A USMNT celebration after Damion Downs' Gold Cup penalty. A USMNT celebration after Damion Downs’ Gold Cup penalty. (Awful Announcing on Bluesky.)
By Andrew Bucholtz on

The Gold Cup quarterfinals Sunday saw a lot of penalty-kick drama. Some of that came in the U.S. men’s national team’s clash with Costa Rica, which went to penalties knotted at two. The USMNT eventually put away four penalties to Costa Rica’s three on six attempts, winning on one from Damion Downs. And the call from Fox’s John Strong was notable for working in Downs’ history and background (the 20-year-old striker currently plays for FC Köln in the German Bundesliga), and then for the “YES!” at the goal and then the immediate and long lay out to let the crowd at Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank Stadium tell the story:

"20-year-old Damion Downs, German-born to an American father. Dreamed of being a pro football player when he was a kid, now he's a pro soccer player. And he can win the shootout for the United States right here. YES!" John Strong's USMNT Gold Cup call (and lay out) for Fox.

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing.bsky.social) 2025-06-30T01:29:32.431Z

This also saw a memorable Spanish-language call on TUDN:

Remarkably, that was the second remarkable Gold Cup penalty call on Fox’s platforms Sunday. Tyler Terens previously had one from Guatemala’s upset of Canada:

But, amongst all these, Strong’s call was interesting for quickly introducing Downs to the parts of the audience not already familiar with him. (And that story is notable around fellow Fox Soccer figure Alexi Lalas’ recent call for the USMNT to emphasize players with more homogenous backgrounds.) This call also showed significant emotion when Downs drove that shot home, and then let the sounds and images from the stadium tell the story.

This was also notable given the stakes here. Yes, the Gold Cup (the CONCACAF championship) isn’t always the most prominent tournament, but a USMNT exit at this stage would definitely have led to a lot of debate and criticism a year ahead of the U.S. co-hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup. They narrowly made it through here thanks to Downs, and that at least put off that discussion a bit.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz