27-9. The final score on a dismal day for the USA Eagles. In Charleston, SC where played for a nearly full stadium at Blackbaud Stadium, the Eagles failed to even attain one try for the season. This game has played out the same as it had throughout the season. The USA Eagles managed to keep the game competitive at halftime, despite giving up early scores, but still leaving room for hope and retribution. But enter into the second half , the Eagles lose their composure over the course of the game, and allow the score to be ran higher than the actual field play allowed. In this case, the Eagles were defeated by Canada much the same way they had on May 25th, Kicking. Despite having played this long rivalry of a game, and the Eagles players claiming to know the Canadian team well, they still have yet to determine a defense for the accurate kicking game.
Big kicks for gains by Canada’s James Prichard and Harry Jones were allowed to hit the ground before they were caught, giving the Canada team plenty of time to close the distance on the receiving Eagles. These errors gave way to errant balls in the air masquerading as passes. The Eagles back-line slowly getting flatter and flatter as the game persisted, and allowing Canada to take advantage of the plays and keeping the Eagles in their own territory. The inability to defend the Canadian kicking game was what allowed the first score of the game by Phil Mack within the 40 seconds of the game starting.
The major bright spot of the game was when substitute, Titi Lamositele, entered into the field and you got to see a mini-clinic of what the Eagles offense could be like when he broke off a 20 meter run that allowed the Eagles to attack on the Canadian side of the field. Unfortunately nothing came out of that spark on the score boards as the same problems of ball handling and turnovers plagued the USA team.
We all know that the Eagles have a chance to rectify this loss next week when they travel to Toronto when they play the second half of the World Cup Qualifier match. Perhaps in this instance, unlike four years ago, they can build up the score so that the points differential is on their side, opposed to the Canadians.