Mike Magee scored four goals to lead the United States to a 5-2 win over Ukraine Tuesday at the Torneo Internacional de La Alcudia in Spain.
The win pushed the U.S. to the semifinals, where it will meet Group A winner Uruguay Wednesday. Brazil faces Group A runner-up Costa Rica in the other semifinal.
Magee has been searching for European team since May, but the new FIFA transfer rules prevent a player under 18 from signing abroad. Magee turns 18 Sept. 2. He's had tryouts with Viking of Norway and Dutch champion Ajax and has most recently been training with Swedish Superettan (Second Division) club FC Cafe Opera of Djursholm.
Chicago Fire rookie Craig Capano, who lived with Magee's family while playing youth soccer for the Chicago Sockers, had the fifth goal for the Americans. Michigan sophomore Knox Cameron had two assists.
Playing the third game in four days — and with the semifinals and classification games looming on Wednesday and Thursday — U.S. U-20 coach Thomas Rongen leaned on his reserves and made nine changes to the starting lineup he sent out against Brazil and Italy.
''This was great preparation for the qualifying tournament in November. We knew the result that we needed, and we went out and played hard and got a great win against a strong Ukrainian team,'' said Rongen. ''We put in some fresh legs tonight, and they responded very well. Mike [Magee] was sensational, and I thought Knox Cameron did a fine job of partnering with him up top.''
U.S. UNDER-20 SUMMARY
Aug. 27 in La Alcudia
USA 5 Ukraine 2. Goals: Magee 2, 57, 68, 83+, Capano 5; Vorobey 38, Karamushka 69.
USA — Williams, Simo (Marshall, 41), Harvey, Lancos, Klaas (Johnson, 41), Capano, Stone, Palomares, Ambersley, Magee, Cameron.
Ukraine — Shyryayev, Petrivskyy, Khanas, Radevych, Hibalyuk, Karamushka, Kryvosheyenko (Oberemko,, 52), Nesin, Vlayev, Gorbkov (Brovkin, 62 ), Vorobey.