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U.S. U-20s rebound at Milk Cup

by

Pineda (ISIphotos)

Photo by Michael Janosz ISIphotos.com

The U.S. Under-20 men's national team's trip to Northern Ireland started off with a stumble, but the Americans recovered nicely Monday to save some face at the Milk Cup.

The U-20s followed up Saturday's 1-0 loss to Denmark with a 1-0 victory over Turkey on Monday in their second match of the tournament. Chicago Fire Homegrown Player Victor Pineda scored off a cross from Daniel Cuevas (Santos Laguna) in the 73rd minute to account for the game-winning tally, one that puts the U-20s in fourth position and in Thursday's third-place match, where they will face Chile while going for their second straight third-place finish after winning the title in 2010. 

Denmark, the 2011 champion, beat Chile 2-1 Monday to advance to the final against Mexico, who followed a 5-0 thrashing of Turkey with a 0-0 draw with Northern Ireland.

Cody Cropper, a free agent who recently trialed with Premier League side Southampton, captained the squad Saturday and and played 90 minutes in goal before giving way to San Jose Earthquakes Academy goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh on Monday.

Lineups from both matches are after the jump:

U.S. U-20s LINEUP VS. DENMARK (1-0 Denmark)

Cody Cropper (capt.); Boyd Okwuonu, Walker Zimmerman, Eric Miller, Dillon Serna; Benji Joya, Dan Metzger (Wil Trapp, 64), Collin Martin; Victor Pineda (Mario Rodriguez, 71), Alfred Koroma, Daniel Cuevas 

U.S. U-20s STARTERS VS. TURKEY (1-0 USA)

Kendall McIntosh; Juan Pablo Ocegueda, Walker Zimmerman, Eric Miller, Boyd Okwuonu; Collin Martin, Wil Trapp, Benji Joya; Victor Pineda, Mario Rodriguez, Alfred Koroma

Comments

  1. So you take me saying that most of are top prospects aren’t at this tournament as whining? I think someone needs to brush up on reading and comprehension.

    You have no idea how many will or won’t be released for WC qualifying.

    Please enlighten me which top players were missing form Northern Irelands, Mexico’s, and Turkey’s squads. I really don’t know who their top players are at this age group. It seems you do, or are you just blowing smoke.

    Reply

  2. If winning by 5 goals isn’t dominating, I don’t know what it is.

    I hate to break it to ya but a good portion of those “top” players will probably not be released for WC Qualifying so it’s pointless to whine about them being missing. It also goes without saying that most other national teams in this tournament, sans Northern Ireland, were missing some of their best prospects in this particular age group. Turkey and Mexico certainly were.

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  3. USA should of won the Denmark game,Had loads of chances but could not put the ball into their net.We seem to be struggling to score ? If you can’t score you can’t win. Good goalkeeping has kept them at bay for long periods but it only take’s one goal and that’s it for the team who can’t score. The next game should be a cracker.People say the Milk Cup is not that important, Maybe not in the USA but in this part of the world it’s big time for all the young player’s taking part with so many Top clubs watching them looking for top player’s to offer contracts to or at least offer them a trial.The USA have some very good player’s on show CROPPER.PINEDA.CUEVAS JUST TO NAME A FEW. USA have only scored 1 goal in two game’s need to do better in the last game . Good luck to the boy’s and bang a few in for us?

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  4. Mexico didn’t dominate. They won one game by a scoreline of 5-0. You should go look at the stats of the U.S. game against Denmark it could have gone either way. Not to mention that this U.S. u-20 team was not a team of the top players. A third place finish will be great for this team.

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  6. Not bad for not having most of our top players at this tournament i.e. Gil, Pelosi, Villarreal, Brooks, Packwood, Fehr, Bijev, Salgado, Guido among others.

    Good luck in the third place game boys!!!!!

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  7. Ok let’s not worry that once again USA underperformed and Mexico dominated at another youth tournament, I swear I’m making my kids and kids in my city play for el tri, where they win trophies

    Reply

  8. Wow.

    Tim Cahill (Everton) sold to New York Redbulls, reports say…

    Can’t wait to read about this transfer. Huge signing for NY…that guy is still class.

    Reply

  9. Meh, the Milk Cup is nothing to worry too much about. Especially this year as apparently a lot of the top kids stayed with their clubs to fight for spots.

    Reply

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