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USYNT analysis

U.S. team prepares for Guatemala in a must-win game to decide 2027 World Cup qualification

The United States team has not conceded a goal in its U-20 World Cup qualification tournament, but none of that matters now. On Tuesday night, the USA must defeat Guatemala to qualify for the 2027 U-20 World Cup
BY Brian Sciaretta Posted
August 03, 2026
2:25 PM

The United States team is now preparing for its one game that will decide whether the team qualifies for the 2027 U-20 World Cup. On Tuesday night in Puebla, Gonzalo Segares and his team will face Guatemala in the quarterfinals of CONCACAF’s U-20 Championships.

On Friday, the U.S. team defeated Cuba 5-0 to finish first in Group A and clinch the first overall seed as the top group stage winner, ahead of Mexico on goal differential. The format of this tournament is traditionally unforgiving as everything comes down to one quarterfinal game.

The U.S. team will now face Guatemala, a team that lost to Mexico 4-0, defeated Antigua 4-0, and lost to Costa Rica 1-0 after going down to 10 men in just the 33rd minute.

Guatemala will bring a very defensive approach to this game and the game is surely going to be very, very physical as is often the case in these CONCACAF youth games with everything on the line. The U.S. has the talent, but Guatemala will likely try to neutralize that advantage by being physical, chippy, and trying to slow the game down to get into a rhythm.

The U.S. team, meanwhile, is coming off its best and most dominant game in a 5-0 win over Cuba. That could have been even more lopsided if not for a few big saves from Cuba’s goalkeeper.

Group stage was tough for the U.S. team since the opposing teams continued to sit deep even after the U.S. team scored first because goal differential was at play. If the U.S. team can score first against Guatemala, Guatemala will then have to come out of its shell.

What helped the U.S. team was slick passing from Jaidyn Contreras and Xantiago Oyharçabal who each started and picked up two assists. That opened the game and the U.S. team was able to get goals from five different scorers in the 5-0 win. The nicest of the bunch came from Inter Miami’s Alex Shaw and FC Dallas fullback Joshua Torquato.

This is not an easy task for Segares due to almost all his top players not being released for this tournament. But if this group can qualify, it is possible that a few of these players will stick around through the next year and build a case to be part of the U-20 World Cup team next year.

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