The U.S. girls’ U-18 national team picked up an historic win on Feb. 20 at the Walt Disney Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla., defeating the USYSA Under-19 Select Team, 2-1, in the championship game of the inaugural U.S. Youth Soccer Cup. The first-of-its-kind, eight-team tournament featured the U-18 teams from Germany, Japan, China and Sweden as well as the USA’s U-16 and U-18 national teams and USYSA Select Teams in the U-17 and U-19 age brackets. The U-18s came from behind to win on two second-half goals, the first of which was a 30-yard blast from 16-year old high school junior Aleisha Cramer that scraped the underside of the cross bar, before getting the winner from Stanford-bound striker Marcia Wallis. The U-16s defeated Sweden, 1-0, for third place on a 64th-minute goal from Annie Morrell, while China defeated Germany for 5th place and the USYSA U-17s defeated Japan for seventh place, 3-1.
1999 USYSA Cup
First Round
GROUP A Feb. 14 — Germany 3 Japan 1, USYSA U-19s 1 U.S. U-16s 0.
Feb. 16 — USYSA U-19s 2 Germany 1, U.S. U-16s 2 Japan 1.
Feb. 18 — USYSA U-19s 2 Japan 1, U.S. U-16s 2 Germany 0.
| Team | GP | W | T | L | GF | GA | P |
| USYSA U-19 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 9 |
| U.S. U-16 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| Germany | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Japan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
GROUP B Feb. 14 — U.S. U-18s 2 USYSA U-17s 0, Sweden 4 China 2.
Feb. 16 — China 2 USYSA U-17s 1, U.S. U-18s 2 Sweden 2.
Feb. 18 — U.S. U-18s 5 China 0, USYSA U-17s 2 Sweden 1.
| Team | GP | W | T | L | GF | GA | P |
| U.S. U-18 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 7 |
| Sweden | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 4 |
| China | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 3 |
| USYSA U-17 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
Placement Matches (Feb. 20)
Seventh Place — USYSA U-17s 3 Japan 1.
Fifth Place — China 2 Germany 0
Third Place — U.S. U-16s 1 Sweden 0.
Championship — U.S. U-18s 2 USYSA U-19s 1.
