U.S. U-20 team lose 2-1 to Guatemala

The U.S. U-20 men's national team failed to qualify for the 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup after losing 2-1 to Guatemala on Wednesday night. Conor Doyle scored the U.S. team's lone goal, but that was not enough to spark a come-from-behind win against a spirited Guatemala team.

"Obviously we are extremely disappointed by this result," said U.S. coach Thomas Rongen in a press release. "If you look at the game, you have to take your hat off to Guatemala. The home team came to play. They had a good game plan. We have to move on, and I firmly believe that within this group we have very capable players who will move on to represent our team at the senior team or Olympic level, but today wasn't our day. It was a good host team and our team wasn't able to click on all cylinders."

Guatemala took the lead after 33 minutes when a corner kick was headed home by Gerson Lima. Doyle would tie the game for the U.S. in the 66th minute after being put clean through by midfielder Amobi Okugo.

However, Guatemala responded near instantly. In the 69th minute, a long clearance was only partially cleared by the U.S. before Henry Lopez poked home past U.S. goalkeeper Zac MacMath.

In the other quarterfinals, Costa Rica topped Cuba 6-1 and will be looking to defend their regional crown against Guatemala in their semifinal match on Friday, April 8. In the other semifinal pairing, Mexico, 3-0 winners against Canada, will play Panama, who upset Honduras in the quarterfinal.

The four CONCACAF teams will join the 15 teams that have already qualified for the 24-team field: Australia, Korea DPR, Korea Republic and Saudi Arabia from Asia, Austria, Croatia, England, France, Portugal and Spain from Europe, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Uruguay from South America and host Colombia.