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U.S. U-17s thump Paraguay to seal spot in U-17 World Cup quarterfinals

The U.S. U-17 National Team took care of their first knockout round matchup with ease to book a spot in the quarterfinals of the U-17 World Cup.

Timothy Weah’s hat-trick led the way for the U.S., who cruised past Paraguay en route to a 5-0 win in the Round of 16. Entering Monday’s match, Paraguay had been undefeated with three straight wins in the group stage while the U.S. finished third in their group due to a loss to Colombia.

After several chances for either side, the U.S. broke the deadlock midway through the first half on vicious counter attack. An inch-perfect ball from Andrew Carleton sent Ayo Akinola down the sidelines, allowing the TFC attacker space on the right. Akinola fired a first time cross, finding Weah on the back post for a sliding finish.

Weah added his second early in the second half, and it was a good one. He thumped a right-footed shot from long distance across the goal and into the top corner to double the U.S. advantage.

Carleton’s goal in the 63rd minute sealed the result as the team’s primary playmaker scored his second goal in four games. Josh Sargent’s hold-up play helped set up the sequence as the forward turned back through the defense before finding Carleton in the center of the box. The Atlanta United midfielder took a first-time shot, picking out a corner to push the lead to 3-0.

Sargent made it 4-0 in the 74th minute, firing a shot off the underside of the crossbar and in to run the score up even further. Moments later, Carleton found Weah for a simple finish as the Paris Saint-Germain forward completed his hat-trick to finalize the scoring.

The U.S. was the dominant side through a majority of the second half, and they could have scored a few more in the first as well. Chris Goslin’s long-range free kick tipped off the crossbar in the 45th minute while Akinola saw a chested shot cleared off the line just before halftime as well.

With the win, the U.S. heads to the quarterfinals, where they’ll take on the winner of Tuesday’s clash between England and Japan on Saturday.

Comments

  1. Already preparing 4 or 5 of this players and u20 mnt like Eric Palmer Brown that scored with
    houston Dynamo this saturday,Matt Miazga vitesse best defender,Justen Glad u20,and good defender,The second best gookeapper of Concacaf and 22 years old Ethan Hortan,he stopped many goals and is whit brugge en Jupiter League,he is doing a good job
    better than mexican veteran Guillermo Ochoa also in jupiter league,i31 years old,and the fast weston Mckennie whit schalke 04,and shining much.. Haiji Wrigth, and many more
    playing like homegrown players in MLS,is good to prepared for four year 2018..
    And for coach of the USAMNT would the player maker Tab Ramos…It is an idea
    and the u17 boysusant in quarter final,woul have a not dificult gamewhit England or Japan
    whit the europeans is easier because the have played many friendly games whit the win for
    the Usa,sometimes they have the victory.
    Japan is harder than england,hope they get the victory. to advanced to semifinal.
    Usa is alive playing in a prestigios tornament like the bigs or the USAMNT in Rusia

    Reply
    • That is correct. With the success of the U17 and U20s (quarter finals in last two U20 world cups), there is real hope for the future. One might even surmise there is some improvement with youth development.

      Looking back at the U17 and U20 poor results in ’09, ’11 and ’13, it is easy to see why the USMNT is lacking quality in players that should be in the prime. Heck, in the T&T match, we had a player from that ’99 U17 team (Beasley).

      Reply
  2. There are a couple of young forwards already in Europe that deserve looks before Sargent. Wright shined in the U19 Bundesliga and has earned a regular starting spot in 2.Bundesliga (remember he was not released to play in the U20 WC). Novakovich is 21 and had success with Reading U23s last season and has 6 goals in 10 matches for Telstar in Dutch 2nd across all competitions. It would make more sense to bring in Weah because he will already be in Europe. With Ramos or another youth team coach the likely caretaker they already have a good idea on the level of players. Not sure where Siebatcheau is at in his thinking either, but he’s had a good year back in Ligue2.

    Reply
  3. nothing wrong with the statement that National Team opportunities should be earned and not awarded on speculation however getting Jordan Morris into the group before he played a professional game didn’t hurt anyone..

    calling Josh Sargent or Tim Weah in to back up Bobby Wood and maybe pick up some garbage minutes in November is not the worst idea for the USMNT.

    back to this tournament, these guys have been spectacular. hopefully they saved some goals for England or Japan on Saturday.

