Postcards From Argentina Five
6/22/2001 8:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
June 22, 2001
POSTCARDS FROM ARGENTINA Every other day a player from the U.S. Under-20 Men's National Team will send out a postcard from Argentina, where the U.S. team is playing in the XIth FIFA World Youth Championship.
Today's postcard is from defender ... OGUCHI ONYEWU Height: 6'3" Weight: 202 Born: May 13, 1982 Hometown: Olney, Maryland College: Clemson
The game against Chile was a do-or-die situation for us, and I think that helped us as a team to come out and perform our best. We performed well, and we got the result that we wanted and needed. The team played a lot better than we did against China, but we still can play better as a team. Hopefully, we will continue to improve and play better and take care of business against Ukraine on Saturday.
We made a little situational switch before the match against Chile and started 'Beas' (DaMarcus Beasley) and (Edson)Buddle up top. It turned out to work brilliantly, and they combined for three goals. Beasley scored twice in the first half to give us a 2-1 lead at the break. Brad Davis came off the bench and scores the third goal before Buddle added the fourth later in the game. Edson's goal was brilliant, it started in the midfield and Landon (Donovan) found Bobby (Convey), who found DaMarcus. 'Beas' looked like he was going to shoot and then dumped it to Buddle, who ended it with a great finish from 12 yards out. It was a great goal and a nice way to end the match. D.J. (Countess) came up with some big saves in back, and I think the defense as a whole played well. Convey also played real well and had two assists.
Today we basically got the day off to chill and regenerate. Wolfgang gave us time to get our legs back and gave everyone a little time to see the families. I have just been travelling around the city and looking at some sights and doing a little shopping.
Mendoza is a great little city. The people in Mendoza seem to be very nice and we always seem to have a large following wherever we go. They know that we are from the USA, and they have been very welcoming to us. So far it has been a great trip and I really can't say anything bad about Mendoza or Argentina right now.
The only downside to the trip right now is that a few players have come down with a sickness and it effected some of the players who would have played against Chile. I think we managed and I think we beat it and I think everything will be alright.
We know we have another huge game against Ukraine, but I think the team is feeling well and I think we will come out and play well again.
Oguchi
Onyewu has started 10 of the USA's 11 internationals in 2001. He was a starter on the U.S. Under-17 squad that advanced to the finals of the 1999 Under-17 World Championship and scored the equalizer in the 2-2 semifinal draw with Australia.
