The U.S. U-20 National Team opened their 2013 U-20 World Cup campaign with a 4-1 loss to Spain in Istanbul, Turkey on Friday. Gerard Deulofeu and Jes\u00e9 Rodr\u00edguez each scored twice as Spain built a four goal lead before Luis Gil scored a late consolation goal.<\/p>\n
The loss leaves the U.S. (0-1-0, 0 points) at the bottom of Group A behind Spain (1-0-0, 3 points), France (1-0-0, 3 points), and Ghana (0-1-0, 0 points) after France beat Ghana 3-1 earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
Spain grabbed the lead in just the fifth minute when Barcelona\u2019s Deulofeu got behind the defense off of a long ball. Deulofeu dribbled to the endline than sent a cross to Real Madrid\u2019s promising youngster Jes\u00e9, who volleyed it past U.S. \u2018keeper Cody Cropper, putting Spain up 1-0.<\/p>\n
The U.S. nearly found the equalizer in the 13th<\/sup> minute when Real Salt Lake\u2019s Luis Gill played Alonso Hern\u00e1ndez, who plays his club soccer with Mexico\u2019s Monterrey, behind the defense. Alonso ran in on goal, but sent a low shot just wide of the far post.<\/p>\n A minute later Los Angeles Galaxy forward Jose Villarreal put a header on frame off a U.S. free kick from Columbus Crew\u2019s Wil Trapp, but his effort was well saved by Spain \u2018keeper Daniel Sotres.<\/p>\n The Spaniards had two chances just before the 30th<\/sup> minute to add to their lead. First Deulofeu set up Jes\u00e9 for another close range chance, but the striker sent his effort wide. Shortly after Deulofeu had a shot of his own after getting behind the defense, but it was well saved by Cropper.<\/p>\n Cropper came up big again in the 33rd<\/sup> minute after Atletico Madrid defender Javier Manquillo \u00a0got forward on the right flank for Spain and cut inside at the top of the box before sending a low shot to the far post. Cropper quickly dove to his right to make the save.<\/p>\n Despite the scoreline and chances, the U.S. were seemingly in the midst of positive first half performance against a quality Spain side known for the dominating possession. The Americans even were leading the possession battle with 51%, 35 minutes into the match.<\/p>\n But Spain would get on the scoresheet again in the 42nd<\/sup> minute when Deulofeu created something out of nothing, curling an incredible shot into the upper corner from outside the box to make it 2-0.<\/p>\n Jes\u00e9 would then score his second of the night to make it 3-0 just two minutes later. Manquillo broke into the box and despite heavy defensive pressure was able to slot it back to Jes\u00e9 who hammered it past Cropper to make it 3-0.<\/p>\n Spain would put the game out of reach in the 61st<\/sup> minute when Deulofeu got behind the U.S. defense off a long through ball, dribbled around Cropper and slotted it into the empty net, pushing the lead to 4-0.<\/p>\n Gil put the U.S. on the board with a spectacular strike from outside the box in the 77th<\/sup> minute, but it was too little, too late for the Americans.<\/p>\n The U.S. returns to action on Monday, June 24, with a match against France at 11 a.m. ET on ESPN2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. gives up three unanswered first half goals, fall 4-1 in Istanbul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[148],"tags":[448,449,447,446],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20136"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20136"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20166,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20136\/revisions\/20166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}