I own scarves representing two pro soccer teams.

One is Philadelphia Union.

The other is Turkish club MKE Ankaragücü.

Do you know what else they have in common? They're the only two teams in the "worst team in the world" conversation with Toronto FC, who had lost nine straight league matches to open the season before beating the Union on Saturday.

"That's the problem with the 4-3-3," says O'Brien, who played 32 times for the United States and spent more than a decade in Dutch soccer. "You're pretty exposed and so if you don't keep the ball, you're definitely very open for counters. Part of the 4-3-3 is getting used to knowing that when you're possessing the ball, you're ready in case the guy turns it over.

Of late, there have been many talking points regarding United States Soccer. The senior team has turned in three straight wins, but they've been largely inconsistent in each of these past performances. Prior to those three matches, Jurgen Klinsmann's teams have been hard to describe. We've yet to see a distinctive style out of the senior team and that might prove worrisome.

The United States Under-23 National Team entered their final match of Group A play in need of a victory to advance in the qualifying for the Summer Olympics.

Standing in their way, however, was a resilient El Salvador squad that gave the Americans every thing they could handle, right up until the 90th minute.

Photo: Courtesy of Sporting News/AP Photo

Just over one minute into their final group stage match, the United States had wiped the taste of a 2-0 loss to Canada from their memories. Brek Shea fought off two defenders on the left touch line before beating a third man and whipping a waist-high cross into the box.

Brek Shea and the US crashed out last night to El Salvador. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Soccer is a cruel sport sometimes. Make no mistake about it.

Yes it was a total collapse in a way by the US U-23 team last night against El Salvador in Nashville. Having a 3-2 lead late into extra time, with just seconds away from being able to move on to the semifinals, the unthinkable happened as El Salvador found a way to get by keeper Sean Johnson for the 3-3 draw.

Photo: Courtesy of AP/Sporting News

Well, on the bright side, the Union will have Freddy Adu, Amobi Okugo and Sheanon Williams back ahead of Saturday's match against Vancouver...Nah, not working, too soon. This still sucks.

US

In need of a win against El Salvador on Monday night in order to advance to the semifinals in CONCACAF Olympic qualifying, US U-23 coach Caleb Porter said, "There is no doubt in my mind that we are going to get the result.

1-2-0 record not acceptable, especially at home. The U.S. went down in flames to El Salvador in Nashville Tennessee on Monday night. The US shockingly drew El Salvador 3-3 after a goal from the Central American team in the final minute of added time. That goal drew tears of joy for El Salvador who celebrated [.

There's a moment in most sports films where the plucky underdogs, having overcome the odds and hung in with their dominant, vaguely oppressive opponents, come up with a miracle play to win the big game, the music plays and everyone goes home happy. Americans love this story. Saturday we got to live the flip side.

(Note: we were unable to do a post-game chat for this game at the last minute; however, please join us Monday for the critical last group stage match and post-game analysis) All of the warm fuzzies after Thursday's thrashing of ...
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It's looking more and more like something special is going on with the U-23 US Men's National Team. Led by a prodigy-turned-elder-statesman, a team of prodigious talent is turning in to the most exciting group of players to come through the American system in a long time.

Fast start

It took eleven minutes of poking and prodding for the US to take the lead over Cuba on Nashville's LP Field.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

It seems someone has made a PSP app. Who knew?

Philadelphia Union

Look for PSP's Chicago Fire vs. Philadelphia Union match preview later today.

While Danny Califf and Peter Nowak told reporters that they had put the "miscommunication" flap behind them at a meeting earlier in the week, Nowak indicated at Wednesday's press conference that Califf's status for Saturday's game in Chicago was still uncertain.

By Garrett McInnis As I was throwing clothes into a suitcase, I was left thinking about the next few days and what they will be like. I'm heading to Nashville today before the US Under-23's opening match of Olympic Qualifying. This will be my first foray into covering the United States as a live, in-person, [.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philadelphia Union

Danny Califf and Peter Nowak were at Wednesday's press conference to put the Califf Controversy to bed.

