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U.S. U-18s fall to Spain in Copa Del Atlantico opener

ErikPalmerBrownUSU18s-Spain1CopaDelAtlantico (LasPalmasFootballAssociation)

By DAN KARELL

The U.S. Under-18 Men’s National Team learned on Tuesday the fine line between securing a positive result and seeing it all go away.

After defending for 87 minutes, the U.S. U-18s conceded an 88th minute goal to Spain Under-18 midfielder Yelko Pino Caride, falling to Spain, 1-0 in the opener of the Copa Del Atlantico tournament. Despite being the youngest team at the tournament, the U-18s reportedly more than held there own against the Spaniards.

U.S. head coach Javier Perez went with a starting XI on Tuesday featuring Sporting Kansas City Homegrown signing Erik Palmer-Brown in central defense alongside Tommy Redding, Eintracht Braunschweig’s Omar Castro and Fulham’s Emerson Hyndman in midfield, and Beaverton, Ore.-native Rubio Rubin as the team’s captain for the game.

Up next for the U-18s is a game against Argentina on Wednesday, with a match against the host Canary Islands coming on Friday.

What do you think of this result? Think that the U.S. can defeat Argentina?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Very encouraging given the age of our team and the strength of the opposition. It wasn’t that long ago that these results would have been a pipe dream. Good things ahead with the amount of talent we have coming through under Javi Perez’s tutelage…killer combo.

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  2. US played an even game against Argentina, but yet again was unlucky to lose. For what it’s worth the US has the youngest team in this tourney. Argentina brought their U-20 team.

    Will be exciting to see some of these guys develop like Redding and Plamer-Brown as well as Yuell, Akale, and Novakovich. All of these guys have very high ceilings.

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  3. well, sounds like we played well despite being much younger. losing 1-0 to Spain in the last minute isn’t terrible. Spain has so much freaking talent.

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  4. The way I look at it, any time you can get as far as the 88th minute before losing to a Spanish team at any level, you’re doing okay.

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  5. Not a bad result although looking at the picture above really shows how young these kids. It’ll be a while before we see any of these guys in a senior USMNT side.

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  6. From what I know, our boys are almost a year younger than Spain, and Argentina brought their U-20’s, so we might not win against them. This tournament is more about getting the team together getting them ready for next year.

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    • Yep, hit the post mere moments before conceding. Apparently our boys played well, and were unlucky not to come away with 3 points.

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    • Mukwelle Akale hit the post minutes before Spain scored the winning goal. Akale is a 97, one of the youngest in the tournament and it has been rumored that Bayern Munich is looking at him.

      This team has some really talent defenders in Eric Palmer-Brown, and Tommy Redding.

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  7. “Holding their own” and “Defending for 87 minutes” seems a non sequitur. We hold our own when we defend AND present a serious threat to the opposing goal.
    I didn’t see the match though.

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  8. When the U17 won the tourney in Turkey all was great with the youth system in the the US. If the U18 lose do we go back to doom and gloom for our future? Point being don’t put too much into these youth tourneys. 5% or less of our players come from them.

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    • Why would we go back to doom and gloom? We sent the youngest team to this tournament and minutes prior to giving up the goal we hit the post. It was a game that could have gone either way, not to mention we had a few guys who did not attend that could have allowed us to field an even stronger team.

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