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  4. Yea at this point these are just kids so it’s probably not appropriate to give any of them caps (except perhaps Sargent because he did so well with the U-20s recently). That said it is nice that the group shows some talent.

    I hope most of these kids take a shot at Europe even with the understanding it should take them 1-3 years to break into the first team over there.

    Reply
    • After watching the way that MLS held onto the contracts of EPB and Kellyn Acosta instead of selling them to Europe for the amounts that were offered I have a feeling that players that have already signed with MLS such as Carelton and Sands aren’t going to get the opportunity they need at the age that is most crucial to their development.

      Carelton today really was brilliant and its just one game but I’m really hoping he gets the instruction he needs and my gut tells me even though he’s with Atlanta United he’d get better training in Europe during his upcoming crucial years.

      Imagine having 3-4 players at Pulisic’s level on the NT. Game changing with the right manager.

      Reply
      • That is on the player. Any player can force a move if they want to especially in a salary capped league. FC Dallas cannot have a 240k player not playing, if he says I want to move, they would sell.

      • Unfortunately, not true. Add Twellman to the list of players who had their transfers refused by MLS. To some extent MLS was protecting US players overall by trying to increase the transfer value, but they kinda screwed some guys along the way. The only real way it’s up to the player is if they are out of contract.

      • Reply to Clover
        Clover they can’t force a move until their contract runs out, like EPB’s did. Take EPB, Porto and a couple other teams wanted to sign him this Summer, but SKC wouldn’t let him go they did at least use him in 10 matches. If young American’s are smart they won’t sign a contract past age 18 so they can leave when immediately eligible.

  5. Carelton was masterful. His passing and awareness are very good. He set up 3 goals will get credit for 2 assists and had a goal himself I believe. Weah will get the headlines for the hat trick but Carleton was the maestro.

    Reply
    • Not sure why its necessary to point this out, but the senior team would beat the u-17s by 10+ goals…These are promising kids, but nothing else at this point. None of them will be with the national team anytime soon and only a few of them will ever play for the senior team.

      We are all upset with what happened last week, but lets not go overboard here.

      Reply
      • Agreed, but we can all appreciate the skill they showed and the sense of urgency/pride they play with. Unless players were on the take I will never understand how the senior team played with so little urgency against T&T. That little uptick in fight and willingness to do the dirty work like running back 40 yards (Nagbe on the first goal) is the difference between going to the World Cup and staying home.

      • I hope you are wrong about Sargent in November. I am all in favor of moving forward with a younger generation, but there has to be balance with that as well. We should not be handing out caps to every promising young player just because we can. National team appearances should be earned, not given. Let Sargent prove it vs real professionals. I worry giving handouts to the kids breeds the same overconfidence and complacency that caused many of our issues this cycle. Agudelo and Adu are the main people I have in mind when speaking about giving away international appearances to potential rather than production.

        On the real topic of tihs article…great work to the U-17s. Hope they can continue their run into the Semis. Great to see the team stepping up with some impressive performances.

      • It would depend on which team showed up–the one that beat Panama 4-0, or the one that showed little effort in losing to T&T. If the national team were to play like they did vs. T&T, I doubt they could beat hardly any team by 10 goals.

  6. I hope the injuries to Ferry and Akinola are not too bad. With both Weah and Akinola in the lineup, the US was very dangerous going forward from wide positions. Spreading the attack made room in the middle for Carlton and Sargent to thread through the middle.

    I think that Hackworth played both Akinola and Weah at wide positions was the main reason the US was so dangerous going forward. In qualifying the two had often been used as subs for one another rather than on the field at the same time. This really opened the field for players in the middle to create chances and of course made a ball dumped towards the corner flag dangerous no matter which corner.

    Reply
  7. What a performance. This team shows better passing and ball skills than the USMNT. Incredible ball movement to set up the goals and the Weah shot was world class at any level; worthy of Ronaldo comparisons. The only downside is the injuries. Kudos need to go to Hackworth and his staff for having this team so well prepared.

    Reply

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