The U.S. Under-20 men’s national team are heading to the final eight of the U-20 World Cup.
A brace from Ben Cremaschi and a solo goal from Niko Tsakiris led the Americans past Italy 3-0 in Round of 16 play on Thursday. Marko Mitrovic’s squad will now face Morocco in the quarterfinals on Sunday.
Cremaschi broke the deadlock after 15 minutes, bundling home a loose ball in the box for his fourth goal of the competition.
Nolan Norris’ original header was saved by Italy goalkeeper Jacopo Seghetti but Cremaschi was on the spot to finish off the loose ball.
Tsakiris added his name to the scoresheet in the 79th minute, delivering on a left-footed free kick. The San Jose Earthquakes midfielder curled his shot around the Italy wall and into the bottom-left corner.
Cremaschi iced the result in second-half stoppage time, finishing off Luke Brennan’s pass for his second goal of the match.
Adam Beaudry registered a three-save clean sheet while Frankie Westfield, , and Josh Wynder delivered strong defensive performances.
The USMNT U-20’s have now outscored their opposition 16-2 in the competition.
I could watch that Tsakiris goal a thousand times. Just a magnificent free kick.
We all thought this would be a Cole Campbell show at this WC, but the spotlight and coming our party has been Cremaschi and Tsakiris.
Cole has a ways to go. The one good play he had showcased everything that has gone wrong for him. All left foot, a bit to selfish, not feeding Gozo in with his right foot and fluffing his shot. For me He should be on the bench against Morroco either start Brennan or Miller. Brennan has a bit more in his attacking locker than Miller does. You can see why Miller is transitioning to more of a LB/LWB has more of a defensive posture to his game.
Have a feeling many European teams may be blowing up San Jose’s phone and inquiring about Tsakiris. Would love to see him go to the Eredivisie. Ajax could use a player like Tsakiris.
Thats 5 QF’s in a row. Can this team finally get over that hump and make it to a semi final? We shall see come Sunday.
That was quite a free kick.
They’ve been super impressive this WC, especially when you consider they’ve beaten France and Italy by a combined scoreline of 6-0.
It wasn’t bad beats, either. The US dominated in terms of possession, shots, and shots on goal. It was a little startling how much more athletic the US was than the Italians (and even the French!) and the technical ability was comparable…in the past that last was absolutely not true and watching the kids bang bad touches around like they had wooden paddles for feet was a little cringey. I’m not seeing that any more – at all.
There’s no doubt the US pool is getting deeper every year. We’ve still got a ways to go in terms of the academy system displacing pay-for-play but the sheer volume of players coming through our system is starting to overcome that anyway, and the more infrastructure gets built, the more the pay-for-play monopolies start crumbling. It sort of feeds on itself.
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Let’s be fair to France and Italy, neither have probably their top 10 players. It is certainly a sign of progress though. MLS Academies have gotten players ready for MLS at younger ages and so our U20s are coming in with MLS minutes, significant amounts in many cases. France and Italy were full of guys in the 3rd and 4th divisions or still in youth leagues. Morocco has much more first team experience mostly in Europe than those two giants had.
Johnny:
I have looked at both Italy and Frances u19 teams that qualified and their isnt that much of a difference in squads. Italy probably overhauled a little more than Frances. But yes neither you would say we’re thier strongest teams, but that happens at the u 20 level at times some players have already moved past tye youth teams. Been a case for plenty of our u20 teams as well especially more recent. Musah, Tillman, Pepi, Pax Aaronson, Pulisic, Reyna, Mckennie, Novakovich, were never with a u20 team. And this team is missing two to three players that would either be starters or major contributors.
2tone, for sure this team is signaling the progress being made in development. Yes they play hard and have some grit but also are technical. However, this age group doesn’t have “big time stars” like 2017 who were denied Pulisic, McKennie, and Wright. Yeah, Banks looks like a Bundesliga starter in the near future and Kochen has a ton of potential but neither is as good today as the 5 teenagers that play regular minutes for PSG including Doue who had 15g 14a last season. Throw 2 or 3 from Lille, Monaco, and 1 or 2 from Lyon and Marseille and they are quickly missing their entire first choice eleven and that’s just from the biggest clubs. Italy does not have as many glaring omissions but there are a handful of guys who would start but weren’t released. They were actually debating whether Italy is even still a world power on 11 Yanks yesterday.