adminPortugal and Nigeria won their final Group B matches to reach the last 16 of the Under-20 World Cup on Thursday, while third-place South Korea still has a chance of advancing. Spain and France had already advanced from Group A, and Spain won the group with a 2-1 win over the French. Captain Paco Alcacer and Jese scored before substitute Thibaut Vion found the net for France in injury time.
The United States, which hasn’t reached the knockout stages since 2007, finished last in the group after a 4-1 defeat by Ghana.
Portugal striker Bruma scored his fourth and fifth goals of the event to help the two-time champions beat Cuba 5-0 and top the group, while Nigeria defeated South Korea 1-0 after an early goal by Olarenwaju Kayode and overtook the Asians for second place.
Ricardo, Aladje and To Ze also found the net for Portugal, while Bruma almost added a sixth but hit the crossbar.
It was Portugal’s biggest ever win in the competition, improving on 3-0 defeats of Argentina in 1991 and the Netherlands four years later.
But Cropper had no chance shortly afterward, when several American defenders failed to clear the ball from the area and Frank Acheampong fired home a low shot.
Another piece of weak defending allowed the unmarked Ebenezer Assifuah to curl the ball past Cropper in the 58th the minute.
Shane O’Neill pulled a goal back for the Americans from Oscar Sorto’s cross in the 69th, the US wasn’t able to stage a comeback.
Assifuah scored his second of the game nine minutes later and Kennedy Ashia added Ghana’s in the 83rd.
It was the first defeat for the US team against an African opponent since losing 2-0 to Egypt in 2001.
The US qualified for Turkey after finishing runner-up to Mexico in the CONCACAF Under-20 championship earlier this year. — Supersport.
derick.khumalo