U20 Men Defeat Cameroon

Four Different Goal Scorers Propel Americans

September 30, 2009

SUEZ, Egypt – Four different U.S. players scored and the U.S. U-20 Men’s National Team earned three key points in its second game of the Under-20 World Cup with a 4-1 victory over Cameroon.

The three-goal win propels the U.S. into second place in Group C on goal difference heading in to the final group match against Korea Republic on Friday. With a win, the U.S. ensures advancement to the Round of 16, but there are a myriad of other advancement scenarios with the top two teams from each group, plus the four best third-place finishers, advancing.

Fourth-place Korea Republic took a point from Germany in the early match to stay alive with one point. Going into the last match Germany leads with four points, and the U.S. sits ahead of Cameroon on goal difference.

U.S. head coach Thomas Rongen made two changes to his starting lineup in midfield, where he inserted Bryan Arguez and Dilly Duka to play alongside Jared Jeffrey. The change paid dividends as each of the debutantes scored a goal and registered an assist, and Jeffrey assisted on the fourth goal.

Arguez’s tally came on a Tony Taylor assist in first-half stoppage time, and in the opening moments of the second half Duka assisted on Taylor’s eventual game-winner. Duka’s goal game in the 67th minute assisted by Arguez, and second-half substitute Brian Ownby scored the fourth goal in second-half stoppage time.

"If you win 4-1 you're clearly happy, but I'm more happy about the fact that our team responded well to a disappointing opening game against Germany,” said Rongen, who now has a 7-4-1 record in U-20 World Cup matches. “It showed some great character and resilience to manage this game, and it was a huge game for us. We felt we needed three points to get ourselves back in the race for the group, and we did that. I'm very proud of the way that the team handled the loss against Germany and focused our energy on Cameroon. We made a few changes that helped us and that was a result that we desperately needed."

The other lineup chang es – Rongen made five in all – were Houston Dynamo’s Danny Cruz starting on the right wing while Boston native Sheanon Williams was available after missing Saturday’s game with a minor ankle injury. On the left side, Jorge Flores, who saw 55 minutes of action against Germany after coming in for an injured Kyle Davies, also got the nod against Cameroon.

As the first half was winding down, Cruz, who was working tirelessly on the right wing all night, earned a free kick just inside the touchline. Duka stepped over to take the out-swinger, which was directed on goal by Ike Opara and pushed wide by Francois Beyokol’s fingertips. Taylor chased down the loose ball and kept it in bounds. The Miami FC forward slotted the ball back across the goal mouth to Arguez, who took a touch and hit a shot that sent the ball into the roof of the net.

Cameroon came out firing in the second half looking for the equalizer early. Seconds after kick off, they played a ball into the box that was chested down by Olivier Boumale, but Opara recovered quickly to strip Boumale and sent the ball out wide for Jeffery to launch the counter attack.

He the ball over the Cameroon back line for an on-rushing Duka, who raced in behind the defense. Duka carried the ball into the penalty area, looked up and calmly slotted the ball centrally for Taylor, who had an empty net to finish in, doubling the U.S. lead.

In the 67th minute, Duka added a goal of his own. Arguez lifted a pass to the left side for the New Jersey native, who passed on the option to play an early ball and waited for the U.S. forwards to get into the box. He took a quick look up before lofting a searching ball to the far post that sailed over the Beyokol and dipped perfectly into the far side netting.

Seven minutes later, Cameroon was able to pull one back when Opara tugged on the shirt of Brice Owona inside the penalty area and referee Jorge Larrionda immediately pointed to the spot and cautioned Opara. Defender Banana Yaya converted the shot high and to his left.

In the 90th minute, Ownby’s goal leveled out the USA’s overall goal differential and moved them ahead of Cameroon in the standings. Jeffrey quickly played a loose ball from just inside the U.S. half behind the Cameroon defenders for Ownby. He outran his defender into the penalty area, and was still able to find the inside of the far post despite being knocked down while taking his shot to make it 4-1.

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

Scoring Summary:
USA – Bryan Arguez (Tony Taylor) 45+1th minute
USA – Tony Taylor (Dilly Duka) 47
USA – Dilly Duka (Bryan Arguez) 67
CMR – Banana Yaya (penalty kick) 75
USA – Brian Ownby (Jared Jeffrey) 90+1

Lineups:
USA: 13-Brian Perk (capt.); 4-Sheanon Williams, 2-Gale Agbossoumonde, 16-Ike Opara, 19-Jorge Flores; 8-Jared Jeffrey, 17-Bryan Arguez, 10-Dilly Duka (3-Dillon Powers, 76); 5-Danny Cruz, 7-Tony Taylor (15-Brian Ownby, 74), 20-Brek Shea

CMR: 1-Francois Beyokol (capt.); 4-Banana Yaya, 6-Charley Fomen, 7-Olivier Boumale, 9-Brice Owona; 12-Adolphe Teikeu, 13-Parfait Essenque, 17-Germain Tiko (10-Jacques Zoua, 51), 18-Jean Bapidi (5-Enow Tabot, 73), 19-Donald Djousse (14-Patrick Ekeng, 51), 21-Andre Akono Effa

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