It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish.
U.S. Under-20 Women’s National Team captain and midfielder Kennedy Fuller said that was her biggest takeaway after concluding the group stage of the 2026 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland with a resounding 9-0 win against New Zealand on Saturday.
It was a resilient and much-needed result for the team after falling to Italy, 2-1, in its tournament opener and drawing 2-2 against Japan in the second group stage match despite holding two leads. The four points and +8 goal differential was enough to send the U.S. into the knockout rounds as one of the four best third-place teams. The highest ranked of the four, in fact. The squad will now face Brazil in the Round of 16 on Wednesday, Sept. 16, at 9 a.m. ET on FS2 and Universo.
Competing against teams from three different confederations with completely different styles of play is something U-20 WNT head coach Vicky Jepson said her players can benefit from not just heading into the next round but in their collegiate and professional careers. The games tested them physically, but responding well after two less-than-desirable results also showed their mental fortitude.
“The first game of the tournament is always pressure,” said Jepson. “When you lose that, the pressure dials up. I said to the girls, pressure either bursts pipes or it creates diamonds, and it certainly has created diamonds because our performance (against New Zealand) from the first whistle was outstanding.”
The U.S. scored just four minutes into what became the largest margin of victory ever for a U.S. team at a FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, surpassing the 7-0 win over Paraguay in 2024 in Colombia. The USA out-shot New Zealand, a team that had lost 2-1 to Japan and 3-0 to Italy, by a 41-1 margin. The USA’s expected goals total was a remarkable 8.94.
Fuller led the way with a hat trick, the sixth three-goal performance for a U.S. player in FIFA U-19/U-20 Women’s World Cup history. Alex Buck and Micayla Johnson also got on the scoreboard, while Linda Ullmark, Emeri Adames and Sealey Strawn scored their first goals of the tournament.
“It feels great,” Fuller said after the match. “Hat trick and all, but these girls scored nine goals. That's so big and it was a bunch of girls' first goals in this tournament and that's such a big milestone and accomplishment, so I'm just hoping that it continues to build confidence in every single person on our team and into the next round.”
The match against New Zealand was also the first clean sheet of the tournament for the U.S., a welcomed achievement after conceding twice against Italy and Japan.
“It honestly feels like a great accomplishment, not just for the backline, but for the whole team,” said defender Lizzie Boamah. "At the end of the day, a shutout is a team performance, and it just shows the work that we have been doing.”
The team will look to carry both the offensive and defensive effort from Saturday into its next match against Brazil, a familiar opponent for the U.S. Both sides met in April of this year for two matches at CPKC Stadium, home to the Kansas City Current, with the Americans winning 2-0 in the first match before the teams drew 1-1 in a weather-shortened second meeting.
Fifteen players on the U.S. U-20 World Cup roster were also called up to that April camp. Ullmark scored and Fuller and Ainsley McCammon recorded assists in the first match.
Everything the team learned in the group stage – and from its meetings with Brazil earlier this year – will now be put to the test in a knockout-round setting where there are no second chances. From start to finish, the U.S. will have to draw on the resilience and confidence it has built throughout the tournament to earn another win on Wednesday.
“We look forward to playing Brazil again,” Jepson said. “They've got an incredible coach, some incredible players. We’ll enjoy this win. Tomorrow, our focus goes to Brazil. We’ll rest and recover and get ready to go again.”
