USA Downs Costa Rica, 3-1, in Second Group B Match at 2023 Pan American Games to Qualify for Semifinal Round with One Match Left to Play

VALPARAÍSO, Chile (Oct. 25, 2023) – The U.S. Under-19 Women’s Youth National Team won its second Group B match at the 2023 Pan American Games with a dominating 3-1 victory over a Costa Rica team that featured several full National Team players.

The win gives the USA six points and a first place standing in Group B. As Argentina has four points, Costa Rica one point and Bolivia with zero, the USA earned a spot in the semifinals with one first round game left to play by virtue of its guaranteed top-two finish in the group.

The Pan Am women’s soccer competition features two groups of four teams with the top two finishers in each group advancing to the semifinals. The USA finishes Group B play against Argentina on Oct. 28 (3 p.m. local / 2 p.m. ET) in a match that will determine first place in the group. The semifinals will be on Oct. 31 and the bronze and gold medal matches will be contested on Nov. 3.

The USA, coming off a 6-0 win over Bolivia to open the tournament, went ahead in the 11^th on Katie Collins’ first goal of the tournament. It came when midfielder Eleanor Klinger picked up the first of her two assists in the match by playing a long, diagonal ball into the penalty area that turned the Costa Rican backline. Collins won the bouncing ball between two defenders and slotted home a right-footed shot from on top of the six-yard box for her first international goal.

Costa Rica tied the game in the 35^th minute off a corner kick as Tanisha Fonseca got her head on the cross, looping it over U.S. goalkeeper Sonoma Kasica and just under crossbar.

The USA out-shot Costa Rica 20-2 but didn’t put the game away until scoring twice in a five-minute span. In the 73^rd minute, captain Claire Hutton received a pass from Klinger at the bottom of the center circle and weaved through several defenders before beating the goalkeeper with a left-footed blast from the top of the penalty area.

The young Americans got some breathing room in the 77^th as defender Aven Alvarez found forward Amalia Villarreal and she held off a defender with her back to goal at the top of the 18-yard box. Villarreal was able to beat her defender on the turn and then slipped a perfectly weighted pass into the run of forward Emeri Adames who finished with a left-footed shot from the corner of the six-yard box.

In the other Group B match, Argentina downed Bolivia 3-0. The teams that finish in third in the group will play for fifth place and the teams that finish in fourth will be play seventh.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

• This is the first time since 2007 that U.S. Soccer has sent a women’s team to the Pan American Games, a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring Olympic summer sports.
• While the USA is facing teams consisting mostly of senior National Team players, the USA has brought a U-19 team featuring the younger part of the USA’s Under-20 Women’s National Team player pool. The entire roster has yet to enter college as the collegiate players in the U-20 pool are all currently embroiled in their college campaigns.
• Seven players on the roster played for the USA at the 2022 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup, in which the USA dominated Nigeria before falling in penalty kicks in the quarterfinal, so they have some experience at a major world event.
• The U.S. players who played in the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup are defenders Nicki Fraser and Jordyn Bugg, midfielders Charlotte Kohler and Lauren Martinho, forwards Samantha Smith (who is a defender on this roster), Emeri Adames and Amalia Villarreal.
• All the players on the U.S. roster are age-eligible for the team that will compete in the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup about a year from now in Colombia. U.S. Under-19 WYNT head coach Carrie Kveton named a Pan Am roster with 15 players born in 2006 and five born in 2005. The age cut-off to play in the U-20 World Cup next year is players born on or after Jan. 1, 2004.
• U.S. Soccer has competed in two Pan American Games for women’s soccer, the first in 1999 in Canada when U.S. Under-18 Women’s National Team, coached by Jay Hoffman, won the gold medal with a 1-0 victory over an older Mexico squad.
• U.S. Soccer sent an Under-20 women’s team to the 2007 Pan American Games in Brazil and advanced to the gold medal game by beating the senior Canada Women’s National Team, 2-1, in the semifinal, but then ran into a buzzsaw host side at the famed Maracanã Stadium and lost 5-0 to earn a silver medal. That U.S. team, coached by future two-time Women’s World Cup champion Jill Ellis, featured several future USWNT stars, including Alyssa Naeher, Lauren Cheney, Kelley O’Hara and Tobin Heath.

-U.S. UNDER-19 WOMEN’S YOUTH NATIONAL TEAM MATCH REPORT-

Match: United States U-19 Women's National Team vs. Costa Rica Women’s National Team
Date: October 25, 2023
Competition: Pan American Games – Group B
Venue: Estadio Elias Figueroa; Valparaíso, Chile
Attendance: 300
Weather: 58 degrees, sunny

Scoring Summary:   1          2          F         
USA                             1          2          3
CRC                             1          0          0

USA – Katie Collins (Eleanor Klinger)                         11^th minute
CRC – Tanisha Fonseca                                                 35
USA – Claire Hutton (Eleanor Klinger)                       73
USA – Emeri Adames (Amalia Villarreal)                   77                       

Lineups:
USA: 1-Sonoma Kasica; 2-Gisele Thompson (13-Sammy Smith, 77), 18-Jordyn Bugg, 5-Nicki Fraser, 3-Aven Alvarez; 17-Eleanor Klinger (6-Grace Restovich, 70), 14-Claire Hutton (Capt.), 10-Lauren Martinho; 7-Ava McDonald (16-Emeri Adames, 46), 9-Amalia Villarreal, 11-Katie Collins (15-Kendall Bodak, 64)
Subs not used: 2-Kealey Titmuss, 4-Lizzie Boamah, 8-Charlotte Kohler
Head Coach: Carrie Kveton

CRC: 1-Genesis Perez; 2-Gabriela Guillen, 4-Mariana Benavides (Capt.), 7-Alexa Herrera (15-Mariela Campos, 75), 8-Mariela Campos, 9-Tanisha Fonseca (16-Dayona Villanueva, 59), 11-Alexandra Pinell (3-Maria Porras, 83), 12-Maria Elizondo, 13-Emilie Valenciano, 14-Fabiola Villalobos, 17-Sheika Scott (10-Carolina Venegas, 75)
Subs not used: 18-Priscilla Tapia, 5-Stephannie Blanco, 6-Emily Flores, 18-Priscilla Tapia
Head Coach: Jose Rubido

Stats Summary: USA / CRC                       
Shots: 20 / 2
Shots on Goal: 8 / 2
Saves: 1 / 5
Corner Kicks:  3 / 1
Fouls: 6 / 8
Offside: 0 / 0

Misconduct Summary:
USA – Ava McDonald (Caution)                      30^th minute
CRC – Sheika Scott (Caution)                        37

Officials:
Referee: M. Belen Lupera (ECU)
Assistant Referee 1: Stefania Paguay (ECU)
Assistant Referee 2: Joselyn Romero (ECU)
Fourth Official: Joselyn Romero (VEN)