NASHVILLE — Canada could not find the groove at LP Field last night and the United States never looked as if it would lose as it scored a 3-0 victory in a CONCACAF Olympic qualifying semi-final.
The United States earned a berth in the Beijing Olympic Games, and Canada will not go. Honduras also earned a spot in the Olympics with a dramatic victory over Guatemala on penalty kicks in the other semi-final.
The Canadian men's soccer team has not qualified for the Olympics since 1984.
The United States and Honduras will play for first place on Sunday, while Canada and Guatemala will compete for third in the tournament for under-23 teams.
Freddy Adu scored twice off free kicks just outside the penalty area, in the 27th and 47th minutes, before an announced attendance of 13,201.
"We gave up those free kicks," Canadian coach Nick Dasovic said. "He's a clinician at it. We kind of talked about keeping our fouls to a minimum around the box, and unfortunately, we didn't quite stick to our game plan that way."
Adu's second scoring free kick came after Andrew Hainault received a yellow card for his hit on U.S. forward Jozy Altidore, who put pressure on Canada's defenders the entire game. Later, Altidore picked up a yellow for a foul on Dejan Jakovic.
Sacha Kljestan scored in the 78th minute with an assist from Stuart Holden.
The Canadians picked things up after they fell behind by a couple of goals, but it was too late.
"It just seemed that we didn't have the energy levels," Dasovic said.
The Canadian coach said the United States has the best team in CONCACAF.
"Not just in the U-23 level, but at the senior level," Dasovic said. "What they've done in the last 20 years is remarkable. It shows what they've done in terms of all the money they've put in their programs. They're in the Olympics again and probably are on their way to the World Cup. It just goes from having that infrastructure."
There was a Toronto FC presence in the game as both Maurice Edu and Marvell Wynne played for the U.S. team and Tyler Hemming and Andrea Lombardo, as a second-half substitute, played for Canada.
Canadian goalkeeper Josh Wagenaar and midfielder Tyler Rosenlund also have had trials with Toronto during its training camp.
In the first game, Honduras won 6-5 on penalty kicks over Guatemala after the teams played 90 minutes of regular time and 30 minutes of extra time without a goal. Guatemala was reduced to 10 men in the first 15-minute half of extra time because of a red card to Cristian Noriega.
Even though there are games on Sunday, the semi-finals of this tournament were the ones that counted. The winners go to the Olympics and the losers don't. It's that simple.
The Canadian team lacked the depth of the U.S. team and it showed. The teams had to play three games in five days in the group portion of the tournament last week. Canada finished second in Group B in Carson, Calif., and the United States won Group A in Tampa.
"The jet lag was catching up to some of the boys," Dasovic said. "The tiredness. We had three hard games against Mexico, Haiti and Guatemala. You look at the States, in four games they had four different lineups. They had changes and rested guys. I think Freddy didn't even play one game. At the end of the day, we were beat by a better team today."
There was been a big difference in the preparation of the teams. The U.S. team's preparations included a trip to China last December for two games against that country's under-23 team.
Canada reached the semi-finals with a 5-0 victory last Sunday over Guatemala and that provided the advantage in goal differential over Mexico, which defeated Haiti 5-1.
The U.S. team added defender Jonathan Spector, who plays for West Ham in the English Premier League, for last night's game and he started. He has been playing entire games recently for West Ham.
