For the second time in three years, the U.S. Under-17 Men’s National Team won the Nike International Friendlies.
The four-team round robin was played at Lakewood Ranch, Fla. After dropping a difficult 2-1 decision in the opening game against Portugal, the U.S. squad, coached by Richie Williams, rebounded with wins over England and Brazil.
The 2-1 loss to Portugal came on a goal that came in stoppage time just when it appeared the two teams would finish with a 1-1 draw.
In their second game the young Americans exploded for three second-half goals to break the game open for a 5-1 victory.
Going into the final game, Brazil needed either a win or a tie to win the championship. They got neither. Beh[show_disconnected][show_to accesslevel=’Subscriber’]ind a pair of goals from Haj Wright, the U.S. won 4-1, breaking an early 1-1 tie with three unanswered goals.
Brazil went down a player in the 40th minute when Evander da Silva was ejected, and went to nine players in the 86th minute when Jordan William was shown a red card.
Wright had five goals in the three games, while Joe Gallardo had a hat trick against England and scored another against Brazil.
Wright plays for the LA Galaxy Academy, while Gallardo is with Monterrey FC, both in California.
Wright was the Golden Boot winner as the top goalscorer in the tournament, while GK Kevin Silva (Bethlehem, Pa.) was the Golden Glove winner. Christian Pulisic (Hershey, Pa.) was the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
Williams had good things to say about this U.S. U-17 teams. He’s seen some special things over the past year against some of the top talent in the world.
“We thought this (U-17) group was a little bit special, with no disrespect to the last group,” Williams said in a Soccer By Ives interview. “We went to Mexico in August to a very good tournament with six CONMEBOL teams and six CONCACAF teams and we actually came in third in the tournament. We were unlucky not to get into the final and we knew we had a good, talented group.
“But the other part (that separates this group from others) is that they are also very competitive, they have drive, they push each other, which is great because you need that in the group. It can’t always just be the coaches. They’re focused on their game.”
One thing that is different about this group of U-17s is that exactly half of the 20-man roster currently play in a professional team’s academy. Five of those are playing, or have played, in Major League Soccer academies.
“The first thing you recognize when you have four or five players who, even before the cycle starts, are already playing with foreign clubs, they have some sort of talent,” Williams said in the SBI article.
“In the last cycle we didn’t really have anybody like that. So right off the bat you know you have players that are talented because they’re getting identified at an early age.
“You definitely have some talented kids and it helps when they’re playing at good academies and they’re getting international competition week in and week out and their environments are good environments for them to develop. It’s really good to see.
“You have to think that we’re making strides in developing players and the development process is getting better in the United States. Even though we still probably have a long way to go, it’s definitely getting better each year.”
Despite the success of this group in the Nike Friendlies, this Under-17 group did not qualify for the FIFA Under-17 Men’s World Cup. They are the first that did not earn qualification.
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