USA faces Spain on Friday for their first match in the 2013 U-20 World Cup. The game starts at 2 p.m. ET. Tune into ESPN2 or watch the live stream here.
USA meets Spain in Istanbul, Turkey, where the tournament is receiving scrutiny as large anti-government protests continue in the city, according to NBC Sports. The team will try to ignore the outside noise and focus solely on the tournament, where they're in a highly competitive group with Spain, France and Ghana.
The team enters the tournament after winning just one of four games in the recent Toulon tournament. The tournament served as a chance for USA manager Tab Ramos to tinker with his roster and lineups ahead of the U-20 World Cup.
"We feel very good about our roster and the players we have selected, and we certainly feel like we have good talent here with us," Ramos told reporters. "The thing about Spain is they play the same way in all age group. We just saw the U-21 team win the European Championships, playing the same way as the first team. Our first team upset Spain four years ago, and there's no reason we can't do that same thing on Friday."
Team USA is headlined by DeAndre Yedlin, Luis Gil, Shane O'Neill and Jose Villarreal.
NBC Sports predicts USA to have a hard time advancing from their group, needing a "minor miracle" to qualify. If Villareal and Gil produce on offense, USA has a chance of upsetting Spain.
