USA upset France with late goals to return to U-20 World Cup last eight
The United States’ Under-20 men’s national team reached the last eight of a third straight U-20 World Cup after scoring a pair of late goals in a 3-2 victory to eliminate France.
Sebastian Soto tied the score with his second goal of the match in the 74th minute and New England Revolution product Justin Rennicks scored the goahead goal off a rebound in the 83rd minute to set up a quarter-final clash with Ecuador on Saturday.
Soto put the US ahead in the 25th minute, sprinting past defender Enzo Loiodice to take a through pass from Richard Ledezma, who dribbled half the length of the field on a counter-attack.
France took a 2-1 lead on goals by Amine Gouri in the 41st and Nabil Alioui in the 55th.
Soto scored his fourth goal of the tournament, slipping past Dan Zagadou to run onto a pass from Tim Weah, taking two touches and beating goalkeeper Alban Lafont with a left-footed shot.
Rennicks entered in the 63rd minute and got the winner when Sergino Dest’s 25-yard shot was parried by a diving Lafont, and Rennicks beat the goalkeeper to the rebound and poked the ball in.
American midfielders Alex Mendez and Chris Durkin were suspended for the round of 16 match because of yellow-card accumulation but will be eligible to return for the quarter-finals.
In quarter-finals on Friday, Italy faces Argentina and Colombia meets Ukraine.
The winner of Saturday’s match between USA and Ecuador advances to a semifinal against South Korea or Senegal. The Americans were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Serbia on penalty kicks in 2015 and by Venezuela in extra time two years ago. The US made its only semifinal appearance in 1989.