The Under-23 Men’s National Team team defeated England 2-1 to take third place at the 2015 Toulon Tournament and Colorado Rapids defender Shane O’Neill was recognized as the third-best player of the tournament. The U-23s converted a pair of penalty kicks to earn a hard fought victory over the Englishmen.
The U.S.’s first point came by PK from Alonso Hernandez during the 7th minute. Jerome Kiesewetter ran on to a lofted ball and attacked with pace down the right side. England defender Kortney Hausse threw his shoulder in the way of Kiesewetter and was hoping for him to lose ground by way of a tackle. Kieswetter went down hard and the referee signaled for a penalty kick. Alonso Hernandez hit it low and hard into the right corner of the goal for his second goal of the tournament.
Their second goal came from Benji Joya during the 65th minute of the game. The U.S.A. was pressuring on an attack and Jerome Kiesewetter shot towards the goal from outside of the box. The ball rebounded off one of the English defenders’ foot and off the hand of another, which set up the penalty. Benji Joya, the U.S. captain, stepped up and blasted it into the upper right corner for the lead.
O’Neill was named Man-of-the-Match in the victory by US Soccer and then voted the third-best player of the tournament by the ten coaches from the participating sides, according to coloradorapids.com.
This was the first match between the United States’ and England’s U-23 teams. The squads are scheduled to meet again in September for a friendly match.
The host nation, France, defeated Morocco to claim the tournament title.