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The LA Galaxy midfielder Michael Stephens hasn't made it off the bench in the CONCACAF U-23 Olympic Qualifying tournament, but after a weekend full of matches the United States is in trouble and in need of a spark. After learning this weekend that Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey have asked to by on the Olympic Team should they qualify (according to ESPN Insider), that qualifying is now in doubt. Part of that has to do with the loss of Juan Agudelo, who scored in the US' 6-0 romp of Cuba and now will be out six weeks recovering from knee surgery.
Joe Corona, who scored a hat trick in that match against Cuba, was subbed out at halftime against Canada. No word yet on why the change was made, but it'll be interesting to see if he's back in the starting XI tonight. Brek Shea and Teal Bunbury are the future of MLS, but they'll need to step up tonight for the national team in a way we haven't seen yet.
The Olympic Dream for Michael Stephens and Landon Donovan is on the line tonight, and will be once again in the Semi-Finals. Not many were expecting it to be this big of a battle, but remember this is largely a US squad that didn't qualify for the U-20 World Cup in 2011. Interesting to see how things go moving forward.