The U23 Men's National Team currently playing at the Toulon International Tournament in France will have to pick it up in the coming 2 days.

The scoreline from today's 3-2 loss to Turkey does not tell the full story of the team's performance by any means.

Yes, the team managed to battle back for a couple of goals to make the result seem more respectable. Yes, the squad showed trademark American heart after the break, responding to Peter Nowak's no-doubt fiery exhortations play for the jersey and all that.

Those bright spots aside, the squad was extremely disappointing in the opening 45 minutes and generally poor over the match.

While the 1v1 defensive work was mostly decent ,the team defending was quite mediocre, especially considering the confidence and efficiency with which the Turks knocked the ball around. Suspicions of ball-watching were present on both 1^st-half goals scored by the Turks, and there was plenty of blame to go around on the 3^rd, with goalkeeper Domini Cervi sharing responsibility.

Cervi, a University of Tulsa product, is currently looking to find a professional assignment in Europe. He's one of a number of players in this squad who are out of contract or otherwise looking for a club deal that affords them an opportunity to play regularly. This may have been one reason why the U.S. team looked so ineffective, especially in the 1^st half. The squad has been thrown together in the past week, with most of the players who competed in the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament in March not available due to club obligations or having been called into the full national team for next week's Match vs. England.

So it's an opportunity for some other players to make an impression on Nowak and his staff before a team is chosen to compete in the Summer Olympics this August in China.

One of the most notable deficiencies however, came from a player who just a year ago was scoring the winning goal in the Gold Cup for the full national team. Midfielder Benny Feilhaber has spent the past 12 months in virtual no-man's land, first at German side Hamburg and more recently at Derby County, a team which just completed the worst season in the history of the English Premiership. He played in a couple of late matches for Derby at the end of the season, offering some hope that his hiatus from 1^st team duty may be coming to an end as the club move to the English Championship (2^nd Division).

Whereever it is, he clearly needs to be getting a regular game, because Feilhaber in the 1^st half Wednesday was practically invisible in midfield, and it helped leave the U.S. backline exposed throughout. Things went from bad to worse as the former UCLA standout had to leave the game with a knee injury in the 2^nd half. Hopefully he is able to recover.

Saying that it was the 3 U.S. subs who offered perhaps the most hope for Nowak's side when they came on in the 2^nd half. Kamani Hill was much more active in midfield, Anthony Beltran played some good balls forward from his fullback spot, and Brek Shea, the 2^nd-youngest player in the squad at age 18, looked quite lively in the attack from the left side. Gabriel Ferrari also showed some individual skill up front for the U.S., but too often was left isolate. Houston Dynamo winger Corey Ashe was his usual industrious self as well, but there was little else to write home about. Even Sammy Ochoa, who took his goal very nicely in the 2^nd half, gave the ball away far too often in this game, especially considering he was being charged with holding the ball up to allow his teammates to get into the attack. It just didn't happen.

So while the event is largely a last-chance audition for the Olympic squad, and the results in themselves certainly don't matter, you have to hope the whole U.S. team will apply itself to show great improvement in the upcoming matches. They are wearing the national team jersey and it is fair to expect nothing less.