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U.S. U-17s thrash Jamaica in CONCACAF qualiying opener

The U.S. U-17 Men’s National Team opened up its CONCACAF qualifying campaign with a 5-0 thrashing of Jamaica on Saturday.

The U.S. looked strong out of the gate, pressing far up the pitch and putting numbers forward in the attacking third. The U.S. midfield looked strong as it controlled the tempo of the match, and did well to keep the shape of the 4-4-2 formation that coach John Hackworth deployed. Specifically, James Sands and captain Joshua Sargent looked especially good on the day.

After a scoreless first half, things opened up in the second 45 as the Americans rattled of five unanswered goals. Toronto FC academy product Ayo Akinola led the way providing two goals and an assist, while Josh Sargent added a goal and an assist. Chris Durkin and Timothy Weah scored the other goals for the Americans.

The U.S. ended the match with 27 shots and 14 shots on target compared to Jamaica’s meager 6 shots and 2 shots on target. The U.S. pressed all day, forcing turnovers and getting in dangerous attacking positions.

Saturday’s win brings the team one step closer to the goal of competing in the U-17 World Cup later this year. The U-17s play Mexico next on Wednesday, and then El Salvador on Saturday.

Comments

  1. Good win boy,jamaica is a hard team and 5 goal is very well for the u17usamnt soccer,his next
    oponent the mejicans,also got the game,and will be a hard game are the two better teams,but
    usa can win it or tied it. but remember the usa is the champion in concacaf in u20,and are getting better and better

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  2. I know Akinola was born in Detroit, but grew up in Ontario (hence representing US while being a TFC academy player), but is Detroit in Toronto’s academy territory? Or any part of the US in the TFC territory?

    That strikes me as odd if US players were part of a Canadian club academy. I mean, it’s all screwed up anyway since Canada doesn’t have a first tier league to start with, but it’s just kind of weird, a dual citizen like Akinola, in the US league, but in a Canadian team academy.

    For a top shelf talent there really isn’t much of a debate between the USMNT and CMNT (is that a thing?), so maybe practically this is not really an issue but it does create some awkwardness.

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    • Detroit is not in anyone’s territory, but that point is mute because he moved to Ontario awhile ago, which is in TFC’s territory. TFC and Montreal basically share eastern Canada minus each other’s province and Vancouver gets all of Canada minus Quebec and Ontario. Teams are given exemptions based on how productive their territories are so I guess that means TFC could bring in a player from Detroit for its academy.

      What academy a player plays in really means nothing to the national team, Pulisic was playing in Germany at the last U17, at least half the roster for the upcoming U20 WC are playing for European youth teams.

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  3. Jamaica came out energized and controlled the first 5-8 minutes and seemed to run out of gas by the 10 minute mark. They started time wasting and forced a water break around 15 minutes. Their keeper made some nice saves or it could have been 8 or 9 nil. Akinola and Sargent are a handful and bringing Weah off the bench giving a fresh set of legs was a big advantage today. Jamaica really stopped playing after Weah’s goal. Mexico crushed El Salvador 6-0 so Wednesday looks to be the group championship match. Winning the group means facing the two 2nd place teams from the other group to qualify. Wednesday is the difference of a group with Costa Rica and host Panama or Canada and Honduras.

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  4. Originally said they would be on Facebook live, but the match today was on youtube as Marden says the next two are listed as YouTube as well now. The net broadcast today was a little choppy with a few lags where everyone on the chat seemed to lose video, but overall passable.

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  5. Google US Soccer click on it and click on schedule and tickets. to the right of the Mexico game on Wednesday click on You tube at 6: 30pm on Wednesday and you can watch the game.

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