USA haven’t played a FIFA U-20 World Cup™ semi-final for some 36 years, but that could all be about to change.
At Chile 2025, their attractive, free-scoring, high-octane football has taken them to the last eight again where they’ll meet Morocco. In coach Marko Mitrovic, they’re led by someone who knows what it takes to win the title, having been assistant to Veljko Paunovic when Serbia lifted the trophy in 2015.
“That was an amazing experience,” Mitrovic told FIFA. “Obviously, it gives you some certainty about how an event looks, what the level is, what the needs are and how to set your expectations. That was a massive experience for me and I’m trying to use it here. Some experiences that we carry through life help us in the same situations later.”
His team have looked every inch a title contender. After a 9-1 victory over New Caledonia, they stuck three past France to secure Group E. Mitrovic’s charges then bulldozed Italy in a dominant last-16 display where captain Benjamin Cremaschi netted twice in a Player of the Match performance.
“Benja is someone that I met almost four years ago and is someone I have a long connection with,” he continued. “He has a strong character, a very, very competitive mindset, and is a player that never gives up. The goals that he scores are quality, but it comes after relentless repetitive actions that he does and he earns his moments in the game with the right mindset.”
Mitrovic will certainly look to the tournament’s top goalscorer for inspiration in the upcoming battle with Morocco, but knows the Atlas Cubs won’t be easily toppled.
“When you beat Spain and Brazil in a group stage, it’s tells a lot about the talent that you have,” he said. “It’s the amount of talent and the way they develop their players; they have unique profiles, very technical players who are very good on the ball, but they have that pride to play for their country. I love seeing where Morocco currently are on the world football map and if I was from Morocco, I would be very excited.
“We know that we have one of the most difficult opponents in the World Cup, someone that you can easily face later in a semi-final or the final. We got that opponent in a quarter-final but when you get to this stage, there are no easy opponents, there are no easy games. We have to be ready to go and compete.”
You can read more from our interview with Mitrovic below.
Marko Mitrovic: We’re really enjoying it here. It’s a beautiful place. We feel great and people here are very welcoming. We kind of identify ourselves with the community and have great support from the fans. When we got the draw, we analysed how the knockout stages would look and we saw massive value in winning the group because we would play the next two games here. The travel takes another piece of effort and energy, and when you play games every third day, you would like to avoid that.
You have to know how to use the time and to build a team and to make things better. I think the guys understand how important the relationship and the environment that we all have to create for ourselves is because our environment will lead us to success.
What we’re trying to do is to be ready for every action on the field. No matter where we are on the field or which moment of the game, we have to know what we’re doing as a team and I would say that’s probably our biggest strength. If we have to defend, we have to defend – there is no question about that. We have to be relentless with that and all 11 guys have to do maximum effort to defend because we all go forward, but we all go back.
For me, for us, every player can be a difference-maker. Cole is a high-potential talent and one of the players that we strongly believe has a very bright future. He’s had some good moments in this World Cup but we all believe that the level of his performances can be still higher compared to his potential. But listen, this is a tournament and you never know at what moment any player in this tournament will shine. Cole definitely has qualities to change any given moment, any given game and we’re looking forward to getting that from him.
I would say the senior team has amazing staff and it’s up to them to build the best squad for 2026. Part of our job here is to give the opportunity to the young players, first of all for their development, but at the end of the day, the ultimate goal for every national team in youth soccer is to develop players for the senior team. If any of our guys end up on the roster, we will be very, very proud, that means that our job was very successful and we’ll be rooting for them and for the national team. If not, they are so young, there are so many World Cups ahead of them and they just have to keep going, keep developing and to earn their opportunities to represent the countries in the USA in the senior World Cup one day.
