(Greg Sullivan, The Tennessean, 03.25.12)

NASHVILLE — If the U.S. had defeated Canada in Olympic qualifying on Saturday at LP Field, it would have assured itself a trip to the semifinals next week.

Instead, that trip — and a berth in the 2012 London Games — are now in doubt.

The Canadians scored on second-half headers from Doneil Henry and Lucas Cavallini and defeated the Americans 2-0, giving urgency to the Americans to win Monday’s match with El Salvador, which beat Cuba 4-0 on Saturday, to advance.

The U.S. team’s other option to advance is to tie El Salvador and have Cuba beat Canada. That would give the Americans and Canadians four points each, but the U.S. has a better goal differential. A U.S. loss keeps it out of the Olympics for only the second time since 1976.

“We’re real disappointed, but the reality is we need to move on. We can’t dwell on this,” U.S. Coach Caleb Porter said. “No one’s going to point fingers. Guys are going to stick together. They know what they’re capable of.”

Attendance more than doubled from Thursday’s total, with Saturday’s matches drawing 10,578, but those fans mostly were antsy as Canadian goalie Michael Misiewicz shut out the U.S.

Canada took its 1-0 lead when Henry scored his first career goal for Canada in the 58th minute on a header off a corner kick. Henry jumped out ahead of charging U.S. goalie Bill Hamid.

“I just made a mistake on the first one,” Hamid said. “I’m not sure if I was pushed or I slipped on (Cavallini’s goal). We still have faith in our abilities.”

It looked like the Americans would take a 1-0 lead when Ike Opara knocked a header into the net off a Freddy Adu free kick in the 48th minute, but the U.S. was called for offsides. The crowd booed loudly for about a minute.

“It played out perfectly for them,” Porter said. “We had our looks to get the first goal. That’s the type of game you’re going to have to play when a team sits like that. We’ve all seen this game a thousand times.”

Joe Corona, who had a hat trick in the U.S.’s 6-0 win over Cuba on Thursday, did not play in the second half and was replaced by Joe Gyau.

U.S. forward Juan Agudelo, who scored a goal in the 6-0 win over Cuba on Thursday, was diagnosed with a meniscus tear in his left knee following an MRI, according to a USA Soccer news release prior to Saturday’s game.

The 19-year-old forward suffered the injury in Thursday’s game against Cuba, the release said. Per tournament rules, no replacement player may be added to the roster.

Now the U.S. will have to look ahead to playing an El Salvador team that has been impressive this week.

“This is the game that decides our destiny. We’re not going to panic. We’re going to stay confident and we’re going to get back to work,” Porter said. “You’ll see a very sharp team against El Salvador.”

U.S. players, though, said this is a time where they must keep their heads up.

“I trust in this team. I know we’re going to come back and we’ll respond in a big way,” Adu said. “(These games are) for the Olympics. We want to go to the Olympics.”