Youth National Teams: U-18 and U-16 girls open USYSA Cup play

The U.S. U-18 girls’ national team, coached by Shannon Cirovski, beat the USYSA Under-17 All-Star Team, 2-0, in their opening match of the United States Youth Soccer Association Cup held at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla. The U.S. U-18s struck early, with 1998 SA Women’s College Freshman of the Year Mary Frances Monroe (Northport, N.Y.) finding the back of the net in the 13th minute. The U-18s sealed the victory in the 54th minute when Christie Walsh (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) fed Veronica Zepeda (Riverside, Calif.) who slid the ball past the goalkeeper giving the USA a 2-0 victory. The U-16 girls, coached by April Heinrichs, fell in their opener 1-0 to the USYSA Under-19 All-Star Team after an early goal in the 4th minute. The USYSA Cup is a round-robin eight team tournament featuring some of the world’s best women’s youth national teams, including the USA, Germany, China, Sweden and Japan U-18 national teams and the U.S. U-16 team. The eight teams have been broken down into two groups and the winner of Group A will play the winner of Group B in the final of the USYSA Cup on Feb. 20. The U.S. U-18s Team will play Sweden on Feb. 16 and conclude bracket play against China on Feb. 18, while the U.S. U-16s will play Japan Feb. 16 before playing Germany on Feb. 18. The following is a breakdown of the tournament standings after the opening matches: GROUP A