July 21, 2007

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - Despite a goal by the University of North Carolina's Casey Nogueira, the U.S. Under-20 Women's Soccer Team suffered its first defeat of the 2007 Pan American Games, falling to Mexico by a 3-2 score in its final match of Group B play on Friday. The U.S. side still won the group and will play Canada in the semifinal on July 23 at Maracana Stadium. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. ET).

The USA, Mexico and Argentina all finished with a 3-1-0 record and nine points in the group, but the USA took first place based on a superior goal difference, running up a plus-10 to Mexico's plus-7 and Argentina's plus-four.

Brazil thrashed Canada, 7-0, in the final match of Group A, as 2006 FIFA Women's World Player of the Year Marta scored five times, including three goals in the final 13 minutes, to secure first place for the hosts. Brazil will face Mexico in the other semifinal. Brazil, playing with most of its full Women's National Team players, has scored 26 goals in four matches and allowed zero.

The U.S. team went ahead 2-0 on goals by forwards Casey Nogueira in the 24th minute and Kelley O'Hara in the 57th minute, only to give up three goals, and the lead, in the last 28 minutes of the match.

Nogueira got her third goal of the tournament on a strike from 18 yards out that had originated from a U.S. corner kick, while O'Hara came off the bench at halftime to score her fourth goal of the competition on a long, weaving run through the Mexican defense.

Mexico out-shot the USA 24-10 for the game and the pressure paid off in the second half as the Mexicans tied the match in a three-minute span when Juana Evelyn Lopez tallied in the 62nd and 64th minutes. U.S. goalkeeper Chantel Jones made 12 total saves, but could do nothing on the winning goal as Veronica Charlyn Corral converted a penalty kick 11 minutes from the end to provide the winning margin.

"Our team struggled to keep the ball and Mexico exploited that," said U.S. Head Coach Jillian Ellis. "We weren't able to maintain possession or keep pressure on the Mexico team, but those are signs of us being a young team that lacks experience. This is a great experience for our young team, being able to play in Maracana and compete against other full national teams. It was a good challenge, but now we need to move forward to the next round."

Canada is playing with its full Women's National Team, including all-time leading scorer Christine Sinclair, UCLA star Kara Lang and the leading scorer from the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship in Thailand, Brittany Timko.