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U.S. Under-17 vs. Brazil: Your Running Commentary

U.S. U17 MNT vs England

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By DAN KARELL

The Nike International Friendlies conclude Friday night with a must-see match between the United States Under-17 Men’s National Team and Brazil. (5 p.m., USSoccer.com)

For the third consecutive year, the U.S. has the opportunity to take home the title heading into the final match, having defeated Brazil in 2011 and lost to Portugal in 2012. With England’s victory earlier in the day against Portugal, the USA can win the title with three points against Brazil.

Richie Williams’ side is coming off a thrilling 5-1 victory against England on Wednesday, with Monterrey’s Joe Gallardo scoring a hat-trick and LA Galaxy academy member Haji Wright scoring a brace, taking his total in the tournament to three. Brazil comes into the final having defeated England 2-1 on Monday and playing to a 1-1 draw with Portugal on Wednesday.

If you will be watching today’s action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action.

Comments

  1. Qualifying doesnt begin for another 18 months for this group. They havent qualified because it hasnt started yet. Brazil was really classless in this game, complained when they didnt get calls and then lashed out at our players in frustration on multiple occasions. I hate to see red cards in youth games, but both were warranted.

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  2. Hi there, just a comment, Brazil played the entire tournament with the U15 team. Brazil’s boys are ALL 2 years younger than US boys in a very critical age. Brazil uses these tournaments to expose young kids to older kids…the score, well, we all know what happen when it’s 11×11 on the same age group 🙂 Enjoy

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    • So you are telling me that Brazil won a game prior to this with a u-15 team? I’m sorry it’s just hard to believe if you are going to make a statement like that

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      • Alexis Velela was born in 97 most of others are 98, while Brazilian players are all 99’s. The US team would be old U16 while Brazil young U15, most players have 18 months difference, just check the Brazilian Federation website or compare rosters. I’m just pointing out that we Brazilians knew since the beginning that we had a U15 National team playing up in a U17 tournament, apparently the media forgot to mention that in US…blame Nike not me.

      • Alexis Velela was born on April 17, 1998, what is wrong with you. Why can’t you get the facts right? I can’t find a single place on the web that shows the ages for the U-15 Brazil team, and the current U-17 list is 1996 and 1997 birthdates, from what I can see, which makes them older than our U-17s.

      • I’m not sure which age group England had, but isn’t strange they lose 5-1 to US? So if US beat England 5-1, Brazil 4-1 on U17 level, how come the USMNT U17 did not manage to qualify for the U17 World Cup recently played?! Isn’t something wrong?!

      • The U-17 team had been contaminated by Caleb Porter’s presence with the U-23s. Now that Porter has moved on to helping Portland avoid winning trophies, the U-17s are playing better.

      • Have to admit you are pretty much correct bout C Porter, and if the US does not land J Green, you can look no further than missing the Olympics. Simply if we had been there J Green would already be completely entrenched in USMNT.
        In any event way to go new U17s, not the ones that missed the upcomming U17 World Cup.

      • They didn’t qualify, but they were very close to qualifying, and our qualifying tournament goes to single elimination, so one bad game in the quarterfinals and you are out. Here is the result for the last game against Honduras, http://www.ussoccer.com/news/u-17-mnt/2013/04/u17-mnt-vs-hon-match-report.aspx. They finished top of their group but had to win against Honduras or they were out. This happens in soccer. However, US had qualified for last consecutive 14 Fifa U-17 World Cups before this.

  3. Events like these go a long way towards reinforcing beliefs that teams like Brazil are not supermen nor are they unbeatable. The Mexican youth teams have learned that and have defeated Brazil when it counts, in the various Youth WC”s. They have no fear of the mystique of Brazil. Defeating Brazil in a rough and tumble match, and defeating them quite easily, sends a message to the US teen players that played in this game, and those that play in future games. Be prepared, bring your A game and keep cool and you can defeat anyone, anywhere.

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  4. I’m filing this under “One of the weirdest endings I’ve ever seen.” For those who didn’t watch, a little after the 80th minute a Brazil kid laid out Pulisic somehow, a minor melee broke out, after it settled down the Brazilian got sent off, and then the two teams stood staring at each other for 5 minutes and not playing to finish out the game. Strange strange strange.

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    • The commentator noted that one of our players may have a Guinness world record for longest time for one person to have possession of a ball during a match.

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    • The Brazil players wanted to keep playing but their coach ( per the announcer ) told the not to. Fortunately the ref didn’t add any stoppage time, it was really an uncomfortable last 3 or 4 minutes.

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      • Who was it that held the ball? Kid had guts. It was a solid move buy him to hold the ball and stare down the Brazilian team and get the crowd to chant USA at them. They had no fight in them and just walked off of the field quietly.

        That was great to watch!

    • Did the Brazilian guy clock Pulisic in the face? Was hard to see what happened since the camera was panning away as it happened but when he got back up it looked to me like a bruise might’ve been starting to form under his left eye.

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  5. I keep forgetting these kids are mostly just 15. My nephew is 14 and the keepers on his teams seem to rotate between being a field player and a keeper so I don’t know why I was surprised. Can I blame it on being Friday?

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  6. This is strange. Why is Brazil keeping two forwards just standing around midfield when the US is attacking? They’re a man down, you’d think they’d want one or both of those kids defending and try to break on the counter. I guess they just decided to concede the game when they went down a man? Admittedly I don’t watch a lot of youth soccer but if a full men’s team did something like that they’d get absolutely roasted.

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  7. Gallardo gets to the end line and pulls it back to Pulisic, who finishes well.

    Good individual ball skills from the US for the last 6 or so minutes.

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    • If anything it means our raw talent pool and youth development is catching up. However, considering our academies/college system which connects youth to pros and our pro league, MLS, both aren’t up to par with the big boys its very unlikely our U17 players will continue to develop like those in the big soccer nations.

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      • I tell you what, I don’t remember seeing US players that young looking that good on the ball as these kids did. Hopefully that will translate into promising futures for a few of them and the NT as a whole down the road.

      • Without question its a step in the right direction and makes it more likely more players will equal or exceed the accomplishments of our current senior team players. However assuming we’ll beat England reliably in 6 years is way way too optimistic.

  8. Great interchanging with quick passing leads to a 1 on 1 opportunity with the shot being cleared off the line! The resulting corner kick leads to a goal! Gallardo with another one!

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  9. Nifty turn bby what looks like our #6 or #8, feeds to Wright on the wing. Wright takes it from the center line, dribles past TWO Brazilians to the top of the 18 and SCORES IT!!!

    Keeper with a nice double save as well. Defense adequate, but you feel Brazil will get one this half at least. Great play out of the back though, good play overall.

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