Soccer America senior editor Scott French spoke with Coach John Ellinger, midfielder Craig Capano, forward Eddie Johnson and U.S. winger Santino Quaranta after the USAÆs 4-2 win over Canada in U-17 World Cup qualifying. U.S. COACH JOHN ELLINGER You got the early goal, then it seemed you lost your way a little bit. ôWe backed off just a tad in the concentration. I still havenÆt seen what their first goal looked like. Some say it was in, some say it wasn’t in — what are you going to do? Tonight we had one similar as well, same type of play [in which the ball is cleared after crossing the line].ö Yours looked more in … ôThat’s always nice. ôI think in the first half we didn’t have much of the midfield. That’s why the [halftime] subs, to bring Mike [Magee] and Erwin [Diaz] out, go with Justin [Mapp]. We can play a 4-3-3, bring David Johnson in, who I thought did a great job of settling us down. It gave us that extra midfielder. Their two [central] midfielders [Jason DiTullio and Matthew O’Connor] just had a lot of time and space — too much time and space — in the first half, so we wanted to deal with that, and then things started opening up for us. ôI thought Eddie [Johnson’s] second goal was big-time. It was a great goal.ö It seemed the first 15 minutes of the second half were played in midfield, with neither team holding the advantage … ôI think it’s just a matter — I yelled out at one point, I wanted one guy to drop off and the other two to match up with [Canada’s] two midfielders. They were getting so much time and space. Once they got it sorted out, then the game changed. They were playing it forward, then play it back into midfield, trying to get it up to [forward Wyn Belotte]. ôHe’s dangerous, but, you know … I think he got credit for the first one, and that was a tap-in, so other than that, I didn’t think he did a whole lot except hold the ball. Gray Griffin really seemed to cling to him in the second half … ôGray is a strong marking defender, very level-headed. The big thing with [Belotte] was to get Gray on him, and not to get cards. He did a good job of defending him — I think he got inside his head a little bit, not giving him a lot of space.ö It seemed he did that more so in the second half … ôWe knew, because we were going against the wind, now they’re going to really start lumping balls into him, but we wanted to take away in the second half their ability to play it [to Belotte].ö Did you think Eddie Johnson had a better game than on Wednesday [a 2-1 victory over Jamaica]? ôI think so. I mean, he’s so good. You can play balls into him, and he doesn’t give up possession. He’s wonderful at that. And I was glad to see him get on the board two times today. ôAnd Justin again comes off the bench and does an outstanding job of just putting [Canada] under pressure.ö Santino Quaranta seemed muted until near the end. ôYeah. We were movng him around because I was trying to get something going — took him from wide right, moved him into the middle at the end of first half to give us something, trying to get some kind of juice. ôWe do play better in a 4-4-2 for the most part, but the way their two midfielders were playing, and their frontrunner — and battling the wind — I thought we had to go to the 4-3-3.ö It seemed more like — and perhaps this wasn’t by design — that you were playing a 4-2-4. ôActually, we were playing like a 4-4-2, but our two wides pushed kind of up.ö They were pushing up about equal with the front two. ôThey’re not supposed to. But that’s the look you sometimes get when you’re on attack, and it ends up happening that the rest of the players, the back players in midfield, get the ball and look up and see four across. That’s the thing we work on not to do.ö Any concerns about your goalkeeping? ôNo. Adam [Schuerman’s] solid. He came up big with a couple saves in the first half. He’s been solid, no concerns with that. I mean, you’re dealing with 15-, 16-year-olds, who are turning 17 this year. ôTo be honest, you don’t know when they have a bad piece of bacon or a bad french fry in the course of the day that changes it for them. ôLike Magee. Mike’s a good player for us, but he’s gone missing, I think, in the last two games. So we’re trying to find a mix that works for us, and luckily there are two halves in each game.ö The second U.S. goal … ôIt opened it up. I still donÆt like breakdowns like we did, giving up that second goal [to Belotte]. I think we can do better than that. We still have a better game left to play.