Mexico beats US 1-0 in men's Olympic soccer qualifying
Now comes the winner-take-all semifinal Sunday night against Honduras or Canada for a trip to the men’s Olympic soccer tournament. Mexico, the 2012 Olympic champion, won its 14th straight Olympic qualifier dating to 2008 and finished first in Group A at 3-0. Ad“We wanted to win the game to be at the top of our group,” American defender Mauricio Pineda said. In the first game of the doubleheader, Costa Rica routed the Dominican Republic 5-0 in a matchup of eliminated teams. Randall Leal of Major League Soccer’s Nashville scored twice, and Manfred Ugalde, Bernald Alfaro and Aaron Salazar had one goal each.
Gioacchini, Soto score 2 goals each as US routs Panama 6-2
Nicholas Gioacchini and Sebastian Soto each scored their first two international goals in a 6-2 exhibition rout of Panama on Monday night at Wiener Neustadt, Austria, the second of two matches for the Americans that followed a 10-month pandemic break. Gio Reyna got his first goal three days after his 18th birthday, the third-youngest player to score in modern era. Sebastian Lletget also got a goal in a physical, open match against a CONCACAF rival that reached the 2018 World Cup over the Americans. By the time qualifying comes we'll be ready to compete.”José Fajardo scored his first two goals for Panama. The U.S. has used 90 players since the October 2017 defeat at Trinidad and Tobago that eliminated the Americans from the 2018 World Cup, including 52 debuting.