden pounded home a Marvell Wynne cross in the 47th minute to put the U.S. in position to clinch a second round spot against Netherlands, the 2007 European Under-21 champions on Sunday.
“Obviously it’s a good feeling to get a goal but if we hadn’t won, it wouldn’t have been as good a feeling,” Holden said. “To come out of this with a good three points (for the win) was our first goal.”
Defender Wynne broke down the right wing, sending a cross into the box. Japan captain Hiroki Mizumoto tried to clear it only to drop it into the path of Holden, who punched the goal home.
The rest of the way Chivas USA and Huntington Beach’s Sacha Kljestan and Michael Bradley controlled the midfield and the U.S. held off a series of late bids by the Japanese.
“I think we needed to settle the game down a little bit and keep the ball more to make them run more, not make us run,” Kljestan. “In a game like that you need to have possession more than half the time to not kill yourself. I think we did that after we scored the goal. We made them run a bit and obviously when it got late in the game they started throwing everybody forward and it was tough, but we battled. I have so much respect for our team because we fought so hard tonight.”