Said Califf, "We had a good talk yesterday. I think we resolved some issues, so I think things are going to be much better going forward.

We here at MLS Talk are guilty of one thing: we like to try new things. We've had some successes and failures over the years, but we are trying new ways to not only provide important information about the matches ...
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Piotr Nowak knows more about Olympic Qualifying than most. The Union head coach worked as an assistant to then USMNT boss Bob Bradley, and was in charge of the Olympic team for qualifying & the Beijing games back in 2008. Coach Nowak was kind enough to take a few minutes to discuss Caleb Porter's selections & the challenges of qualifying process last night at the FanFest at Chickie's & Pete's.

Photo courtesy of Ethan Erickson/Portland Timbers

Philadelphia Union

Is it power rankings roundup time already? Soccer America has the Union at No. 17. The Union are No. 15 at the Toronto Sun and The Sports Network. At ESPN and ProSoccerTalk the Union is at 14th. SI has the Union at No.

On Monday, U.S. Olympic Team Head Coach Caleb Porter announced his roster for the upcoming CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying tournament, taking place later this month.

Of the 19 players named to the roster, 13 are currently playing in Major League Soccer.

On Tuesday the 13th, the team will assemble in Nashville to begin training camp.

U.S. Under-23 Men's National Team head coach Caleb Porter has named a 20-player training camp roster to convene March 13 to begin final preparations for the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying tournament.

The 19-player roster will be finalized March 20, the due date for all participating teams to submit their rosters to CONCACAF.

Philadelphia Union

The Union announced on Friday morning the signing of goalkeeper Chris Konopka.

From the Department of Is It March 12 Yet, handbags in Costa Rica between the Union and Belen resulted in the abandonment of team's final scrimmage game with them down 2–0 in the first half.

Photo: AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

For nearly 45 minutes, the United States under-23 national team forgot who they were.

US soccer has been making up for a shortage of on-the-ball talent by developing tough, athletic, and hard-working players for a long, long time. The defining moment of the 2010 World Cup was Landon Donovan's lung-bursting downfield run to score the winner over Algeria.

USA! USA! USA!

It started with the USWNT's 5–0 demolition of Denmark in their opening game in the Algarve Cup. It continued with the USMNT's historic 1–0 win over Italy in Italy. It ended with the USMNT U-23s convincing 2–0 win over Mexico's U-23s. Three-for-three with three shutouts in one day—surely that's never happened before in US Soccer.

Brian Ching is back. It took months for the deal to happen, but the Montreal Impact and Houston Dynamo have finally come to terms that will allow league legend Brian Ching to return home to Houston. This allows the veteran to play with the Orange in the opening of their new stadium. It is a story that has been talked to death, but finally has a resolution.

Philadelphia Union

The Goalkeeper has a transcript of Wednesday's press conference with Peter Nowak. Among the highlights:

On Pajoy: "He's a guy who brings not only character but also a mentality to the game. He's very physical, and very fast as well. He can change the game, because he's a different option.

Neil W. Blackmon Caleb Porter's U-23 side, the January camp edition, fell 4-0 to the Klinsmann Camp Cupcake edition of the USMNT this weekend, and while conceding four goals to the senior side may cause some alarm among those anxiously monitoring this group's progress, it's the lack of goals that was somewhat surprising to those [.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

Philadelphia Union

Jack McInerney scored in the US U-23 team's 1–1 draw with the USMNT. McInerney, Amobi Okugo, and Freddy Adu started the first half. Zac MacMath and Sheanon Williams started the second half.

John Hackworth says of Tom Brandt, the Union's first pick in the Supplemental Draft, "We wanted to get a quality player in the back and we feel like we did that with Tom Brandt.

Adu had some moments.The U.S. Men's National Team opened up 2012 with some very interesting talking points. Certain call ups, certain omissions, scrimmages and of course the obvious questions that accompany such things. First up would be the scrimmage between the full team and the Under 23's.
The senior squad paid a lesson to the U23 Olympic team with a 4-0 dismantling of their younger brothers.

