The U.S. youth national team is out of the U20 Women’s World Cup in the group stage following a 3-1 loss to Japan on Wednesday.
The team ended the three-game group stage with two straight losses. The USYNT won its first match at the tournament in Costa Rica 3-0 against Ghana but lost by the same score to the Netherlands on Sunday.
The USYNT needed to win by at least two goals in order to advance due to goal differential. Instead, the squad lost by that much after going down 2-0 off second-half goals from Manama Matsumoto and Shinomi Koyama.
The loss marked the team’s third straight to Japan in U20 World Cup competition. The U.S. team has never beaten Japan in the tournament’s history.
Just some beautiful football. 😍🇯🇵 earn all 9 points and are headed to the #U20WWC quarter-finals! pic.twitter.com/WGqOxVkKsk— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) August 18, 2022
Just some beautiful football. 😍🇯🇵 earn all 9 points and are headed to the #U20WWC quarter-finals! pic.twitter.com/WGqOxVkKsk
Simone Jackson managed to cut the deficit in half for the USYNT in the 72nd minute, but 12 minutes later Haruna Tabata tallied Japan’s third goal of the night.
Each team had 12 shots and three corner kicks, with the U.S. holding a slight edge in possession (52 percent).
With the result, the U.S. finished third in Group D. Japan finished in first, having gone undefeated, while the Netherlands finished second. Both will advance to the knockout stage.
Japan will play France, who finished as runner-up in Group C, in the quarterfinals at 10 p.m. ET Sunday.