USA continues FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup against the Netherlands on Sunday

U.S. U-20 WYNT vs. NETHERLANDS – Group D
2022 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup
Aug. 14 | Estadio Nacional; San José, Costa Rica

USA CONTINUES 2022 FIFA U-20 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP WITH GROUP D CLASH VS. THE NETHERLANDS:

After a convincing 3-0 win to open the 2022 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, the U.S. Under-20 Women’s Youth National Team will continue Group D play on Sunday, Aug. 14 against the Netherlands at Estadio Nacional in San José (7 p.m. ET; FS1). It will be the first meeting between the USA and the Dutch in a FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. Of course, the senior teams met in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final in Lyon, France, a 2-0 victory that gave the USA its fourth World Cup title. The USA will finish the group stage against Japan on Wednesday, Aug. 17 back at Estadio Morera Soto (7 p.m. ET; FS2).

BACK IN ACTION:

The USA-Ghana game was the first youth Women’s World Cup match for a U.S. team in almost exactly four years since the 2-2 draw with Spain on Aug. 13, 2018, to end group play at the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in France. With Japan defeating the Netherlands, 1-0, in the other Group D match, the USA is currently on top of the group with a plus-3 goal difference to Japan’s plus-1.

WATCH FIFA U-20 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP ON FOX:

Each of the 32 matches of the tournament will be broadcast on either Fox Soccer Plus (8 matches), FS1 (10 matches) or FS2 (14 matches) and are available online at Foxsports.com and the Fox Sports App with corresponding authentication. All the knockout stage matches will be shown on either FS1 (5 matches, including both semifinals and the championship game) or FS2 (3 matches). Additionally, all 32 games are being streamed live on FIFA+ in territories that do not have TV rights holders for the tournament. The first eight matches featured some close games – five of which were one-goal games or draws – and two upsets, as Colombia downed Germany, 1-0, and Nigeria scored late to beat France, 1-0. In fact, the USA’s 3-0 win over Ghana was the largest margin of victory in any game over the first two match days.

2022 FIFA U-20 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP — USA GROUP D SCHEDULE  

GROUP D STANDINGS

2022 FIFA U.S. U-20 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP ROSTER BY POSITION (COLLEGE OR CLUB; HOMETOWN; U-20 CAPS/GOALS)

GOALKEEPERS (3): Mia Justus (Florida State; Lakewood, Ohio; 7), Neeku Purcell (UCLA; Seattle, Wash.; 6), Teagan Wy (California; Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.; 2)

DEFENDERS (6): Lauren Flynn (Florida State; Arlington, Va.; 9/0), Samar Guidry (Virginia; McKinney, Texas; 11/0) Emily Mason (Rutgers; Flemington, N.J.; 16/3), Ayo Oke (California; Lawrenceville, Ga.; 10/0), Lilly Reale (UCLA; Hingham, Mass.; 7/1), Laney Rouse (Virginia; Cary, N.C.; 8/0)

MIDFIELDERS (5): Korbin Albert (Notre Dame; Grayslake, Ill.; 5/1), Talia DellaPeruta (UNC; Cumming, Ga.; 20/5), Annie Karich (Santa Clara; Surfside, Calif.; 1/0), Carina Lageyre (Duke; Cooper City, Fla.; 5/0), Olivia Moultrie (Portland Thorns FC; Wilsonville, Ore.; 8/2) 

FORWARDS (7): Trinity Byars (Texas; Richardson, Texas; 10/3); Michelle Cooper (Duke; Clarkston, Mich.; 8/9); Simone Jackson (USC; Redondo Beach, Calif.; 9/7), Andrea Kitahata (Stanford; Hillsborough, Calif.; 7/7), Ally Sentnor (UNC; Hanson, Mass.; 3/1), Jaedyn Shaw (San Diego Wave FC; Frisco, Texas; 5/3), Alyssa Thompson (Total Futbol Academy; Studio City, Calif.; 5/4)

FIRST GAME SUMMARY:

The USA’s convincing 3-0 win over Ghana marked the USA’s fifth win in an opening match of a FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. The USA had failed to win its opening match in its last three U-20 Women’s World Cup appearances with two losses and draw. The only other time the USA failed to win its opening match of a U-20 World Cup was a 1-1 draw with Ghana in 2010. This time around, the USA out-shot Ghana 21-5 and did not allow a shot on goal.

