The US Under-23 Men's National Team defeated Canada 3-0 at LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee on Thursday night to secure their place at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

The US will be retuning to the Olympics for the 13th time after missing the games in 2004. The 2008 Olympic Games run from August 8-24.

"I was really proud and pleased to see everything that we had discussed before this kind of tournament come to fruition," US head coach Peter Nowak told ussoccer.com. "I think that from the beginning to the end there was only one team that was going to win this game, and it was us."

Freddy Adu led the way for the US, scoring on free kicks in the 27th and 48th minutes, while Sacha Kljestan finished off the Canadians with a close range strike in the 78th minute. Jonathan Spector made his first appearance in the tournament, starting in central defense.

The US controlled the ball well in the beginning of the match, and it paid off when Jozy Altidore was fouled just outside the top right corner of the box in the 27th minute. That set up a free kick for Freddy Adu, who put in an spinning shot that caught Canadian keeper Joshua Wagenaar on his wrong foot.

Canada only got two shots off in the first half, but neither of them were on target, allowing US keeper Chris Seitz to relax and watch his team attack.

The US extended their lead to two early in the second half. Altidore was taken down near the top of the box which resulted in another Adu free kick. The Benfica midfielder's 20-yard blast found the upper right corner of the net, leaving Wagenaar no chance of stopping it.

"Jozy made two great runs that resulted in two free kicks," Adu told reporters. "Jozy made a great run and the build up was great. We had a little bit of possession and the ball ended up at Jozy's feet. He turned around ran at the guy and got the foul."

The US was not done yet as they took advantage of a break downfield in the 78th minute. Adu had the ball on the left side and got it to Stuart Holden, who then put in a great pass to Kljestan. The Chivas USA midfielder darted into the box and his perfect low shot found the bottom left corner of the net to put the US ahead 3-0.

Canada would not get any chances in the match. They registered nine shots on the night, but none on target. The US dominated Canada in their best game of the tournament.

"It's a great, great honor," Adu said. "My favorite Olympian is Michael Johnson, who I keep in touch with. He's been my advisor." 

"The Olympics are great. Everybody watches it. I watched it growing up, and it's just an honor to represent your country in such a big event. I'm proud to have the opportunity to go, especially to go there with this group of guys."

The US and Honduras will join 14 other teams in the 16-team tournament at the Olympics in China. The two CONCACAF teams play each other in the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying championship match on Sunday (3:00 pm ET on Fox Soccer Channel).

The draw for the Olympic tournament takes place on April 20th in Beijing.

Scoring
USA - Freddy Adu 3 27'
USA - Freddy Adu 4 48'
USA - Sacha Kljestan 1 (Stuart Holden) 78'

Line-ups
USA - Chris Seitz; Marvell Wynne, Michael Orozco, Jonathan Spector, Nathan Sturgis; Sacha Kljestan (Robbie Findley 88'), Maurice Edu, Dax McCarty, Stuart Holden; Freddy Adu (Eddie Gaven 82') Jozy Altidore (Charlie Davies 75')

CAN - Joshua Wagenaar; Graham Ramalho (Andrea Lombardo 54'), Dejan Jakovic, Andrew Hainault, Nikolas Ledgerwood, Andrazes Ornoch, Will Johnson, Tosaint Ricketts, Tyler Hemming, Tyler Roselund (Marcus Haber 76'), Keegan Ayre (Kyle Hall 30')