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U.S. U-18s draw Mexico 1-1, fail to qualify for Milk Cup Final

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There will be no repeat for the United States U-18s in Northern Ireland.

The United States tied arch-rival Mexico, 1-1, on Wednesday afternoon, but the result was unable to help the young Americans qualify for the Milk Cup final. Jesús Ruiz opened the scoring for El Tri in the 12th minute. The Americans struck back during first half stoppage time when D.C. United Academy product Jalen Robinson scored off a cross by Chicago Fire homegrown midfielder Victor Pineda.

A win  would have been able to enough for the U.S. to reach the final, but both Denmark and Northern Ireland were able to win by two goals in their respective matches to eliminate the Americans on goal differential. 

The United States will now play Georgia in a third place game while Denmark will face Northern Ireland in the Milk Cup Final on Friday. 

Below the jump is the United States' starting XI for the match:

U.S. Starting Lineup: Cody Cropper; Jordon McCrary, Walker Zimmerman, Bryan Gallego, Jose Ocegueda; Jalen Robinson, Luis Gil, Will Packwood; Jerome Kiesewetter (Jose Villareal, 68), Omar Salgado, Victor Pineda (Marcus Salandy Defour, 54)

Disappointed that the U.S. couldn't qualify for the Final? Waiting for the third place game against Georgia on Friday?

Share your thoughts below. 

Comments

  1. It’s actually not at all disappointing.

    The US will play three matches against quality teams, just as they would if they made the finals. Actually winning the Milk Cup is useless, we won the last one, who cares? It’s all about young players getting experience and testing themselves against competition from other countries. So mission accomplished.

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  2. Er, what nonsense would that be? That the roster is 70 percent the same players who go on every trip and get the same results?

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  3. Although it is disappointing that they will not be playing in the final due to the goal differential (in a situation where the team that advanced did not play the same set of teams as the US), I don’t see anything embarassing in this team’s performance. The US got 4 points out of 2 games (a win and a tie), while Mexico got 1 point from 2 games (a loss to Georgia and a tie against the US). How is this team getting lapped by Mexico, when Mexico will be playing against Israel to avoid finishing last, while the US is playing for the third place?

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  4. This result doesn’t really even disappoint me in the least. The US did just as good as the other teams, but the tournament really has a strange qualifying process. Not their fault. A win and a tie v Israel and Mexico is pretty good, now we just need to take care of business against Georgia.

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  5. really bob is not even the coach of this u 18 side and u askin to fire him plz do ur research and secondly it was a draw wat do u mean lapped by mexico we have to accept that on the senior level mexico is at their golden age it doesnt mean we still cnt qualify for world cups

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  6. Actually it wasn’t goal differential, it was goals scored. Goal differential for US, Denmark and NI were all +2. Denmark and NI had GS=4, US had GS=3.

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  7. Another embarrassment, the US program is getting lapped by Mexico, fire Bradley, fire Gulati, get Klinsmann on the phone.

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