WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Already assured a berth in the second round, the United States completed the group stage of the Under-20 World Cup with a 3-0 loss to Ukraine on Friday in Auckland.
Viktor Kovalenko scored three goals for Ukraine, and Roman Pidkivka saved Emerson Hyndman's penalty kick.
The U.S. (2-1) finished second to Ukraine (2-0-1) in Group A and will play its round-of-16 game on Wednesday in Wellington against the second-place team from Group C: Portugal, Colombia or Senegal.
Kovalenko put Ukraine ahead in the 56th minute when he beat goalkeeper Zack Steffen with a free kick from about 20 yards after a foul by Cameron Carter-Vickers.
Three minutes later, Pidkivka guessed correctly and with a dive pushed away Hyndman's penalty kick after Jordan Allen was fouled in the penalty area.
Kovalenko scored off a pass from Eduard Sobol in the 74th and got the final goal five minutes later. Artem Biesiedin passed the ball to Kovalenko, who shot to the far post as Steffen came off his line.
In the other Group A game, New Zealand (1-1-1) defeated Myanmar 5-1 and eliminated six-time champion Argentina (0-1-2), which failed to advance from the first round for the first time in 24 years. Argentina tied Austria 0-0 in Group B and Ghana beat Panama 1-0 on an 82nd-minute goal by Emmanuel Boateng.
"We don't deserve to be out of the World Cup at this stage," Argentina coach Humberto Grondona said. "We expected a lot of ourselves and came to New Zealand with high hopes. We gave it our all today but the ball just didn't want to go into the back to the net."
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