By DAN KARELL

The nation of Panama is different than that of Honduras on paper, but the opportunity to expose the U.S. Under-17 Men’s National Team to the Central American environment ahead of 2015 U-17 World Cup qualifying made it an easy decision to travel there for an international tournament.

“For as well as the group has done over the last year to 14 months or so, we haven’t had the opportunity to play in Central America,” U.S. U-17s head coach Richie Williams said. “Even though we weren’t able to go to Honduras (the site of U-17 World Cup qualifying), we were able to go to Panama and just get them into a Central American country, playing CONCACAF teams, and showing them that it’s not always easy playing there, in terms of the climate, field, competition, (other nations) always ready to play the United States, the referee, and the crowds.”

With relative ease, the U.S. Under-17 Men’s National Team powered their way to their fourth international title in the last 12 months as they swept the field, winning the Panama International U-17 Tournament. The U.S. opened the tournament with a 5-2 drubbing of Costa Rica before beating Canada, 2-0 two days later and finishing off host nation Panama, 1-0 two days after that.

Williams had one of his strongest squads at his disposal, with the likes of midfielder Christian Pulisic, forward Haji Wright, and goalkeeper Kevin Silva all putting in top performances. Pulisic scored one goal, a fantastic solo effort to beat Panama, and added two assists while Wright finished with four goals and two assists in the tournament.

“Nothing surprises me anymore in terms of him creating goals and scoring goals,” Williams said of Pulisic. “He’s a talented player and he’s done very very well for us. As a No. 10, he’s obviously been identified by big clubs around the world.”

Outside of bringing home silverware though, perhaps the most important takeaway for Williams from this tournament is that he was able to incorporate some of his foreign-based players into the squad.

As U.S. Under-20 head coach Tab Ramos recently revealed, once players sign contracts with a club, there’s a chance that the club won’t release the player for international duty in a friendly tournament.

Luckily for Williams he was able to bring in players such as defender Daniel Barbir, Luca De La Torre, and Josh Perez, all of whom are based in Europe, to develop chemistry with the players based in U.S. Soccer residency in Bradenton, Fla. or based at other clubs around the country.

A fourth, Vitesse forward Kai Koreniuk, who holds dual American and Dutch nationality, suffered an injury just prior to the tournament and was forced to withdraw. However, Williams sees a promising future in the Florida native, viewing him as a possible replacement or backup for Joe Gallardo, who is still recovering from a broken leg suffered last July.

Williams said he hoped that Gallardo would be able to join the squad again in December, but until that time, he’s still auditioning players for the team’s starting target forward role.

“With Joe Gallardo being injured as our center forward, we wanted to bring in Kai Koreniuk,” Williams said. “Kai unfortunately got injured a day or two before we went, but we still want to bring him in for the Nike Friendlies in the next couple months, just in case Joe’s not back for us.

“We have played Haji Wright as the No. 9 and we actually have played Alejandro Zendejas as a No. 9. So we wanted to look at Kai and unfortunately we didn’t have the opportunity. He hasn’t been with us as much (due to injury), but hopefully in the next couple of months he will.”

With World Cup qualifying approaching quickly over the horizon, the U.S. U-17’s day to day focus turns to putting together a squad of 20-players to head to San Pedro Sula from Feb. 27-Mar. 14 for the all-important tournament.

At the same time, the coaching staff is continuing to drill into the mindset of the players, many of them now on professional terms either in MLS or in Europe, that they still have a lot of growing and development before they can say they’ve “made it” in their careers.

Recent U-17 graduate Rubio Rubin for example can be looked at as an example of what can happen when a player continues improving, as he received a call-up to the U.S. Men’s National Team last September and arguably was the best player on the field for the U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team in a friendly match on Oct. 13 at Brazil.

“With them all the time, we’re always talking about them pushing themselves,” Williams explained. “They can’t think that just because they’re on the U-17 Men’s National Team, that they’re a main part of the group, or they’ve now signed with a team overseas or signed with an MLS club, that they’ve made it.

“This is still the early part (of their career), they’ve still got to keep developing and keep playing well, and if they do, our national team will play them at the senior level, as long as they keep developing and doing what they do to get better.”