The roster for the U.S. U-23 team that will train from Jan. 8-18 at the Home Depot Center was released this afternoon by U.S. Soccer. Head coach Caleb Porter named 22 players for a training camp that will take place in two locations. Carson, California and San Jose, Costa Rica. The team will travel to [.

Connor Walsh Caleb Porter has just wrapped up the second of what will be four U-23 training camps ahead of 2012 Olympics Qualifying which begins for the United States this coming March. The teams' first camp, this past November, was held in Duisberg, Germany and due to Porter's commitment to the University of Akron, the [.

Jon Levy You'll have to forgive all of us here at The Yanks Are Coming for getting into a more-than-healthy amount of self-referencing in the coming months. We're coming up on the blog's fourth birthday this summer, TYAC having been created in the wake of a very talented 2008 Olympic soccer team's early and unexpected exit from the Beijing [.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

Ives Galarcep reports at Fox Soccer that Freddy Adu is heading to with Spanish side Rayo Vallecano for a two-week training stint. The report notes, "Rayo Vallecano is also a club that had been in talks with Adu about signing him last summer before Adu settled on a return to MLS.

Philadelphia Union

Tweet from Freddy Adu: "Happy Holidays to everyone. Love the holiday season."

In Goal.com's survey of the Eastern Conference there is this review of the the Union's 2011 season in a sentence: "Another season of incremental growth for a young squad still in need of a couple of pieces to compete for MLS Cup.

Philadelphia Union

Kerith Gabriel reports that the Philadelphia Union will announce a "blockbuster deal" with Panamanian international Gabriel Gomez. Gabriel says that Gomez is the "the same box-to-box defender/midfielder that was a beast in Panama's 2-0 win over the United States in the group stage of this summer's Gold Cup.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philadelphia Union

The "2011 in Review" articles for the Philadelphia Union are now up on the MLS website. One provides decent insight, the other, not so much. In the Q & A cobbled together from the last press conference of the season, in addition to relating that Freddy Adu was at "60 percent" for much of the end of the season due to a back injury and the need for defensive additions and competition within the various positions on the field, Peter Nowak discusses the mindset the team needs to win a championship:

"I told you guys at the press conferences we've had all year long that we believe in what we're building, we believe what is the culture around the team.

By Puck Ladies and Gents, welcome back into the Happy Hour. This week has been a series of disappointments for Puck and company. Both Manchester teams uneventfully crashed out of the UEFA Champions League, and Charlie Weis is leaving the Sunshine State to coach the woeful Kansas Jayhawks. Needless to say, many alcoholic libations are [.

Philadelphia Union

John Hackworth explains what the Union is looking for going into the 2012 season. "When you're retooling, you have to make sure you're managing the roster and the salary cap. We're not necessarily trying to get younger; we're trying to get better. And we're going to look at every avenue do that.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Union

Faryd Mondragon said, "If we play the way we know how to play, we can beat anyone."

Sebastien Le Toux on Houston: "We know we can beat them."

And, as Marc Narducci reports, Danny Califf knows it can be done. Califf was on the LA Galaxy team that, in the 2003, beat San Jose 2–0 in the first leg, was up 2–0 in the second half, and lost 2–5 in extra time.

Thirty-one players were called in for the combined U-20/U-23 training camp in Duisburg, Germany, from Nov. 7-16.

GOALKEEPERS David Bingham (San Jose Earthquakes; Pleasanton, Calif.), Cody Cropper (Ipswich Town; Athens, Ga.), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire, Lilburn, Ga.

Photo courtesy of MLSsoccer.com

The call

Peter Nowak: "Did you guys see the replay [of the free kick goal that was ruled offside] or not yet? I saw it, the frame. The ball is off Séba's foot already by two or three yards...All I can say is that we live in a country where you can criticize everybody, including the President and the federal government.

Caleb Porter will now lead the U-23 National team. (Photo via Akron Athletic Department)

A bit of news we heard about yesterday over on Twitter. University of Akron head coach Caleb Porter has been officially named the US U-23 head coach more importantly the Olympics head coach for the US.