Thursday’s Portugal-Mexico game on ESPNU and Galavision shapes up as one of the best first-round games at the Under-20 World Cup. For the complete Under-20 World Cup schedule …
<
The Under-20 World Cup continues on July 4 with four games in Victoria and Burnaby. All four games will be televised on ESPN360.com (broadband) and Costa Rica-Japan will be shown on Fox Sports en Espanol. For the complete Under-20 World Cup schedule …
Defending champion Argentina matched the USA on Tuesday, scoring six goals in a 6-0 victory over Panama at the Under-20 World Cup. Brazil, the 2007 South American champion, recovered from a stunning 1-0 loss to Poland in its first game to beat South Korea, 3-2.
[VIDEO] A Freddy Adu hat trick, two excellent goals by Danny Szetela, and a nice finish from Jozy Altidore destroyed Poland, 6-1, and moved the USA atop Group D with four points in the U-20 World Cup.
The USA plays its second game at the Under-20 World Cup on Tuesday when it meets Poland in Montreal. Coverage begins at 4:45 pm ET on ESPNU and at 5 pm ET on Galavision. For the complete Under-20 World Cup schedule …
[USA-POLAND PREVIEW] Before the FIFA U-20 World Cup started, U.S. coach Thomas Rongen described Poland, which the USA faces Tuesday in probably a must-win game in Montreal, as “a typical Eastern European country that’s going to be very hard to break down and very methodical in their approach.” To those attributes can be added opportunism and determination and resiliency. Poland upset Brazil, 1-0, on the opening day of play with a long-range free kick by Grzegorz Krychowiak and a staunch defensive display following the ejection of Real Madrid’s Krzysztof Krol in the 27th minute.
Coverage of the Under-20 World Cup continues on Monday with three games on ESPN360.com (broadband). The Congo-Austria game will also be shown in Spanish on Fox Sports en Espanol and the Mexico-Gambia game will be aired on Galavision.
The U.S. U-20s should take heart. As bad as they played in their 1-1 tie with South Korea on Saturday in Montreal, it could have been worse. Host Canada opened play before a sellout crowd of almost 20,000 fans at Toronto’s BMO Field — on July 1, Canada Day no less — and bombed. Dale Mitchell‘s U-20s fell to Chile, 3-0, in a match they were outshot 19-2.
The USA survived the worst performance by a U.S. national youth team at a world championship in recent memory to earn a 1-1 tie with South Korea Saturday in their opening game at the Under-20 World Cup. Much of the announced sellout crowd of 55,800 at Olympic Stadium had left after witnessing Poland stun South American champion Brazil, 1-0, the opening game of the Group D doubleheader, and the pro-Korean crowd that remained watched the Americans give the ball away time and again and struggle to keep up with the quick Koreans on the artificial turf.
Josmer Altidore, the most exciting American teenager since Freddy Adu, is on the team. So is Adu, who believes this tournament — his third U-20 world championship — is his springboard to fame and glory in Europe. Midfielder Michael Bradley isn’t glorious or famous yet, but he appeared in 21 games for Dutch club Heerenveen last season and played several solid matches for the U.S. at the Gold Cup. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney looks at the U.S. U-20 national team and its chances for success at the Under-20 World Cup, which begins Saturday in Canada.
The USA opens play at the U-20 World Cup Saturday in Montreal against South Korea. It has faced the Koreans twice before at the World Youth Championship and come away with good results both times. For more on the USA-South Korea rivalry and how the ’07 Koreans look …
Fifteen prospective ’07 U.S.-based collegians — seven for the USA, six for New Zealand and two for Canada — will be playing at the Under-20 World Cup, which starts Saturday in Canada. UCLA leads all teams with three players, and defending champion UC Santa Barbara and Dartmouth have two. Soccer America MVPs Julian Valentin (Wake Forest) and Sal Zizzo (UCLA) were among seven prospective ’07 collegians who were called up by U.S. under-20 men’s national team coach Thomas Rongen. Three other ’06 collegians — MVP Chris Seitz (Maryland), Anthony Wallace (South Florida) and Amaechi Igwe (Santa Clara) — signed with MLS clubs in January.
The USA-South Korea Under-20 World Cup opener Saturday in Montreal will be broadcast live on ESPNU, with coverage beginning at 4:45 pm ET, and delayed on Fox Sports en Espanol at 7 pm ET. The Under-20 World Cup will be shown in English on ESPNU and ESPN360.com (broadband) and in Spanish on Fox Sports en Espanol, Galavision and TeleFutura. For the Under-20 World Cup schedule …
The Under-20 World Cup begins Saturday as 24 teams, including the USA, compete in six Canadian cities, and ticket sales have stunned organizers. More than 750,000 tickets have been sold, and final attendance figures could surpass 1 million, double original estimates. Canada’s opening game on Sunday and the final on June 22, both in Toronto, are already sold out. The USA opener on Saturday against South Korea could sell out the 55,000 Olympic Stadium in Montreal — the main venue for the 1976 Olympic Games. Five of the six opening doubleheaders could be sellouts.
