It takes a certain sense of the ridiculous to think, never mind write, that the United States has a clear and attainable path to the semifinals of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada. That, however, is the case as the
American team plays Uruguay in the second round of the well-attended tournament, with the winner advancing
to a quarterfinal match against either Austria or Gambia in Toronto on Saturday.
The United States showed flashes of ordinary greatness while finishing first in Group D, ahead of Poland, Brazil and South Korea.
“I think this is the best group in the tournament,” Freddy Adu, the captain of the American team, said. “Some of the teams in the other groups are tough, but we couldn’t be prouder of coming out of this group on top. Right now we’re riding high and playing well and we just have to keep it going. We have to keep working hard, because the harder you work the luckier you get.”
Adu, with Danny Szetela and Jozy Atidore, share the scoring lead with three each for the American team. The U.S. (2 wins, 1 draw, 0 losses) was the top-scoring team in the first round with nine goals, six in its victory over Poland. Against Brazil, the U.S. let a 1-0 lead slip away against pressure from Brazil early in the second half, but was resilient enough to parry the Brazilian onslaught and win the match on Altidore’s goal in the 81st minute, his second of the game.
“This is a historic win for American soccer, the kind of result you don’t achieve very often,” U.S. Coach Thomas Rongen said. “The game is still developing in our country, and I must confess I’m a great admirer of Brazilian soccer. We knew we had a great team with the ability to win, and luckily we managed to do it. Freddy Adu had a sensational game and he showed all his potential and leadership qualities, and we also managed to reach our objective of getting out of the group, the toughest in the tournament in my opinion. It’s been the Group of Death, no question.”
Dare it peak beyond the octavofinal-round match against Uruguay, the American team would play either Austria (1-2-0, second place in Group A) or Gambia (2-0-1, second in Group C) in the quarterfinals. Neither team has been particularly impressive so far. The Austrians scored only two goals in a first-round group that produced a mere 11 in 12 games. Gambia opened group play with a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Mexico before rallying for victories over New Zealand and Portugal to advance to the knockout stage. To look even further ahead, to the semifinal in on July 18 in Edmonton, would mean a game against either Brazil, the Czech Republic, Japan or Spain.
Uruguay (1-1-1, third place in Group B) limps into the second round after opening the tournament with a 2-2 draw against Spain, followed by a 1-0 victory over Jordan and then a 2-0 loss to Zambia. The 20-year-old striker and captain Edinson Cavani, who played domestically for Danubio before signing with Palermo of Italy’s Serie A, has scored two of Uruguay’s three goals in the first round (the other was scored by the 20-year-old midfielder Luis Suárez, who plays for Groningen in the Dutch Eredivise).
Uruguay last appeared in the under-20 finals in 1999 (when it took fourth place in Nigeria) and were taken to Canada by Coach Gustavo Ferrín, who led the country’s under-17 team at last year’s tournament in Perú. Although the Celestes are making their ninth appearance at the world championships in this age group, Uruguay has never surpassed the performance of the 1997 team in Malaysia, which lost in the final to an Argentine team that was coach by José Pekerman and had the players Juan Román Riquelme, Pablo Aimar and Esteban Cambiasso.
After a scoreless first half in its opening game, against Spain in Burnaby, British Columbia, Uruguay took a 2-0 lead after 11 minutes of the second half on goals by Cavani and Suárez. But Spain, which ended up winning the group and will play Brazil in the second round, cut Uruguay’s lead in half on a goal by Adrian López and then tied the match on Diego Capel’s goal in injury time.
“The way things turned out really hurts because we were on the brink of winning and to miss out on the points like that is just terrible,” Suárez told FIFA.com. “Spain played a great game and I’d just like to congratulate my teammates for their hard work because we were very, very tired at the end.”
Against Jordan, Uruguay picked up 3 points when Cavani scored the game’s only goal in the 40th minute from a cross from Gerardo Vonder Putten.
Zambia, which advanced and will play Nigeria in the second round, surprised and subdued the perhaps overconfident South Americans, taking a 2-0 decision in a game marred by a two red cards, one to each team.
The starting goalkeeper for Uruguay, Mauro Goicoechea, will miss the match against the second-round United States after drawing a red card in the 2-0 loss to Zambia in its final game of the first round last Saturday in Victoria, B.C. Zambia took the lead on Cllifford Mulenga’s penalty kick in the 19th minute after an egregious error by Goicoechea on a clearing attempt rebounded off Emmanuel Mayuka. The keeper was forced to take Mayuka down in the penalty area. He was replaced by Yonatan Irrazabal.
“When our goalkeeper was sent off everything changed for us,” Uruguay’s Ferrín told FIFA.com. “I make no excuses because they played well and are a good team, but in that moment we lost not only our goalkeeper and a player, but the structure of the match changed as well. I agreed with the decision, and we tried to make adjustments, but it was the key event for us. I think the situation also made the players disappointed. They could have reacted better.”
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