U20 Men Advance to Final

Nip Trinidad & Tobago in Shootout

March 14, 2009

MACOYA, Trinidad – The U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team booked a place in the CONCACAF U-20 Championship final with a penalty shootout win against Trinidad & Tobago on Friday.

After 120 scoreless minutes of regulation and extra time, Jared Jeffrey, Dilly Duka, Kyle Davies and Anthony Wallace each converted penalty shots while goalkeeper Brian Perk came up with huge saves on Trinidad & Tobago’s fourth and fifth shooters to win 5-4 in the shootout.

After already securing their place at the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup by winning Group A, the U.S. squad will now look to win its first-ever CONCACAF U-20 title.

“The host country made it very hard for us in a game that could have gone either way but in the end our goalkeeper made the difference for us tonight,” said U.S. Under-20 MNT head coach Thomas Rongen. “He came up with two excellent saves on two penalties for us to win it. I have to give Trinidad & Tobago a lot of credit for playing us straight up and trying to win the game just like we did over 120 minutes.”

The USA’s defensive efforts kept the game 0-0 and set the stage for the dramatic shootout. Both teams had limited chances, with the closest either team came to scoring was in the 19th minute when Trinidad & Tobago’s Juma Clarence hit the post on a shot inside the penalty area. Minutes later, Brian Ownby hit a strike from 20 yards out that T&T goalkeeper Glenroy Samuel did well to tip over the bar.

With 12 FIFA U-20 World Cup appearances, the U.S. has qualified more than any other CONCACAF nation, but has never won the regional crown.

U.S. UNDER-20 MEN’S NATIONAL TEAM MATCH REPORT

Penalty Summary:
USA: Jeffrey (goal), Duka (goal), Marosevic (miss - high), Davies (goal), Wallace (goal)
TRI: Rochford (goal), Joseph (goal), Bentick (goal), Bateau (saved), Paul (saved) Lineups:
USA: 24-Brian Perk; 4-Sheanon Williams (5-Aaron Maund, 90+), 22-Gale Agbossoumonde, 2-Kyle Davies (capt.), 3-Anthony Wallace; 15-Brian Ownby, 8-Jared Jeffrey, 10-Dilly Duka, 7-Danny Cruz (16-Billy Schuler, 77); 9-Peri Marosevic, 13-Tony Taylor (6-Amobi Okugo, 68)

TRI: 1-Glenroy Samuel, 3-Curtis Gonzales (15-Uriah Bentic, 90+), 4-Sheldon Bateu, 5-Akeem Davis, 6-Leston Paul, 8-Sean de Silva, 9-Juma Clarence (10-Daniel Joseph, 69), 11-Trent Lougheed (19-Qian Grosvenor, 50), 12-Robert Primus, 14-Jean Luc Rochford,17-Nicholas Walker

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