Argentina the defending champion, and Brazil, the South American champion, are the favorites, along with European champion Spain, at the 2007 Under-20 World Cup, which begins Saturday in Canada. They have combined to win the last seven U-20 world championships. Argentina’s 2005 victory in the Netherlands gave it five titles, one more than Brazil. Other teams to watch include Mexico and Nigeria. Here’s a look at the favorites.
Forward Preston Zimmerman has replaced Johann Smith on the U.S. U-20 national team roster for the Under-20 World Cup that starts Saturday in Canada. Smith suffered a third-degree strain of his right ankle in the U-20s’ 4-0 scrimmage win against New Zealand on Monday in Somerset, N.J. In January, Smith was a part of the U.S. team that qualified for the Under-20 World Cup, scoring a goal and an assist in one appearance in Panama. The 20-year-old forward plays professionally in England for Bolton Wanderers, for which he made his Premier League debut in 2006.
Freddy Adu scored one goal and set up another to lead the U.S. under-20 national team to a 2-1 win over Chile Saturday at Giants Stadium in the team’s final international friendly before leaving for the Under-20 World Cup, which starts Saturday in Canada. Adu scored the opening goal in the 34th minute off a pass from Josmer Altidore and then feed Robbie Rogers in the second half to give the U.S. a 2-0 lead. Alexis Sanchez scored for Chile from the penalty spot three minutes after Rogers put the USA two goals up.
United States U-20 national team coach Thomas Rongen named the 21-player roster that will represent the U.S. at the Under-20 World Cup in Canada June 30-July 22. Rongen’s squad features 14 pro players, the most ever for a U.S. Under-20 World Cup team. It includes Michael Bradley, who is playing for the senior national team at the Gold Cup, Freddy Adu, who has already played in two U-20 world championships, and Josmer Altidore, the youngest player on the team at age 17. For the complete U-20 roster …
Brazil, which will face the USA in the first round, has named its team for the Under-20 World Cup. Coach Nelson Rodrigues‘ squad includes Lucas and Carlos Eduardo, two of the most influential players on 2007 Libertadores Cup finalists Gremio, and four European-based players, David Marinho of Benfica (Portugal), Marcelo of Real Madrid (Spain), Jo of CSKA Moscow (Russia) and Luiz Adriano of Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine).
[TELEVISION] ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network, and ESPN360.com, ESPN’s broadband service, will combine to broadcast all 52 matches at the U-20 World Cup in Canada June 30-July 22. ESPNU will feature all U.S. team matches in pool play, plus the entire round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and championship match.
As MLS savors the rabid reaction to Toronto FC, Canadian Soccer Association officials are planning to use BMO Field and the FIFA U-20 World Cup as catalysts for a revival of their national team programs. Through the window of his condominium, Toronto FC captain Jim Brennan can see the home of Major League Soccer’s newest […]
The U.S. U-20s are sure making its hard for Coach Thomas Rongen to make his final selections for the Under-20 World Cup, which begins later this month. With a lineup featuring several players on the bubble, the USA crushed Canada, 4-1, on Sunday afternoon at Ottawa’s Frank Clair Stadium, a U-20 World Cup venue. Andre Akpan, Preston Zimmerman, Johann Smith and Sal Zizzo all scored for the USA, which concludes its two-game trip to Canada with a rematch Wednesday in Kingston.
Players such as Italian-based New Yorker Gabriel Ferrari have a chance to clinch a spot on the U.S. team that will compete in this summer’s U-20 World Cup when Coach Thomas Rongen assesses a 16-man squad during a dress rehearsal tour of Canada. Perhaps half of the players Rongen has taken north of the border for a pair of games against Canada in the next week won’t be on his final roster, yet in the Canadian contingent are several players Rongen has been anxious to observe up close as he makes his final roster decisions for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup (June 30-July 22 in Canada).
U.S. under-20 national team coach Thomas Rongen will take 16 players to a training camp May 30-June 6 in Canada as part of the team’s preparation for the upcoming Under-20 World Cup. The USA will face Canada twice during the camp, which will be the final camp before Rongen names his 21-player roster for the Under-20 World Cup and provide the USA with a first-hand look at their two Group E venues in Montreal and Ottawa.
Defending NCAA Division I men’s national champion UC Santa Barbara has signed Michael Boxall and Sam Jenkins, who are both expected to represent New Zealand at next month’s Under-20 World Cup. Boxall, a gifted center back that can also play in the midfield, was named Auckland City FC’s Young Player of the Year. Jenkins, who scored three goals in his first two games with the U-20s, plays for Hawke’s Bay United in the NZ Football Championship, New Zealand’s top domestic league. Boxall and Jenkins follow in the footsteps of former UCSB defender Tony Lochhead and forward Neil Jones, who both competed for New Zealand at the national level prior to their arrival in Santa Barbara.
