James Sands made his U-23 debut and Taty Castellanos hit his first three goals for Argentina U-23s in a busy international break for NYC’s international contingent.
Here’s how the break shook out for our Boys in Blue…
Alex Callens
Defender Alex Callens was an unused substitute for Peru’s 1-0 defeat to Colombia in Miami last Friday.
Alfredo Morelos scored the game’s only goal for Colombia in injury time.
Taty Castellanos
It was a big break for Taty, who clinched silverware in the International Football Festival friendly tournament hosted by the Canary Islands.
Castellanos scored a hat-trick in Argentina’s 14-0 demolition of the hosts in the first game of the competition, before the Albiceleste overcame Brazil 1-0 in the second and final match of the tournament.
Check out the highlights from the first match, which feature two strong headers and a close range finish from NYCFC’s no.11…
Maxime Chanot
Luxembourg suffered two defeats in this November break, but gave a good account of themselves in two tough matches vs. Portugal and Serbia.
Max played all 180 minutes of the Euro 2020 qualifiers and was part of a defense which limited Cristiano Ronaldo and Bernardo Silva’s Portugal to a hard-earned 2-0 winning margin.
Sean Johnson
NYCFC’s no.1 played understudy to Brad Guzan as the U.S. Men’s National Team secured two important wins in the Concacaf Nations League.
Gregg Berhalter’s side won 4-1 and 4-0 vs. Canada and Cuba respectively to secure qualification to the Nations League Final Four.
Ronald Matarrita
Ronald Matarrita earned starts in both of Costa Rica’s Concacaf Nations League assignments, going the 90’ in Los Ticos’ 1-1 draw with Haiti, before he featured for 74’ of their 2-1 win over Curacao.
Those results were enough for Costa Rica to punch their ticket to the Concacaf Nations League finals.
Jesus Medina
Another player in U-23 action was Jesus Medina, who repped Paraguay in a 3-0 friendly victory over Venezuela.
Medina played the first 45' and was on the field when his nation scored their first two goals.
Alexandru Mitriță
It was a disappointing break for the Romanian national team as they went down to two defeats at the hands of Spain and Sweden.
Mitri played the 90’ in the 2-0 loss to Sweden in Bucharest and came on as 56th minute substitute in a 5-0 defeat to Spain in Madrid.
Those results mean that Romania finished in fourth place in Euro 2020 qualification group F.
James Sands
It was a day to remember for James Sands as the NYCFC Homegrown made his first appearance for U.S. U-23s.
Ahead of next summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, James entered as a second half substitute vs. the Canary Islands in his first international appearance at U-23 level.
Ismael Tajouri-Shradi
Libya secured their first African Cup of Nations qualification win in this FIFA window, triumphing 2-1 over Tanzania on Tuesday.
Before that, they went down to a 4-1 defeat to Tunisia on Friday. The next slate of games for Isi’s nation currently scheduled are more AFCON qualifiers in August 2020.
