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U.S. U-17s down Canada, advance to final of Concacaf Championship

The U.S. U-17 Men’s National Team used a strong second-half on Tuesday night to breeze past Canada and advance into the finals of the Concacaf U-17 Championship.

Raphael Wicky’s squad scored a quartet of second-half goals including a brace from Ricardo Pepi to earn a 4-0 win.

After a scoreless first-half, the U.S. took the lead early after halftime. Bryang Kayo created some space and rifled a low drive into the bottom-left corner. Gianluca Busio set up Kayo who did the rest of the work himself for his first goal for the U-17’s.

Gio Reyna continued his strong tournament with a beautiful free kick finish in the 64th-minute. The midfielder curled a right-footed effort into the left side of the goal to make it 2-0.

Pepi’s late finishes capped the dominant second-half by the hosts. His first came via some fancy footwork which saw a composed finish into the bottom-right corner. Busio registered his second assist of the night on Pepi’s finish.

The midfielder iced the match with a long-range rifle for his second of the night. Busio connected with Pepi once again, this time in the 82nd-minute as Pepi beat Benjamin Collins with a first time finish.

Chituru Odunze made five saves to earn the clean sheet.

The U.S U-17’s will take on Mexico in the Concacaf U-17 Championship Final on Thursday.

Comments

    • That was very nice sequence and I agree thus far they have played like professionals, which is what they are. Wicky has done a very good job getting this team on the same page. Just remember that the job Tab Ramos did with the U20’s was just as impressive. I said that the U20’s were the best team ever to pull on a US shirt after they beat Mexico in the concacaf final. I hope we’re saying that about this team tomorrow night.

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  1. Alvarez is on the bench for Mexico with an occasional appearance here and there….if he was with the USA, he’d be playing

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    • I haven’t seen Alvarez play. But if he is an occasional sub for Mexico, why do you think he’d be playing for the US? Is this Mexican team that much better than the US?

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      • Coaches can be club snobs. Coaches can have “system on the brain” to stupid lengths.
        Coaches can be morons. [People treat big club coaches like geniuses whose roster decisions should inform us, but as a Dortmund fan I feel like Favre’s choices over time — including benching Pulisic and essentially driving him to transfer — led to them finishing second with a first place team.] Guy has 3 goals this tournament and is their second leading scorer, but he starts maybe every third game, subs another third, and sits the rest. Rotation of players is common in youth tournaments but they chose to play him in the semi which sets someone else to play the final. He lives here, plays here, and after this it shouldn’t be a really hard sell to say, represent us instead.

      • In the USL last season he didn’t play a lot of defense, so that might be part of it and he tries some plays that when they come off are amazing but most often end in turnovers. Likewise he tries some shots that most others wouldn’t take which can abruptly end acts or end as golazos. He’d fit in the US side with Busio and Pepi in front and Reyna on the wing. I haven’t watched Mexico so I don’t know how he fits their system.

    • Looks like we are doing alright without him. He would be so lucky!

      Remember Jonathan Gonzalez? That’s right, who?

      We’ll see him in green for the u20s. Oh wait, nevermind. Monterray blocked that plan.
      Gold Cup with the seniors, surely. Oh……
      See him in the next friendly, I guess.

      Reply

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