The USA scored at opportune times, getting an 11^th minute goal from team captain Michelle Cooper, a 38^th minute score from Alyssa Thompson after Ghana’s Jacqueline Owusu had received a red card for stomping on the Achilles tendon of midfielder Korbin Albert, and then again just six minutes into the second half via Ally Sentnor to effectively put the game away. The USA will rue not finding the net a few more times after playing with a player advantage for almost an hour. Ghana went hard into every tackle and received four yellow cards in addition to the red.

ROSTER CHANGE – BRONCO FOR BRONCO:

Midfielder Sally Menti was ruled out of the 2022 FIFA Women’s World Cup after suffering an ACL tear in her right knee during training in Costa Rica prior to the tournament. She has been replaced by midfielder Annie Karich, a rising freshman at Santa Clara, the college Menti also attends. The 5-foot-9 Karich (pronounced Care-ick) hails from Surfside, California and has one cap at the U-20 level, although she also has experience with the U.S. U-15 and U-17 Women’s Youth National Teams. She arrived in Costa Rica on Aug. 13. “We’re absolutely gutted for Sally,” said U.S. U-20 WYNT head coach Tracey Kevins. “She’s a fantastic person and player, she has a great support system from her family, the National Team and at Santa Clara, so we know she’ll come back strong. Our players are a very tight-knit group and I know they will keep her in their hearts during this tournament, but at the same time, we’re looking forward to welcoming Annie back into our team.”

ROSTER NOTES

• The USA roster is composed of 18 players currently in college or enrolling this fall, one youth club player and two professional players, the most professionals ever for a U.S. team at a FIFA youth Women’s World Cup.

• Players born on or after Jan. 1, 2002, are age-eligible for the World Cup, and the USA roster features eight players born in 2002, eight born in 2003, four born in 2004 and one in 2005. Sixteen of the 20 players who helped the USA roll to a 7-0-0 record and 49-0 goal differential at the Concacaf Women’s U-20 Championship made the World Cup roster. The USA’s two professional players — Jaedyn Shaw of San Diego Wave FC and Olivia Moultrie of Portland Thorns FC – are trailblazers.

• Shaw entered the NWSL via the Discovery Process and signed her first professional contract with the Wave on July 18 after training for six months with the Washington Spirit. Moultrie signed with the Thorns in June of 2021 to become the youngest player ever to join the National Women’s Soccer League.

• The incoming college freshman on the roster are goalkeeper Neeku Purcell (UCLA), midfielder Carina Lageyre (Duke), Annie Karich (Santa Clara) and goalkeeper Teagan Wy (California).

• The rising sophomores are goalkeeper Mia Justus (Florida State), defender Ayo Oke (California), Emily Mason (Rutgers), Lilly Reale (UCLA), midfielder Korbin Albert (Notre Dame) and forwards Andrea Kitahata (Stanford), Michelle Cooper (Duke), Simone Jackson (USC), Trinity Byars (Texas) and Ally Sentnor (UNC), although Sentnor did redshirt freshman season due to injury.

• The rising juniors are defenders Laney Rouse (Virginia), Lauren Flynn (Florida State) and Samar Guidry (Virginia) plus midfielder Talia DellaPeruta (UNC).
• Every player on the roster has been capped at the U-20 level, led by DellaPeruta (19 caps) and defender Emily Mason (15 caps), the two players on the roster who participated in the previous U-20 WYNT cycle.

• The five players born in 2004 and 2005 – forwards Thompson, Shaw and Sentnor, midfielder Moultrie and goalkeeper Wy — are age-eligible for the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.

• The USA has played the second-most games (48) in the FIFA U-19/U-20 Women’s World Cup, behind only Germany (49) and has scored the second-most goals (104), also behind Germany (127).

• Five players who did not make the World Cup qualifying roster persevered to make the World Cup Team. Those players are forward Jaedyn Shaw, midfielders Carina Lageyre and Korbin Albert, forward Ally Sentnor and goalkeeper Teagan Wy.

