FRISCO, TEXAS – U.S. U20 Men’s National Team coach Thomas Rongen wasn’t throwing around the superlatives Friday after his team’s 1-1 draw with its counterparts from Japan in a friendly played at Pizza Hut Park.

When I suggested the industry shown by the team in Friday’s match was better than the team’s disappointing effort in a 1-0 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt Wednesday, Rongen only partially agreed.

“A little better, but still not where we need to be,” he said. “From a result standpoint it was a little better, but I thought Japan was the better of the two teams without a doubt. But as I said, these exercises in the first four or five camps we are trying to find players and see who are the best to go forward with.

“We brought 20 players and wanted to give everybody two games and see people over 90 minutes against good opponents, and as I said Wednesday, you walk away and draw some conclusions,” he continued. “So from that standpoint, it was a good exercise for us.”

Kickoff was delayed slightly by the threat of lightning in the area, and a pretty good rain shower hit the field during the 1st half. Japan created a number of scoring chances in the first 20 minutes as the U.S. struggled to both hold possession and string together any successful passes.

One player who was causing Japan a bit of duress was Virginia forward Will Bates, who was working very hard, making some intelligent runs off the ball and showing off good technical speed on the ball.

The best U.S. scoring chance in the opening 45 minutes came courtesy of Dallas Texans’ winger Gino DePaoli, invited to the match along with teammates Zach Barnes and Blake Wise and CZ Elite defender Marco Franco. DePaoli, never shy about taking players on 1v1,  skinned his marker, cut inside and then played a perfect ball for forward Ryan Finley, but the finish was off target.

Japan scored early in the 2nd half after a bad U.S. giveaway in midfield, and the U.S. continued to struggle to hold possession.

Rongen inserted Dillon Powers and Cesar Zamora into central midfield after 65 minutes and this seemed to kickstart the U.S. effort. Powers in particular was active, pushing the team forward and making a difference with some good runs and passes. Zamora added a couple of well-timed tackles to give the Japanese a little more to think about on the ball.

The equalizing goal came courtesy of Bates’ industry, as the strong forward outmuscled a Japanese defender off the ball on the right and then rolled a bass into the 6-yard box where the onrushing Finley had the simplest of finishes to make it 1-1.

Japan had a couple of chances to go on top after that, but Boston College Justin Luthy made a pair of quality reflex saves to keep the match level. Finley then had one more chance to score after finding himself behind the defense, but hit a lob well over the target and the match ended as a 1-1 draw.

USA Lineup
GK: Justin Luthy
D: Zach Barnes, Ian Hines-Ike, Marco Franco, Jesus Gonzalez
M: Gino DePaoli (Blake Wise), Jared Watts (Cesar Zamora), Will Packwood (Dillon Powers), Ruben Gonzalez (Jose Altamirano)
F: Ryan Finley, Will Bates (Bryan De La Fuente)