March 21, 2001

Tunapuna, Trinidad - The U.S. Under-20 Men's National Team continued their offensive assault at the CONCACAF qualifying tournament, storming past Trinidad & Tobago 5-1 to nab their second consecutive win at the Dr. Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence Tuesday night.  With the win - followed by a Costa Rica victory over Guatemala - the U.S. will advance to their third consecutive World Youth Championship for the first time in U.S. Soccer history.

The U.S. offense was again the story of the match, striking twice in two minutes to grab control of the game early.  DaMarcus Beasley scored in the 13th minute to open the scoring and then assisted on Landon Donovan's goal one minute later to start the rout.  The U.S. has now scored five goals in three of their last four matches.

"Once again I was very happy with the way the guys came out and played tonight,"  U.S. head coac Wolfgang Suhnholz said.  "Offensively we did some very good things and played as a team very well tonight.  And I can't expect much more than to be heading into the final game with two wins."

Trinidad & Tobago sent the crowd home happy by tallying in the 65th minute.  After a corner kick, Devon Mitchell held the ball at the penalty spot with his back to the goal. Mitchell played a ball straight back to Michael-Lee Celestine whose shot bounced past a diving DJ Countess and into the lower right hand corner.

The goal ended a streak of five consecutive scoreless halves for Countess that started back on March 11. The Bruin freshman did come up with two big saves in the match, stopping Devon Mitchell in a one-on-one in the 48th minute and diving to deny Scott Sealy in the 29th minute.

Countess' Bruin teammates Nelson Akwari and Alex Yi also started and played all 90 minutes. Akwari is the team captain for the U.S.

The USA will finish the tournament on Thursday against Costa Rica, 8-1 winners against Guatemala on Tuesday, at 4 p.m. ET (a game which can be seen taped-delay on Galavision at 7 p.m. ET & PT on March 22).  With a win in the final match, the U. S. will win the group.  A U.S. tie or a U.S. loss and Costa Rica will win the group.  With two wins in their first two matches, Costa Rica has also clinched a spot in the World Youth Championship.