2026 CONCACAF U20 Championship, July 2026: All Teams & Tournament Thread [R]

CR scores on a PK. Now 1-1. 2nd Half.

 

1-1 2nd half of Extra Time. Some tired looking players out there.

 

Costa Rica just had three different players go down with cramps (including the keeper for the 2nd time) and another walking around with a limp. 5 min left before PK's.

 

PKs
CR - X,X, X, X, X (keeper took the last kick)
Haiti - X,X, O (Over the bar), X (CR keeper touched it),

 

Los Ticos advance

 

Both teams bet on penalties. That's pretty sad.

 

Haitian keeper was just flopping without even trying to stop anything, Costa Rican kid deservingly won it for his team.

 

Does the US play Costa Rica in the Semis?

 

Yes

 

I think Guatemala outplayed us in the first half. Like a lot of these teams, they really don't have the attackers to put the ball in the net, but they were the better team to start. Our goal was as lucky or more than theirs.

In the second half, I think we out-athleted them, mostly. Lots of vertical runs where we simply left them in the dust. The press generated a lot of our defense and chances.

I will say a decent portion of the game hinged on Guatemala's smart gameplan -- they really pressed up and overloaded the middle defensively, which made it hard on Guske and Sanchez. It should have opened up things for our fullbacks, but they've largely been a weakness and couldn't take advantage.

Whether the players or Segares figured it out, we basically started going over the top of the fullbacks in the second half to the wingers -- especially Contreras, who absolutely flies.

We should beat Costa Rica; a penalty win over Haiti isn't exactly compelling. But it's tough to see this team beating Mexico. I haven't seen this Mexico squad, but they don't usually have as many weaknesses as our team does.

The one upside is that we don't have a keeper issue like we have sometimes recently had.

 

Sure. Both goals were kind of lucky, but our LB was beaten over and over that half, and Rizmanovic saved those two shots right after we went behind that could've sank this team, but we got a set piece and got our goal in that first half, so them "outplaying" us didn't really count for much.

I don't think this is fair. We couldn't control the ball or string passes together in the first half, and we did a better job in the second. But also our press caused Guatemala to flub passes and long balls the entire half. I think Guatemala had 5 or 6 forays into our half of the field, several of which turned into FKs of various kinds, that entire half. That's more than "out-athleting" someone; that's a team that isn't good enough to handle the ball. Maybe it seems like splitting hairs, but we were better than them technically and we were able to deal with the press better, even though we were nowhere near good enough for a good US U20 team of the last decade.

Yes, but also I felt like Dino and Ramos dropped deep in the middle to help, which meant Guske and Sanchez could pass forward from in between the two front lines of Guatemala's press.

Guatemala's press was not nearly as effective, I think because they didn't throw 2-3 people forward to do it, while the US pressured Guatemala's GK/backline with 2 guys every time. One closed on the GK, the other went to his most obvious outlet, and the GK would launch a poor pass or longball over and over again.

Agreed.

 

I'm not sure what any of it means based on the level of competition we've faced at this event. I don't even think Costa Rica is good, so what can that result mean????

What does it mean for our pool that we got to the semifinal of the event? I don't know. That we have depth to play crap CONCACAF teens?

According to this prospect ranking.....................how many of our top youth prospects are on the roster?
US/SC – Top 50 USMNT Prospects

You don't get to one until Chris Cupps at #20.

The top 10 are Sullivan, Mehmeti, Albert, Gozo, Miller, Prescott, Culbreath, Ellis, Pierre, and Hall.
Prescott and Culbreath are with Germany.

I know rankings like that don't mean a hell of a lot. They're just fun for discussion and seeing the state of the pool. But its true.

What does it all mean? What does it say about CONCACAF that we sent THIS team and still qualified.

 

MD-1 training for the Chicago Fire.

Christopher Cupps will return from international duty today after the #USYNT’s U-20 World Cup qualification. pic.twitter.com/kiIQhORqlT

— Alex Calabrese (@amcalabrese12) August 5, 2026

speaking of Cupps

 

Bottom line: The US has gone 4-0, allowed a single goal (which probably has an xG under .2), and how many of our best U20s aren't even there!

 

With Cupps gone and Berchimas hurt, you don't have a single member of the Top 50. 2007s are the lead class; the first on the 2007 list is #17 Xanti Oyharçabal and then #19 Colin Guske.

Cupps and Berchimas are #4 and #5 on 2008; Dayes is #16 and Sanchez #18. These lists are inherently going to be pretty off in given the nature of the beast (no shade at those who make them) but that's very telling.

It's also telling that the squad has five 2008s given where we are in the cycle and the difficulties of playing up. And that they are all playing big minutes or should have (Alex Shaw is the fifth).

 

Nothing like the US and Mexico. I don't know much about Mexico's pool past Mora ... but we would be slaughtering people if we rolled out our best U20 team. I'm talking 6-0 and higher. Zavier Gozo is eligible; he's getting sold to Crystal Palace as we speak. I'm watching these matches; he'd be straight out murdering dudes. We've got an eligible striker with 12 goal contributions in 1,500 minutes in MLS.

And likewise, Mora would be class here. There's just a different scale. I don't know if Mexico is disadvantaged more or less than us, but I figure you're the only ones in the same place.

Perhaps Costa Rica is also missing someone in the Costa Rican league ... but it's like the U20 World Cup. We were all missing someone ... but Spain was missing Lamine Yamal.

The better the team is ... the more you miss and the more the gap is closed at the youth level. I doub there's a slew of 19 year old Guatemalans who weren't released.

This team now has 4 players from the Top 40 of the two classes that should make it up. That top 40 may be wrong, etc., but it's clearly not the best we could be sending.

 

To the rest of the smaller nations in CONCACAF’s benefit. Know that other posters have brought up that point regarding the timing of the tournament.

 

That's fine. That wasn't really the conversation here. We're really talking about in comparison to who we've played so far.

That said ... we could roll out something like this:

CF Justin Ellis (1g, 4a in less than 800 MLS minutes) or Julian Hall (9g, 3a, 1500 MLS min)
LW Hall or Mathis Albert (17, token minutes with Dortmund)
RW Zavier Gozo (6g, 4a in 1400 MLS minutes, going to Crystal Palace) or Peyton Miller
CAM Cavan Sullivan (17, signed to Man City - 1g/1a in 700 MLS minutes)
CM Snyder Brunell (1,100 minutes, mostly starting for Seattle)
CDM Adri Mehmeti (17, running NYRB from a holding mid spot)
LB Peyton Miller (4g, 1a in < 1000 MLS minutes) or Matthew Dos Santos (1100 min for NYRB)
CB Neil Pierre (18, 6'7" and going to be sold real soon)
CB Ian James (18, starting for SKC)
RB Maybe Andrei Chirila, who just held his own against Pachuca?
GK Probably the starter on this team

I don't know how many of Mexico's players that are missing are currently playing big roles in LigaMX, but we could put forward almost a complete starting lineup of guys doing pretty well in MLS.

 

1-1 right now between Jamaica and Canada

 

2-1 to Canada now after they converted a pen.

 

Canada 3-1 Jamaica after extra time. Canada are through to face the winner of Mexico v Panama.