The U.S. Under-20 men’s national team will face Ukraine, Nigeria and Qatar in Group D at the U-20 World Cup, which will take place in Poland May 23-June 15.

The final draw for the competition took place today at the Gdynia Sports Arena in Gdynia, Poland, one of six host cities for the tournament.

The Americans, coached by former U.S. international Tab Ramos, open the competition Friday, May 24 against Ukraine at 2:30 p.m. ET, faces Nigeria May 27 at 2:30 p.m. ET and finishes the group phase vs Qatar Thursday, May 30 at 2:30 p.m. ET. The U.S. will play its first two group stage games at Bielsko-Biala Stadium in Bielsko-Biala and its third group game at Tychy Stadium in Tychy.

2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup
USA – Group D Schedule

Date Match-up Kickoff (ET) Venue
May 24 USA vs. Ukraine 2:30 p.m. Bielsko-Biala Stadium; Bielsko-Biala, Poland
May 27 USA vs. Nigeria 2:30 p.m. Bielsko-Biala Stadium; Bielsko-Biala, Poland
May 30 USA vs. Qatar 2:30 p.m. Tychy Stadium; Tychy, Poland

The 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup features 16 nations divided into six groups of four teams. The top two finishers in each group, as well as the four best third-place teams advance to the Round of 16 from Sunday, June 2 to Tuesday, June 4. The quarterfinals will take place on Friday, June 7 and Saturday, June 8. The winners of those games will advance to the tournament semifinals on Tuesday, June 11. The championship is set for Saturday, June 15 at Stadion Widzewa in Lodz.

Group A Group B Group C Group D Group E Group F
Poland Mexico Honduras Qatar Panama Portugal
Colombia Italy New Zealand Nigeria Mali Korea Republic
Tahiti Japan Uruguay Ukraine France Argentina
Senegal Ecuador Norway USA Saudi Arabia South Africa

Should the USA advance to the Round of 16, it could face a team from any of Groups A, B, E or F.

The U.S. was drawn out of Pot 1, which included host Poland, Portugal, Uruguay, France and Mexico. Teams were sorted into pots based on a ranking determined by success in the last five FIFA U-20 World Cups, with more recent tournament results weighted more heavily, as well as performance in confederation qualifying tournaments. The USA’s spot in Pot 1 came largely from consecutive quarterfinal appearances at the 2015 and 2017 tournaments. The U.S. and Portugal are the only two nations to advance to the quarterfinals in each of the last two U-20 World Cups.

This tournament will be the 22nd overall world championship for this age group

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.