World Cup in jeopardy as U.S. falls to Costa Rica

The United States put its hopes of an eighth straight World Cup berth in peril, giving up a pair of goals to Marco Urena in a 2-0 defeat to Costa Rica on Friday night that brought the Americans’ resurgence under coach Bruce Arena to a crashing thud.

Urena spun around defender Tim Ream, then caught Tim Howard leaning and beat the goalkeeper to the far post in the 31st minute. Urena, the lone forward in a 4-5-1 formation, doubled the lead in the 82nd with a shot from 18 yards after David Guzman intercepted a poor pass by Geoff Cameron.

The Americans have lost two home games in a World Cup cycle for the first time since 1957 and likely will need points on the road to reach next year’s tournament in Russia.

Tennis

UPSETS ABOUND IN U.S. OPEN » Thanks to 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic’s early exit, there will be a first-time Grand Slam finalist at Flushing Meadows and one of the men still with a chance to get that far is 18-year-old Canadian Denis Shapovalov.

Just 2 months after his runner-up finish at Wimbledon, the No. 5-seeded Cilic bowed out in the third round of the U.S. Open on Friday with 80 unforced errors in a 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-4 loss to No. 29 Diego Schwartzman of Argentina.

No t mu c h la t e r , Shapovalov became the youngest man to reach the round of 16 in New York since Michael Chang was 17 in 1989, getting that far when Kyle Edmund of Britain stopped playing because of an injured neck.

Women’s winners earlier in the day included reigning Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, Sloane Stephens, who is coming back from left foot surgery in January and Venus Williams.