• The roster is made up of players from 12 different colleges and 13 different states. There are four players on the roster from California, three from Texas and two from Georgia, Washington and Massachusetts.
• UCLA, UNC, Florida State, Duke, Virginia and California each have two players on the World Cup roster. The only player on the roster who is not in college or will be this fall is forward Alyssa Thompson, who plays for the U-17 boys’ team in MLS Next at Total Futbol Academy in Los Angeles and is headed to Stanford in the fall of 2023.

16 TEAMS VIE FOR 10^TH U-20 TITLE:

This year marks the 10^th edition of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, FIFA’s most high-profile women’s competition after the World Cup and the Olympic Games. The biennial competition began as the FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship in 2002 and was held as a U-19 event in 2004 before moving to its current Under-20 format in 2006. The 16 nations were drawn into four groups of four teams. The top two finishers in each group advances to the quarterfinals, to be held on Saturday, Aug. 20 and Sunday, Aug. 21. The winners of those matches move on to the semifinals on Thursday, Aug. 25. The Championship and Third-Place match will be played on Sunday, Aug 28. The USA is one of four teams to have qualified for every FIFA WWC at this age level, along with three-time champions Germany, Brazil and Nigeria.

THE VENUES:

All matches of the World Cup are being played at two venues which are only about 12 miles apart: Estadio Nacional in San Jose (capacity 34,024 for the tournament) and Estadio Morera Soto in Alajuela (downsized to 4,980 for the U-20 WWC), which is named after a famous Costa Rican player who played for Barcelona in the 1930s. The stadium was named in 1966 in honor Soto, whose heart was buried in one of the stadium’s columns. Currently all the energy used by the stadium is 100% solar, which makes it one of the few stadiums in all Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean to be completely supplied with renewable energy.

USA U-20 WYNT VS. NETHERLANDS:

• This will be the first meeting between the USA and Netherlands in the U-20 Women’s World Cup, but game day will mark just 47 days since the teams played during a tournament in France. The result was a 2-2 draw with U.S. goals from Michelle Cooper and Jaedyn Shaw while Danique Noordman and Ziva Henry scored for the Dutch. The match featured a penalty kick shootout, which the USA won to secure the title at the Sud Ladies Cup.

• Ten of the 15 players who played for the USA in that match are on the World Cup Team while the Dutch used 15 players in that match, all of whom are all the World Cup Team.

• Due to the global pandemic that impacted European qualifying for this tournament, teams were nominated by UEFA based on results from the 2019 UEFA Women’s Under-19 Championship. The Netherlands made the semifinals of that tournament, which would eventually earn them a U-20 World Cup bid, but fell to Germany, 3-1, in that semifinal.

• All 21 of the Netherlands players plays domestically and they come from nine different clubs, several of them famous for the men’s teams, including Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord.

• The Dutch had a bit of a sputtering start to this World Cup as they were out-shot by a very talented Japan team, 27-8, but defender well and only allowed a 23^rd minute goal from Yuzuki Hamamoto.

• Goalkeeper Lisan Alkemade, who also faced the USA at the Sud Ladies Cup, made six saves.

NETHERLANDS 2022 FIFA U-20 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP ROSTER BY POSITION (CLUB)

GOALKEEPERS (3): 1-Claire Dinkla (Fortuna Sittard), 16-Lisan Alkemade (PSV Eindhoven), 21-Femke Liefting (VV Alkmaar)  

DEFENDERS (7): 2-Kim Everaerts (FC Twente), 3-Marit AUÉE (FC Twente), 4-Samantha Van Diemen (Fortuna Sittard), 5-Nina Nijstad (SC Heerenveen), 13-Fenna Meijer (SC Heerenveen), 14-Senna Koeleman (PSV Eindhoven), 15-Jeva Walk (PEC Zwolle)   

MIDFIELDERS (5): 6-Dana Foederer (Fortuna Sittard), 8-Ella Peddemors (FC Twente), 12-Tess Van Bentem (PEC Zwolle), 10-Danique Noordman (PEC Zwolle), 20-Rosa Van Gool (AFC Ajax)   

FORWARDS (6): 7-Liz Rijsbergen (ADO Den Haag), 9-Sanne Koopman (Feyenoord Rotterdam), 11-Ziva Henry (AFC Ajax), 17-Zera Hulswit (PSV Eindhoven), 18-Shi-Jona Martina (PSV Eindhoven), 19-Charlotte Hulst (Fortuna Sittard)