“Don’t be mad.”
That’s what Zavier Gozo remembers Marko Mitrovic telling him last fall.
Mitrovic, now the manager of the New England Revolution but then coaching Gozo and the rest of the United States team at the U-20 World Cup last fall, had just given the teenager a bad piece of news. Though he’d started the U.S.’s opening game of the tournament in Chile as the second-youngest player on the roster, he was moving to the bench for the next game: a marquee clash with France.
“I started the first game – we played New Caledonia – and then I found out I wasn’t starting for the next game, and I was obviously a little bit bummed. And my coach in training, Marko [Mitrovic], could see that, and I remember I was mad. He just told me, ‘Don’t be mad, you’re going to come in and affect the game.’”
And Gozo did just that.
In the 84th minute of that group stage showdown against France, Gozo’s header gave the U.S. the lead. A few minutes later, the Real Salt Lake attacker keyed the second goal, threading a perfectly weighted through ball for an assist to teammate Brooklyn Raines.
