From a purely technical standpoint, Sunday’s CONCACAF U20 Championship final between the U.S. and Honduras was a ceremonial affair. Both teams qualified for the U20 World Cup in South Korea later this year earlier in the week, and the result of Sunday’s match wouldn’t effect anything other than pride. The ultimate point of this tournament, after all, was qualifying for the World Cup.

From an emotional standpoint though, tell the U.S. players streaming onto the field after penalty kicks this match was ceremonial. For the first time in the competition’s 55-year history, the U.S. are its champions.

After a scoreless and overtly physical 90 minutes, the U.S. kept its cool by hitting all five of its penalties (this event has no extra time). Honduras, on the other hand, cracked.  Honduras hit its first three kicks, but Rembrandt Flores took a long run-up on the fourth and blasted it feet above Jonathan Klinsmann’s bar. Needing only one kick to finish the job, Real Salt Lake left back Danny Acosta calmly slotted home past the keeper low and to his left to start the party.

The U.S. engineered a remarkable turnaround in this tournament culminating in Sunday’s championship trophy. Panama beat the Americans 1-0 on 10 men in the opener, but the U.S. promptly reeled off five consecutive wins through Sunday, including the first competitive win over Mexico in 31 years in the knockout group phase.

As CONCACAF’s reigning U20 kings, U.S. coach Tab Ramos can now turn his attention to cobbling together a final roster for the U20 World Cup in South Korea, which kicks off May 20.

Regulation might’ve dead-ended without a goal, but the U.S. certainly had its opportunities. Largely working from the outside-in as it has all tournament, the U.S. attempted to funnel through wide men Brooks Lennon and Luca de la Torre, but Honduras leaned on the robust defense that got it here. The U.S. ultimately struggled to break through, although it owned the largest share of possession and mostly dominated the run of play. The Hondurans, meanwhile, had their moments of danger, but they spent much of the match in a cynical tailspin of fouls and hard challenges. After Eryk Williamson had already come off due to a leg injury, Justen Glad was forced off early in the second half with an apparent knee injury. Captain Erik Palmer-Brown, meanwhile, barely limped across the finish line after sustaining an injury himself.

It ultimately didn’t matter. The U.S. continued plugging defensive gaps with the outstanding Tommy Redding anchoring the middle with sub partner Auston Trusty. Tyler Adams, who’s arguably been the U.S. MVP of the tournament with his tireless work rate, dropped deeper to supplement the defense with Palmer-Brown’s injury, and Honduras failed to so much as force Klinsmann to make a difficult save.

The last time the U.S. was in one of these finals was 2009, when it was blasted 3-0 by Costa Rica in Trinidad & Tobago. This time around was much different.

Brooks Lennon, Coy Craft and Emmanuel Sabbi all hit their penalties to start, and Honduras also flushed each of its first three for a 3-3 scoreline through three rounds. The U.S. hit its fourth-round penalty through de la Torre, which brought up Flores. He opted for a long, ponderous run-up, taking six steps from well outside the penalty area before going high and to Klinsmann’s left. The take was yards over the bar.

That brought up Acosta, who calmly knocked his effort in. There was a brief moment of confusion as the referee stopped the celebration to confer with the players, but after his signal the joviality returned. The U.S. were indeed champs for the first time.

The U.S. is of course coming off its best ever U20 World Cup showing in 2015 after advancing to the quarterfinals. Serbia bumped off the U.S. in penalties that round en route to an eventual championship, which gave the team a taste of belief at the highest levels of global youth soccer. After flying through CONCACAF, what might they do for an encore?

We’ll find out in less than three months.