The US Under-20 national team have a chance to make history this weekend.
If the US win their quarterfinal matchup with Venezuela in the wee hours of Sunday morning in South Korea (2 am ET | FS2, FSGO), they’ll become just the second American squad to ever make the semifinals of a U-20 World Cup.
The only occasion the US U-20 team made the World Cup semis came all the way back at the 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship, when Kasey Keller led the Yanks to a second-place finish in Group C and a 2-1 quarterfinal win against Iraq before falling to Nigeria in the semis in Saudi Arabia. That tournament looked a little different than the current U-20 World Cup, with only 16 teams participating and just eight advancing to the knockout round compared to the 24 participants and 16 knockout round contenders seen in recent years.
The winner of Sunday’s US-Venezuela quarterfinal will face the winner of the Portugal-Uruguay quarter in the semifinals on June 8.
US U-20 World Cup/FIFA World Youth Championship Record
1977 – Did not qualify
1979 – Did not qualify
1981 – Group Stage, 15th overall
1983 – Group Stage, 11th overall
1985 – Did not qualify
1987 – Group Stage, 10th overall
1989 – Semifinals, 4th overall
1991 – Did not qualify
1993 – Quarterfinals, 8th overall
1995 – Did not qualify
1997 – Round of 16, 15th overall
1999 – Round of 16, 11th overall
2001 – Round of 16, 13th overall
2003 – Quarterfinals, 5th overall
2005 – Round of 16, 11th overall
2007 – Quarterfinals, 7th overall
2009 – Group Stage, 18th overall
2011 – Did not qualify
2013 – Group Stage, 22nd overall
2015 – Quarterfinals, 7th overall
