After a pair of misses, the United States opened its bid to qualify for the Olympic men's soccer tournament by defeating Costa Rica 1-0 on Thursday in Guadalajara, Mexico, thanks to a goal by Jess Ferreira in the 35th minute.
The United States last qualified in 2008, losing out on the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Last year's qualifying opener was supposed to take place on March 20 but was postponed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. FIFA has retained the original age limit, requiring players to be born on or after January 1, 1997.
The Dominican Republic faced host Mexico in the second game of the Group A doubleheader in the North and Central American and Caribbean zone.
On Sunday night, the United States will meet the Dominican Republic, and on Wednesday, Mexico. The top two teams from Group B, which begins on Friday and includes Canada, El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras, will advance to the semifinals on March 28.
The winners of the semifinals will advance to the Olympic tournament, which will be held in Tokyo, Kashima, Miyagi, Saitama, Sapporo, and Yokohama from July 21 to August 7. Each team in the Olympics is allowed to use three players who are over the age limit.
FIFA rules complicate men's Olympic soccer by specifying that clubs are not allowed to release players for qualifying or the Olympics. As a result, Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Gio Reyna, Josh Sargent, and Sergio Dest were unavailable to US coach Jason Kreis.
The majority of the American players were competing for the first time since last fall.
Ferreira, a 20-year-old Colombian who became a United States citizen in December 2019, plays for the Dallas Mavericks of Major League Soccer. In a 7-0 thrashing of Trinidad and Tobago in January, he scored twice for the senior national team.
After stripping the ball from Fernán Faerron in the second minute, he nearly scored, but Ferreira hit an open shot off the near post.
After Mauricio Pineda moved down the left flank to Sam Vines, who crossed, Ferreira broke through. Ferreira scored with a right-footed shot from 8 yards after the ball bounced past Hassani Dotson and Aaron Salazar of Costa Rica.
David Ochoa of Salt Lake, who was a surprise starter over JT Marcinkowski of San Jose, had nine saves.
On a sunny afternoon with temperatures approaching 90 degrees, there were water breaks in each half. In the second half, Ferreira seemed to cramp and was replaced by Sebastian Soto in the 67th minute.
After a corner kick, Costa Rica put the ball in Ochoa's net in the 39th minute, but the goal was disallowed due to offside. In the 83rd minute, Faerron hit the post but was ruled offside.
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