By Daniel Feuerstein | Mexico City, MX | August 7th, 2026
The U.S. Men’s National Under-20 Team headed to the Estadio Banorte to face Costa Rica in the Semi-Finals of the 2026 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship. From the opening whistle to the closing whistle, the USA battled hard all match long and got the necessary goals to earn a big result and headed to the Championship Final with timely goals and strong defense as they defeated Costa Rica by the final score of two goals to nil.
A blast to open the scoring
The USA was peppering the Costa Rican net as they tried to get on the scoreboard as quickly as possible. There were several shots, all stopped by the keeper, but in the middle of the first half, they finally scored to open the scoring. As the ball was headed towards midfield in the air, Alexander Shaw chested it down to his teammate, Ruben Ramos. Once Ramos got hold of the ball, he dribbled it down the middle of the park, then all of a sudden unleashed a big shot from distance that beat the keeper, and the USA bench erupted in the 36th minute.
Free kick sets up a second goal
The USA earned a free kick along the near side as the foul was called by the referee. Tristan Brown took the free kick as Dylan Vanney faked the Costa Ricans. When Brown delivered the ball with his left foot, it had a nice curl going towards the middle of the area and bending towards the net. Making the run were his teammates, and getting his foot on the ball was Chris Applewhite, sliding on the pitch, getting the touch, and it slowly and harmfully went across the entire goal line in the 76th minute. That goal sealed the victory for the USA, and they are on their way to play in the Championship Final.
The other Semi-Final is Olympics-bound
With this victory for the USA and being the host nation for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, that means the second Semi-Final between Canada and Mexico will battle each other for that position and join the USA representing CONCACAF. But this tournament once again saw this group of kids looking to make some noise in the 2027 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, and now we have to see which group they will be drawn into and which other teams will be qualifying for this competition on a date that hasn’t been selected yet playing in Azerbaijan & Uzbekistan.
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