The U.S. Under-20 men’s national team suffered defeat in its final match of the FIFA U-20 World Cup’s group stage.
Marko Mitrovic’s squad fell 2-1 to South Africa on Sunday in both nations’ final match of the group stage. Noah Cobb scored the Americans’ lone goal of the match before South Africa rallied for a halftime lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
Cobb finished off Matthew Corcoran’s cross after 12 minutes to give the Americans a 1-0 advantage.
However, the lead wouldn’t last long as a Josh Wynder own goal leveled the match for South Africa five minutes later.
Gomolemo Kekana would propel South Africa in front three minutes before halftime, slotting home Shakeel April’s pass down the middle of the net.
South African goalkeeper Fletcher Lowe was stellar, making six saves to deny the USMNT U-20’s from finding a tying goal on multiple occasions.
Despite suffering their first loss of the tournament, the Americans won their group thanks to their +10 goal differential. South Africa finished second on six points while France finished in third place on goal difference.
The USMNT U-20’s will now turn their attention towards a Round of 16 showdown with Italy on Thursday in
though the U20s were more effective at making runs into space to send them behind the backline, what i have seen through one half are endless aerial balls, of which we will score just 1. low percentage stuff. i know this is the subs but the differences in the first 2 games were more balls-to-feet service/finishes, some inverting, some combo play, some balls squared back to the penalty spot from the endline, and sending guys on outright breakaways or diagonal throughballs, not just wide passes taking them to the flag then kick it to the 6 and hope.
i mean, we’re parked at their end, but it’s all whack a cross see if we get a header.
2nd own goal wynder has done at a tournament.
yeah, doesn’t impress me much. i remember him shipping at least one in that fairly scrubby defense in 2023. and this one we’re parked their end most of the day and he can’t stay goalside on his mark on their break and he knocks the clear in his own net.
the eurosnobs keep talking up he’s over there but this is year 3 on the B team after playing in USL. nor does he radiate a man vs. boys vibe like say richards did at U20.
What baffles me is it’s like Deja Vu. He also reminds me of Onyewu. Where Onyewu would play good then last minute would get caught ball watching and the opposing team scores a equalizer or winning goal.
And I can’t for the life of me understand why FIFA still keeps these rosters for the youth WC’s at 21 players. These guys play as many games as full National teams do in WC’s. Should be 23 man rosters.
Some of it is cost. Two less of everything isn’t nothing. Mostly it’s trying to level the playing field in terms of depth. With two more spots Wydner probably doesn’t start and maybe not Cremaschi. Maybe that’s not much but smaller nations like Paraguay or South Africa maybe that helps because the big boys legs are a little more tired.
The upper bracket is the harder bracket. Argentina, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Ukraine, Nigeria, Chile are all in the upper bracket. The Lower Bracket is USA, Japan, Morocco, South Korea, Paraguay, Norway, France, and Italy. Potential Morrocco at QF stage.
Oh and S.Africa in the upper bracket.
We drew with Japan in June and lost to Norway, we won and drew with Morocco last month. We beat Colombia and Mexico earlier this year, but lost to Mexico last year. We split with Chile last fall. About half the squad faced Argentina last summer on the U19 team and also played South Korea last fall as U19s. So in the last 18 months we’ve faced 2/3 of the teams remaining. The U19s did play Spain and Ukraine this summer but only Feree was on that roster. Ukraine fielded most of their WC squad but Spain’s roster was mostly 2nd tier guys like the US. So Spain, Nigeria, Paraguay and Italy are the teams we haven’t played recently. There isn’t a team that we couldn’t beat, but we could also lose to about all of them if we don’t finish chances like we didn’t today.
this is a “i didn’t do soccer tournaments” tell. who cares about the other half of the bracket. focus on our end. let that take care of itself.
i mean, how often do we anticipate a mexico or canada final only to actually get jamaica or panama? win your games and then compete with whoever shows up at the end. that side really doesn’t matter unless you win the games to see who it is.
one game at a time and if we get a semi or quarter where we can rotate, get some players rested for a final.
Westfield and Kholer can cover far more ground then Cobb or Baker Whiting did today. So I still think the US has the ability to beat Italy.
And quite frankly if you play Campbell at RW Mitrovic needs to get Westfiel overlapping more. He is getting doubled up and overlapping runs will open it up more for him. I saw Baker Whiting making inside runs which is used more for a traditional RW.
Well they better be much more cohesive against Italy.
Harbroune may start at striker against Italy like he did against France. Much more effective being a false 9 then Zambrano has been as the 9.
Campbell hasn’t shown much to be honest as an inverted RW. I would consider playing him as a more traditional LW against Italy and put Gozo on the right. That he he can use his left peg more traditionally.
Italy will defend and counter. US better be more ready for that then they were against S. Africa today.
Not sure Italy will have the speed of South Africa, but hopefully this will be a wake up call to be more alert on defense.
I will say South Africa GK made some very good saves. Not for him could have been 4-2 win for the US.
Overall the mission was accomplished. Win the group, rest some players. But the inability to create and finish chances in the final third leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Not sure anyone was good, Cremaschi was off today and should have been taken off for me much sooner. Beaudry finally made a couple strong stops so maybe that’s good. Campbell needs to wake up his right foot because his impersonation of a bad Arjen Robben led to two transition opportunities for South Africa. Bambino way too soft on the 2nd SA goal. On to Italy.