The U.S. Under-20 men’s national team squared off with New Zealand for the first time since the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup and in similar fashion the Americans rolled to a shutout victory.
Owen Wolff, Cade Cowell, Justin Che, and Rokas Pukstas all scored for Mikey Varas’ squad in a 4-0 win over New Zealand on Tuesday, advancing to the quarterfinals for the fourth-straight edition of the competition. The Americans will next meet either Uruguay or Gambia in the quarterfinals which will take place on June 4.
After both teams traded early shots on goal, Wolff propelled the USMNT U-20’s in front after 14 minutes. Diego Luna set up Wolff before the Austin FC attacker delivered a long-range shot which nestled into the bottom-left corner.
The Americans doubled their lead in the 61st minute as Luna played distributor for the second-straight goal. Luna connected with Cade Cowell before Cowell’s low drive found the back of the net for his third goal of the competition.
Justin Che added his first goal of the tournament in the 75th minute after slotting home a rebound in the box. Luna’s original effort was blocked the New Zealand backline, but Che made no mistake to make it 3-0 USMNT U-20’s.
Rokas Pukstas capped the final score at 4-0 with his first goal of the tournament, heading home Brandan Craig’s cross down the middle of the New Zealand net.
The Americans outshot New Zealand 9-to-1 in terms of shots on goal and 22-to-3 overall.
Gabriel Slonina made one save to register his fourth clean sheet of the competition.