The USA U-20 men's squad secured a spot in the Round of 16 at the U-20 World Cup after a 3-0 victory vs. Fiji on Tuesday. While the USA will be happy with the three points, there was some seriously poor shooting on display.
Realistically Tuesday’s USA-Fiji score line should have been 7-0 or more, however the American players couldn’t find the back of the net for the longest time.
The breakthrough took 66 minutes as a Diego Luna goal put to bed the idea of a historic Fiji draw.
Cade Cowell then doubled the lead in the 88th minute with the best strike of the day.
Caleb Wiley was gifted the USA’s third goal in the 99th minute when a free kick deflected off the post right to his feet for the tap in.
In total the USA recorded 30 shots and were only able to get seven on target. Some credit needs to go to Fiji’s defense for making life difficult for the USA, but plenty of blame falls on the shoulders of the American players.
Now let’s look at all those misses from the boys wearing white.
USA U-20 vs Fiji highlights (or lowlights we should say)
10th Minute
15th Minute
20th Minute
40th Minute
67th Minute
These are just the highlights that FOX Soccer posted. There were many more wayward shots and inexplicable misses during Tuesday’ game.
All the players can do now is leave this game in the past, be happy with the three points and look forward to the next games.
The USA will focus on cleaning up the finishing in their final group stage game vs. Slovakia on Friday at 2 p.m. ET.
With the four best third-placed teams also advancing to the Round of 16 the USA have already guaranteed a spot in the knockout stages.