Julian Araujo starts in U.S. win over Dominican Republic in Olympic qualifying

The U.S. U-23 Men’s National Team was back in action Sunday, and the LA Galaxy player on the squad, defender Julian Araujo, had his name called as he started in a 4-0 win over the Dominican Republic in Concacaf Olympic qualifying in Guadalajara, Mexico.

After Araujo was a second-half sub in the first game of the tournament, a 1-0 win over Costa Rica on Thursday, head coach Jason Kreis opted for Araujo this time from the start. In the end, he went the full 90 in the win, which featured goals from Jackson Yueill, Hassani Dotson (x2) and Djordje Mihailovic, all in the second half.

There’s one more group-stage game ahead, against Mexico on Wednesday, but most likely the U.S. and Mexico will both have already qualified for the knockout rounds. And in this tournament, it’s the first knockout game that’s the critical one. If the U.S. reaches that round they have to win the first knockout game (the tournament semifinal) to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. So an important two-game set coming up.

In former Galaxy players news, Uriel Antuna scored the opener for Mexico in their game against Costa Rica Sunday. Antuna is likely to start against the U.S. in the final group stage game.

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