Michael Nsien’s young Yanks face what is arguably their most important game of the CONCACAF U-20 Championship on Tuesday night, when they take on Group C third-place finishers Guatemala in the quarterfinal, with a spot in next summer’s World Cup on the line.
Apart from the obvious goal of winning the the regional U-20 title for a remarkable fourth straight time, on arch-rivals’ Mexico’s home soil no less, the biggest prize from this tournament is grabbing one of the four qualification spots for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile.
By winning all three of their group games by a combined 14-0 margin, Nsien’s squad did everything they could to assure the smoothest possible path to that target, as they have the advantage of playing against a third-place finisher, namely Guatemala, in the all-important quarterfinal.
Despite finishing behind both Mexico and Panama in Group C, the Blue and White are hardly pushovers, as they did only narrowly lose to the hosts in a game which saw each side net a penalty, and subsequently blew past Haiti by a 5-1 margin.
American-born Olger Escobar, who is a prospect in the New England Revolution system in MLS, is joint top scorer in the tournament with three goals, all coming in that final game against Haiti.
The team, coached by former Mexican professional Marvin Cabrera, has just under half of their squad based at various academies in the US, although few with any real first-team experience. Notably, midfielders DeCarlo Guerra and Matthew Evans are both within the LAFC academy system, and were both major contributors in the group stage with five combined starts across the three games, and one goal scored for Evans against Haiti.
Ten of the 21 players are based domestically in Guatemala, while keeper Diego Bolaños, who started the first two games, plays for Argentinos Juniors in Buenos Aires, and forward Daniel Méndez is in the Pachuca system in Mexico.
American fans digging deep for their guilty dose of Schadenfreude might remember Guatemala as the team responsible for knocking Mexico out of the last CONCACAF U-20 Championship at the quarterfinal stage two years ago, keeping the junior El Tri team out of both the 2023 World Cup and the ongoing Olympics, and giving the US program a temporary edge in the battle for a generation of dual-nats.
Still, the American squad are not only favorites, but should be considered heavy favorites to come out victorious, and qualify for a sixth straight World Cup.
Reasonably, there will be questions about whether Nsien will go all-out and deploy his first-choice starters, including the players currently on yellow cards, or play his lineup somewhat more conservatively, with an eye towards having all players available and well-rested for a semifinal against either Panama or Canada three days later.
The most notable players with risk of suspension are Marcos Zambrano and Pedro Soma, each of whom has scored a pair of goals in the tournament. Zambrano has also added several assists, and has been one of the best players in the tournament so far.
Liverpool prospect Keyrol Figueroa has been sparingly used so far in the tournament, and has not particularly impressed when on the field. Nevertheless, his potential is immense, particularly based on his earlier exploits with the U-17 group, and he could be a candidate for a start in this one.
The goalscorer against Costa Rica, Nikolas Tsakiris, could be another candidate for a rest after he started the last two group games, although Soma would likely be first in line to sit due to his yellow card from the previous game, and his importance to the team for the deeper stages of the tournament.
Nsien has used five defenders in various combinations across the three groups games to great effect, limiting the opposition to a total of eight shots, most of them forced from distance. Team captain Nolan Norris is the only of the group to start all three games, and is a strong bet to feature in a fourth straight.
Luca Bombino, Noah Cobb, Aiden Harangi and Stuart Hawkins each earned two starts in the group stage, with the latter three having joined Norris in the back-four against Costa Rica. Bombino and Hawkins are each on a yellow, which could motivate Nsien to run with a three-man back line as he did against Cuba, should he be confident that this would be enough to stop the rather inexperienced Guatemalan attackers.
The game is set to kick off shortly after 5pm Eastern US time, at the Estadio Nou Camp in León. It will be followed by the quarterfinal between Panama and Canada in the same stadium.
