The U.S. Under-17 men’s national team delivered its most dominating performance on Saturday, booking its place in the Concacaf U-17 Championship quarterfinals.
Christopher Aquino, Keyrol Figueroa, and Ezekiel Soto all registered braces while Micah Burton also added one goal in a 7-0 romp against the Dominican Republic. The result was the Americans third shutout out of four appearances in the tournament.
Aquino delivered the breakthrough goal for the USMNT U-17’s in the 20th minute, scoring from open play and setting the tone for a busy evening for Gonzalo Segares’ squad. The young forward received a pass in the box before rifling a left-footed shot into the right corner of the net.
The young forward’s impactful performance continued in the 30th minute, winning a penalty kick before stepping up and scoring from the penalty spot.
Figueroa extended the Americans advantage to 3-0 just before halftime, continuing an impressive overall tournament for the attacker. A failed clearance in the box by the Dominican Republic was pounced on by Figueroa, before he roofed his shot into the top of the net.
The Americans kept their feet on the gas in the second half as Figueroa capped off his brace in the 57th minute with a sublime finish.
Burton added his first goal of the tournament to make it 5-0 in the 62nd minute before Soto scored twice on his own in the final seven minutes of the match.
The USMNT U-17’s will next face Guatemala on Tuesday in the quarterfinals.
Why is no one interested in this group?
Need to beat the hosts and then we’re in. We’ve been able to rest guys so far so we should be in good shape. Hoping Luchi gets U20 Nico Tsakiris and U17 Cruz Medina plenty of time for SJ this season.