ö Is this team trying to find itself, and it hasn’t yet? ôGoing into this game, I knew they were going to run and put us under pressure, and it was at times going to be a hectic type of game. All you have to do is watch any tape of a USA-Canada game in the last five years — at any level — and you’ll see the same thing you saw in the first half. ôUntil you break them down and hopefully take some of their fighting spirit away, then it becomes a soccer game. I want to give a lot of credit: I think Canada tried to play and kept it on the ground in the first half, and they had a much better first half than we did. I felt we did the number in the second half.ö What did you think of your backline? ôIt got better as the game went on, I thought. No question, we’re not going to lose too many balls in the air. I don’t think we’ll lose too many [Sunday against El Salvador]. Although I’ve been very impressed with the El Salvador’s [Alexander Escobar]. He’s been very savvy as a central defender.ö What do you anticipate Sunday? ôI’ve seen El Salvador twice. They play a 3-4-3, are very technical, very composed on the ball. I saw the first half of the game today [in which El Salvador beat Jamaica, 3-0]. El Salvador came down and scored in the first few minutes of the game, then did it again in the second half. We’ll put a little more pressure on El Salvador than they [faced] today, and we bring a different look, I think, than the other two teams they’ve played. So, we’ll prepare dealing with their 3-4-3. ôWhen we played Guatemala in Miami, in that game they played a 3-4-3, so we’ve seen that look. We seem very comfortable with that.ö U.S. MIDFIELDER CRAIG CAPANO, WHO SCORED THE AMERICANS’ SECOND GOAL IN THE 59TH MINUTE. Canada seemed to be in control until you scored your goal … ôIt surprised us. Against Jamaica, when we went up, 2-1, I guess they just gave up, and it was easy for us. We didnÆt take it to [Canada] like we should have.ö Did you expect Canada to roll over? ôYeah. We played them back in August [at Oneonta, N.Y.], and we had them, 4-1, and they kind of gave up after the second or third goal. It was totally different today. We had to pick it up. We didn’t know what to expect, really, ’cause they’ve been playing teams [during preparations] and losing the first game or tying the first game, then the next game just crushing the team. We didn’t know what to expect.ö It seemed you guys in midfield were getting overrun in the first half. ôIt was tough for us. Like back in August when we played them, it was like a field day. We play today, and it was dirty, and they were rough, and they were getting in. Every time I went up to get a head ball, I was coming down with an elbow in my head. And it was tough. They were more physical, and they were more active. At halftime, we realized we had to pick it up, and that’s what we did.ö Bringing on David Johnson really seemed to settle you down. ôIt helped a lot. With three in the middle instead of two, that helped us a lot.ö Eddie Johnson’s second goal — the long run followed by the chip — was really something. What does he bring to the team? ôHe brings a lot. He can hold guys off, he can turn them, he can dribble — he’s just such a good player. I love to play with him. He can play balls back, turn them, play them through — he’s always there at the right time. And he’s skilled with his feet for a big guy. It’s good to have him.ö U.S. FORWARD EDDIE JOHNSON, WHO SCORED TWO GOALS. Jamaica seemed to play tough in the game on Wednesday. ôYeah, it was tough. They had a guy guarding me everywhere I go. It was their best defender, and his job was to mark me the whole game, and he did a good job.ö Did you feel you needed to do something different tonight? ôIt was my turn to step up, and I did tonight.ö Were you not satisfied with your game on Wednesday? ôNot really. I like to score. I had one chance when Santino played me a ball across the box, and I kind of didn’t control it. I think I helped the team in that win — it was all right.ö U.S. WINGER SANTINO QUARANTA, WHO SET UP JOHNSON’S FIRST GOAL. Canada seemed to bottle you up until about midway through the second half. ôEarly on, they did a good job on me. In the hotel today, I kind of knew I was going to have a battle just from some of the comments they were saying. ôThey were making comments, [calling me] æSuperstar,Æ you know what I mean? I knew it was going to be a battle. They were spitting on my shirt — know what I mean? — during the game. … I knew it was going to be a battle all the way through, but that’s the kind of thing you deal with in international soccer.ö After Craig Capano’s goal, things seemed to open up, and soon after you kind of owned them. ôWhen things started to open up, I knew. … That happens in every game. Teams aren’t as disciplined defensively as we are because they haven’t been together as long as we have. I knew things would open up. It’s all about being patient with this team, you know. ôIt’s going to be scary when we have a complete game, because I think we’re one of the best teams in the world when we get everything together. So it’s all about when it comes together.ö