First impressions of Wilmer Cabrera's American U-17 team that opened the FIFA U-17 World Cup on Monday are positive.
       You might say this is strange: The team had a 1-0 lead in five minutes, played 88 minutes against ten men and still couldn't beat Spain. The Europeans won 2-1 thanks a very good strike rate and with perhaps just a tiny bit of help from a linesman who appeared to miss an offside decision on one of the two tallies.
        But this isn't about the result as much as it is about how the Americans played. This one was not the usual kick-and-hope approach that dominates our youth game too often. This performance was measured, well-thought and it lasted for 90 minutes, something pretty rare for a USA team at any level.
        We have seen plenty of this age-group soccer in the past 20 years, including FIFA World Cups and the qualifying rounds which lead up to it, so we are hardly going to get carried away by one game. If anything is true about U-17 players it is that they are notoriously unpredicatble and offer performances which can vary radically from game to game. Few of the individuals ever reach the top level, although the real standouts in this event usually do go on to be special: think Cesc Fabregas when he stole the Finland-hosted event from then-touted Freddy Adu.
        Indeed, results really don't matter at this point; indeed Americans often are too interested in how a team did in terms of W's and L's and overlook how those numbers were achieved.
        It will be good enough for us if Cabrera's team can merely replicate its approach and organization in its remaining games in Nigeria. Even after an opening loss, this team looked good enough to impress against Malawi and the United Arab Emirates.
        I'm not even going to mention any players this morning. That will come later if deserved. Right now my focus is strictly on wanting to see a US team play with its mind as much as with its body. We saw next to nothing in terms of intelligent play development from the U-20 bunch in Egypt -- heart and effort and physicality, yes.
         Even our senior national team regularly fails in the thinking department -- we get players sent off and carded far too often and too many times the team cannot put two consistent halves together. Nobody ever questions the effort, but it's time we demanded far more than hard work.
        If there is to be any real change in our players it has to begin at the U17 level. We can choose to play more slowly, smarter and with a creative touch, but first we have stop running at full speed and flying into tackles. Coaching can influence players to make that choice and change their game. The appointment of Cabrera, a Colombian international, may turn out to have been a significant first step in getting something like that happening at last.
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        All of the U17 event from Nigeria is airing on ESPN360.com for those of you lucky enough to have access to those high-quality productions.
        ESPN360.com is also where you will be able to see the Arsenal-Liverpool Carling Cup game this afternoon (3:45 p.m., Eastern). Of interest there will be how the sides line up. Arsene Wenger has used this Cup to blood youngsters; Liverpool, too, has not been full strength early-on, but drawn against Arsenal and in the middle of a well-publicized crisis can Rafa Benitez afford to trust his kids with this trip to the Emirates?
    And for any of you who are wondering, the "later" kickoff times for this week's games from Europe are down to the fact that they ended Summer Time last weekend. We change our clocks this weekend so things will be back to "normal" on Sunday.

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