U20s Lose; Still Alive in World Cup

Slim Chance Remains for Advancement to Round of 16

October 3, 2009

Despite the loss, the U.S. finished in third place in Group C, meaning they still have a chance to advance to the Round of 16, based on results in other groups who have yet to play their respective third games.

Germany won 3-0 against Cameroon to take the group title with seven points from three games while keeping Cameroon on three points and behind the U.S. due to goal differential. Korea Republic began the day needing a win to stay alive, and used their victory against the U.S. to propel themselves to four points and second place in the group.

With England and Uzbekistan tying 1-1 in the nightcap in Suez, the U.S. has finished ahead of Uzbekistan, who had one point after three matches to finish in third place ahead of England. Third-place finishers Italy, from Group A, and Nigeria, from Group B, have already finished ahead of the U.S. team. To advance, the U.S. needs to finish ahead of one of the third-place teams in Group E or F after the final day of group play on Saturday night.

The U.S. team will stay in Suez through Saturday night, and if they advance they will travel to Cairo on Sunday, Oct. 4 to prepare for a Round of 16 match against Egypt, winners of Group A.

�First we congratulate Korea, because clearly today they were the better team and deserved the three points and to move on,� said U.S. head coach Thomas Rongen after the match. �Unfortunately in today�s game, to be really frank, technically and tactically Korea was superior to the U.S. You just have to move on. We�re bitterly disappointed in the result. We came in with high expectations. We always set the bar high. But at the end of the day, we just weren�t good enough to get the result that we needed.�

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

Scoring Summary:
KOR � Kim Young-Gwon (Moon Ki-Han) 23rd minute
KOR � Kim Bo-Kyung (Park Hee-Seong) 42
KOR � Koo Ja-Cheol (penalty kick) 75

Lineups:
USA: 13-Brian Perk (capt.); 4-Sheanon Williams, 2-Gale Agbossoumonde, 16-Ike Opara, 19-Jorge Flores; 8-Jared Jeffrey (6-Kyle Davies, 73), 17-Bryan Arguez (11-Mikkel Diskerud, 62), 10-Dilly Duka; 5-Danny Cruz, 7-Tony Taylor (9-Peri Marosevic, 46), 20-Brek Shea

KOR: 12-Kim Seung-Gyu; 2-Oh Jae-Suk (18-Lee Seung-Yeoul, 52), 3-Kim Min-Woo, 5-Kim Young-Gwon, 6-Hong Jeong-Ho, 7-Koo Ja-Cheol (capt.), 11-Seo Jung-Jin, 14-Moon Ki-Han, 17-Yun Suk-Young, 19-Kim Bo-Kyung, 20-Park Hee-Seong

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