If you watched the US Under-17 team lose a 2-1 heartbreaker to Italy yesterday in the FIFA U17 World Cup you will doubtless have come away with one clear impression: at this level there is absolutely nothing to choose between an American elite-level player and his overseas counterpart.
    The Americans lost because they fluffed some golden chances, including a penalty. Know what? Teenagers make those kinds of mistakes and you simply play on. In this case, the coachspeak truth actually is correct. It's only when this age group doesn't create chances that you complain about a lack of skill or preparation.
    So if you are a neutral you probably walk away from the stadium in Kaduna, Nigeria figuring you have gotten money's worth and that American soccer is right there in comparison with the world's best.
    If you are an experienced American observer, however, you will immediately start to wonder how so much good will turn to sludge in the next 3-4 years. The great lesson of US Soccer's development of youth players is that we often get it right at stage one, then watch it all go wrong.
    In this case, the blame does not belong all with US Soccer. If we had a succesful pro league with a solid youth-reserve system there would be a place for these kids to go and grow. We don't have that, of course.
    Instead too many of these kids will go on to play college soccer. I've had more than one national team coach [both of men's and women's teams, mind you] tell me that when the kids come back from college soccer they have to be "uncoached" because they no longer play the international game.
    In a perfect world, Wilmer Cabrera could keep this group together, continue to coach it through the next level of FIFA age-group play. Actually, that would make sense. I'm not calling for heads here, simply saying that there is an argument for a youth coach to take a complete tour of duty. Let's find out if Cabrera could continue to develop this core into the next U-20 team.
    Get another U-17 coach for the incoming group and put together a 5-6 year plan. I don't know if that would solve the "lost talent" problem which currently afflicts our 17-21 age players, but I do know that what we do now doesn't work.
    Meanwhile, a "well done" to Cabrera and the kids in Nigeria. Two wins, two narrow defeats and not exactly an overabundance of luck.
    But that's the international game and this US bunch, once again, showed that at the U-17 level, at least, we don't have to take a back seat to anyone.

   Goal of the night on Wednesday?
   How about the Marius Onofras’ drive which denied Rangers what would have been a famous victory and perhaps eventually will be seen as the one which earned unfancied Unirea Urzicieni a passport to the knockout stage? This was a cracker of a game in tough conditions.
   Then there was that Ryan Babel strike in Lyon. At first it seemed likely to reignite Liverpool's Euro life and make the next few weeks livable for Rafa Benitez. But then came Lisandro Lopez to bundle in an untidy goal for Lyon on 90 minutes ... now the Reds are on Euro life-support, needing something close to a miracle to avoid winding up in Europa League next spring.
   But honors have to go to Diego Milito and Wesley Sneijder in Kiev. Maybe those weren't the prettiest of the evening, but they were dramatic and who knows what their ultimate value might be. The Serie A champions had looked at defeat and the Europa League consolation prize for most of the night. Then, in the span of three minutes, Jose Mourinho watched his team go from nearly dead to top of crazy Group F. That's why he's The Special One, after all.
   Ah, just another night of Champions League football ... the reason this competition has captured the globe and continues to threaten FIFA's World Cup as the premier attraction in the game.

It's on to the Europa League tonight and even that second chance tournament has been surprisingly good to date.

Today's EUROPA LEAGUE TV card

1300 Eastern Standard kickoffs
Roma vs. Fulham, DTV 462
Hamburg SV vs. Celtic, Gol TV, DTV 463
Genoa vs. Lille, DTV 464
Dinamo Bucuresti vs. Galatasaray, DTV 465
Dinamo Zagreb vs. Ajax, DTV 466
Sporting Lisbon vs. Ventspils, DTV 467
Sturm Graz vs. Panathinaikos, DTV 468
Heerenveen vs. Hertha Berlin, DTV 469

1500 Eastern Standard kickoffs
Villarreal vs. Lazio, Gol TV
Everton vs. Benfica, DTV 462
Nacional vs. Athletic Bilbao, DTV 463
Werder Bremen vs. Austria Wien, DTV 464
Toulouse vs. Shakhtar Donetsk, DTV 465
FC Kobnhaven vs. PSV Eindhoven, DTV 467
AEK Athens vs. BATE Borisov, DTV 468
Levski Sofia vs. Salzburg, DTV 469

MLS Cup at 2000 Eastern Standard
First Round, Second Leg
Columbus Crew vs. Real Salt Lake, ESPN2


DAILY READS:
“Silent Stan” nears Arsenal threshold; takeover seen as imminent

MLS playoffs, part two: