U-17's underwhelm in 1-0 victory at World Cup

Coming off a disappointing 2-1 loss to a ten man Spanish team the U.S. was facing a must win game against group lightweights Malawi.  Thanks to a horrible goalkeeper error on a shot from Alex Shinsky, the Americans took home a vital victory and pulled themselves back into a good standing in their group. 

Despite the win, this team has not lived up to the billing that it was given in the run up to the tournament.  This is apparently a U.S. side that attacks at will yet has only mustered two goals and was out played by a team who was down a man.  The young Nats still have a chance to turn things around in their final group match against UAE and are looking to hopefully gain momentum heading into the knock out stages.  Wilmer Cabrera will have to have his troops ready for a solid UAE side that the Americans should be able to out class, but should not take lightly. 

Jack McInerny and Luis Gil will need to ramp up their offensive games and maybe bring Carlos Martinez into the lineup could help boost the somewhat stagnant attack.  It also might be a good game to give Stefan Jerome another crack at striker after he failed to impress against Spain.  This side needs to show the world that they are a different breed of American soccer players and they have not yet done that.  Failure to do so will not be the death of soccer in America but it will cause me to second guess what I hear coming out of Bradenton in the future.