The U.S. U-20 National Team finished 1-2-0 in three matches in Serbia’s Stevan Vilotic Tournament as it began the new cycle. Real Salt Lake’s Sebastian Saucedo and Justen Glad and Real Monarchs’ Cristian Herrera all saw action in the tournament, with Saucedo scoring in the final match, a 2-0 win over Israel.
That was a strong finish to an otherwise daunting tournament for the U.S. Both Saucedo and Glad started in the final match, highlighted by Saucedo drawing a penalty and then converting to give the U.S. a 1-0 lead that was later doubled on an own goal. Herrera started along with Glad and Saucedo in the second match of the tournament, a 6-1 loss to France, this after none of the three players from the RSL family started in the tournament-opening 3-1 loss to host Serbia.
The Gambia Falls To Cameroon
In the qualifying tournament for the 2017 African Cup of Nations, The Gambia hosted Cameroon on Sunday, with RSL defender Abdoulie Mansally getting the start for The Gambia. After already playing to a scoreless draw on the road against South Africa, Gambia was seeking a home result against Group favorites Cameroon, but fell 1-0 on a 65th minute goal from Vincent Aboubakar. Mansally started the match and played 78 minutes before being replaced by his former New England Revolution teammate, Sainey Nyassi.
The next match for The Gambia will be against Mauritania in March.
World Cup Qualifying Continues Tuesday
In other RSL international action, Demar Phillips and Elias Vasquez both fell in the first leg of their third-round qualifiers in the CONCACAF region.
Phillips started and played 67 minutes for Jamaica in a 3-2 loss to Nicaragua in the first leg of the aggregate-goal series on Friday, leaving with Jamaica trailing 3-0.
Meanwhile, Vasquez played 90 minutes, but Antigua and Barbuda earned a 72nd minute penalty and that was the difference in the match as the hosts topped Guatemala 1-0.
The second leg for both teams will be Tuesday evening, with Jamaica starting at 7:30 p.m. MT and Guatemala kicking off at 8 p.m. MT.
