Fabulous Freddy Adu

It's been a schizophrenic few weeks for U.S. soccer fans. The yanks were largely uninspiring in their run through the Gold Cup, gritting out victories over humdrum squads like Panama and Canada. But Benny Feilhaber's miraculous game-winning strike over the evil Mexicans in the final erased any misgivings about the state of the American squad.

Then there was Copa America. Granted it was a B-list U.S. squad, lacking key performers such as Landon Donovan and Tim Howard. But the results were undeniably miserable. I could handle the 4-1 pasting at the hands of Argentina. And even the 3-1 loss to Paraguay--in which the U.S. had approximately 87 prime opportunities to score, but simply couldn't stick the ball in the net--was stomachable. But the dreadful 1-0 loss to Colombia, in which the Americans didn't seem to have a clue, was humiliating. It was the worst performance I can recall watching at least since Chad Deering was regularly suiting up for the yanks.

But hope has been restored by Freddy Adu and the U-20 squad. After a tepid 1-1 draw against South Korea in its opening match, the Americans have been tearing it up at the World Cup in Canada. They thrashed Poland 6-1 on the strength of a spectacular hat trick by Adu. Then they stunned Brazil with a 2-1 victory on Friday night. Jozy Altidore, the 17-year-old Red Bull star, bagged both goals, but the best player on the pitch was once again Adu. His audacious run to set up the gamewinner should alone earn him a plane ticket out of Salt Lake City. The Americans will now take on Uruguay on Wednesday in the second round.

U.S. v. Poland:

U.S. v. Brazil: