The U.S. Under-20 men’s national team capped off a perfect group stage record on Friday night in Honduras.
Niko Tsakiris’ first-half goal proved to be the winner as Michael Nsien’s squad defeated Costa Rica 1-0 in their group stage final. The Americans will now face the third place finishers of Group B or C on July 30.
Aiden Harangi rattled the crossbar only three minutes into the match for the USMNT U-20’s.
Tsakiris’ finish boosted the Americans in front after 34 minutes, giving Nsien’s squad a deserved 1-0 lead. The midfielder picked up possession before racing into the box and rifling into the top corner.
It marked his second goal of the tournament.
Costa Rica’s comeback hopes took a hit in the 50th minute as Alberth Barahona was ejected after receiving a second yellow card.
The Ticos would struggle to offer much in the final third, registering just one shot in the entire match. USMNT U-20 goalkeeper Adam Beaudry had little to do as the Americans registered their third-consecutive clean sheet of the competition.
The Americans now head into the knockout stage, outscoring their opposition 14-0 to date.
Well Mitrovic is just as stubborn as Berhalter. Zero changes.
Worked out pretty well.
Yeah it did.
Another couple of mid field standouts for me….#8 Brooklyn Raines and #6 Pedro Soma. Extremely excited about the possibilities of Raines. He won 95% of tackes in the midfield and showed very good passing ability. Reminds me of Edgar Davids, great Netherland mid fielder.
Theu were pretty much playing in second gear the entire game.
Tsakiris has some special traits. Hope he continues to develop and brings it all together. He may need to move from San Jose soon. Eredivisie would be a great league for him to continue to develop.
When they qualify I do think there will be some players on this current team that won’t be on the WC team. The wings will need to be reassessed and I think striker is another position that could be an area where Nsien needs to upgrade. CB looks good with Cobb and Hawkins. GK will be fine. Remember Kochen and RSL back up Keeper Beavers aren’t with this team. And there might be a potential Cavan Sullivan may make the WC team. The kid can play on the left, right, and at CAM. Adrian Gil is another who isn’t here. If Barjaktarivic doesn’t jump ship he is another potential attacker. And Cremaschi is age eligible.
And of course Cole Campbell.
As always releases will be the issue (as it was with this tournament). This tends to be the age where guys start to get more minutes with clubs and play themselves out of a release (Aaronson). The wingers, Berchimas and Gozo, are both eligible for next cycle, give them another 10 months to get used to the age group. (I don’t think Campbell will be released we haven’t had a lot of luck with German club releases for this tournament and Dortmund is almost always playing for U19 Bundesliga title which happens at the end of May) Kristian Fletcher probably on this team if healthy at wing.
An excellent goal.I’m not sure the red card was a red card. More like a yellow plus. However, there was a clear foul in the CR box that wasn’t even reviewed, so I guess it all evened out. Since CR still got 2nd place, both teams were satisfied, I think.
Definition of Concacafing though. The red carded player popped right up after the tackle, stood around waiting for the review, started screaming at the ref when carded, and then suddenly developed a serious leg injury that required medical attention. Oddly his treatment took exactly the amount of time needed to warm up the defender they brought on.
I’ve been watching this sort of refereeing from concacaf ‘referees’ since the 80’s. I would have thought the increased TV exposure would have stopped it but I think concacaf is just fine with this sort of thing continuing into infinity. When you have a country with 100k population who has the same voting influence as a country with 320m then you have this. Kicking the big boys ankles every step he takes because you know you’ll get away with it.
The second half, with the lead, a man advantage, and a terrible pitch looked like let’s just get out of here without any yellow card suspensions or injuries. Big game in the quarters against El Salvador, Haiti, or Guatemala for the WC bid.