Paul Kennedy of Soccer America reports on the United States Under-20 national team's 4-0 victory over Suriname in the opening match of the CONCACAF qualification.
The team scored 4 times, and hit the wood work on 3 other occasions in their debut match of the tournament for qualification for the FIFA Under-20 World Championships.
Click here for video highlights of the match.
The USA opened play at the Concacaf Under-20 Championship with a 4-0 win over Suriname Tuesday in Guatemala City but it could have been a lot worse. The Americans hit the post twice in the first half and once in the second and finished with a 27-2 edge in shots.
Bobby Wood, Joe Gyau and Conor Doyle -- all based in Europe -- scored in the first half, and UCLA's Kelyn Rowe completed the scoring after the break.
Suriname finished with 10 men after second-half substitute Biorn Eduards was ejected in the 74th minute for a nasty tackle on Greg Garza.
The USA will round out play in the three-team Group B against Panama on Saturday (TV: ESPN Deportes, ESPN3, 8 pm ET).
“The first game of a tournament where there is a lot at stake is never an easy one,” said U.S. coach Thomas Rongen. “I think we applied ourselves quite well under the circumstances and there are still areas of improvement. Three points was important so that was our aim and within that we tried to accomplish a few other things. We wanted to keep the shutout, which we did obviously. We tried to find the rhythm and I was very pleased with the way we started. We’re not necessarily pleased in some areas of the game where we took the foot off the pedal a little bit and relaxed a little bit too much and didn’t play to the level that I think we’re capable of playing.”
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