The U.S. Under-17 men’s national team had always set the tone in each of its matches at the Concacaf U-17 Championship, but after falling down early in Sunday’s final vs. Mexico, Gonzalo Segares’ squad could not find a way back to capture its first trophy since 2011.
Stephano Carrillo and Luis Navarette both scored for Mexico to give El Tri a 3-1 victory over the Americans on Sunday night in Guatemala. Pedro Soma pulled one goal back midway through the second half for the USMNT U-17’s, but Mexico would hang on to claim its ninth U-17 Championship following Isaac Martinez’s stoppage-time penalty kick goal.
Carrillo stepped up from the penalty spot in the 10th minute after USMNT U-17 goalkeeper Duran Ferree fouled Brandon Lomeli in the box. Carrillo converted from the spot to give Mexico a 1-0 advantage and an early grasp on the scoreline.
Ferree made two key saves as the half went on to keep the Americans from going down by a much larger scoreline at halftime.
Mexico kept its pressure going in the second half and made the Americans pay from a corner kick in the 51st minute. Fidel Barajas’ corner was headed home by Navarette, doubling El Tri’s lead and keeping the pressure on the USMNT U-17’s.
The Americans began picking up their pressure as the half went on but Norberto Bedolla was up to the task. Chris Aquino’s effort was denied by the Mexican goalkeeper while Keyrol Figueroa was also kept from cutting the Americans’ deficit in half.
However, the USMNT U-17’s pulled one goal back in the 69th minute as Pedro Soma headed home Aquino’s corner kick, making it 2-1 with ample time to play.
Oscar Verhoeven’s effort in the 80th minute was repelled by Bedolla while Cruz Medina was also left frustrated following his miss in the 83rd.
Ferree’s second yellow card offense condemned the Americans to 10-men in the 89th minute and Mexico would seal the deal in stoppage time. Isaac Martinez slotted home from the penalty spot, giving Mexico a 3-1 victory.
The USMNT U-17’s did seal its spot into the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup, but will be disappointed after not capturing the tournament trophy following a stellar run to the final.
Disappointing but as expected! (I watched the match on TUDN, instead of waiting for FS2 – 12 o’ clock replay)
Compared to the last group of Reyna, Scally, Busio, and Pepi it’s hard to get excited about this group. Of course that squad went 267 scoreless minutes after Busio’s 3rd minute goal in the first match. Medina came in with hype but after Barbados was pretty quite. It’ll be interesting how Keyrol progresses with Liverpool and will they release him this fall. I’m hoping Habroune gets a lot of time training with my Crew first team so Wilfred Nancy can develop him like he boosted Mihailovic (Djordje was already an established pro though).
Sucks that only FOX Soccer Plus carried it.
It is getting insane to pay for all the soccer now available. ESPN+, Paramount, Peacock, HBOMax, AppleMLS, plus the ESPNs and FOX2+2 carried by the midrange of most packages lile YouTubeTV, Hulu, etc. add up to quite a few dollars. Sure Fubo is good for soccer, but that is not the only thing I want to watch on TV.
Maybe I shouldn’t complain too much, only 10 years ago none of those streaming services were available and DirectTV cost over $200 with the MLS package all by itself.
It’s ok to be critical of how much it costs to still watch soccer. It is becoming ridiculous. FUBO costs 75 a month then add up all of the other streaming services you may need to get to watch MLS, Bundesliga, USMNT etc…. And you are still paying over a 100 dollars a month to just watch soccer. I finally cut off FUBO it’s to expensive. I just pay for specific streaming services now I.e peacock, Apple TV, Paramount plus etc…
Was that because NASCAR was delayed, the rest of the tournament was on FS1 or FS2? I had an event so wasn’t even able try to watch. I think you just have to pick what leagues are important to you and if there’s anything else on that stream you want to watch. We just got into Ted Lasso at my house and now Shrinking so we’ve got AppleTV anyway, but I’m probably dropping Paramount here soon but still can’t find an answer if they have NL semis and finals. I really can’t watch baseball anymore so without MLS I don’t have anything to watch.
To bad. Hope to see this team make a decent run in the WC.