Women's U-20s Thrash Guatemala

17 year old Lindsey Horan scored three goals and the U.S. Under-20 Women’s National Team defeated Guatemala 6-0 on Friday in the team’s first match of the CONCACAF U-20 Women’s Championships. Julie Johnston, Katie Stengel and Cari Roccaro also scored for the United States while Crystal Dunn added a pair of assists in the win. The U.S. continues group play tomorrow with a match against Cuba and then conclude the first round against host nation Panama on Tuesday. The top two teams in each group advance to the semifinals with the top 3 teams in the tournament qualifying for this summer's FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Japan.

Photo Credit: ussoccer.com

The U.S. is looking to improve upon a disappointing performance at the U-20 World Cup in 2010 when they blew a late 1-0 lead against Nigeria in the quarterfinals and subsequently lost on penalties, but obviously the first step is qualification. Sydney Leroux, now featured on the Senior Women's National Team led the U.S. with 5 goals in the last U-20 World Cup.