The U.S. Under-17 men’s national team fought valiantly in Tuesday’s Round of 16 showdown with Germany but fell just short in its quest of reaching the World Cup quarterfinals.
Gonzalo Segares’ squad suffered elimination from the FIFA U-17 World Cup on Tuesday after falling 3-2 to Germany. Taha Habroune and David Vazquez both scored for the Americans, but Germany sealed its advancement with an 84th minute winning goal.
Charles Herrmann’s free-kick in the 14th minute nestled into the top-right corner, giving Germany an early 1-0 advantage.
Taha Habroune’s right-footed strike nestled into the bottom-left corner just nine minutes later, making it 1-1 between the two sides. It was Habroune’s first goal of the tournament as the MLS NEXT Pro midfielder finished off a counter attack in the box.
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Max Moerstedt propelled Germany back in front 2-1 in the 34th minute, finishing off Herrmann’s assist. The Germans continued to own the first-half opportunities and made sure to make them count to hold a halftime lead.
The USMNT U-17’s eventually tied things up 2-2 in the 80th minute through David Vazquez’s free kick. Vazquez, a Philadelphia Union academy player, entered the match in the 60th minute and needed only 20 minutes to make an impact.
His low cross from the right wing found its way through the wall of players in the box, curving into the bottom-left corner.
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However, Germany would claim its third lead of the match not long after, one that wouldn’t be relinquished. Bilal Yalcinkaya’s left-footed shot from a tight angle gave Germany a 3-2 lead and put the Americans under urgent pressure to find a third equalizing goal.
Matthew Corcoran’s long-range shot came close to finding the back of the net, but Max Schmitt denied the midfielder from forcing extra time.
Germany hung on to seal its quarterfinal berth, ending the Americans run in the competition.
Since the U17 WC expanded past 16 teams in 2007, the USA has only gotten past the Rnd of 16 once. The Josh Sargent, Andrew Carleton, Tim Weah, Sergino Dest, Taylor Booth, Bryan Reynolds group that won one knockout round game.
standard operating procedure for our national team at “every” level, round of 16 and out. Until our teams learn how to finish more clinically, at al levels, we’ll continue to go out of tourney’s at that stage. I was looking at the senior team play last night and we should have been up 3-0 in the first half if we knew how to finish off plays, but its been the same thing for going on 2 cycles
do you really believe we have no one U17 in this whole country who can shoot? i believe this is more the natural effect of our system and emphasis on DMs and pressing wings. if you pick people to run around chasing like wondo chickens they may have wondo finishing. if you pick wings to hit pinpoint crosses and finish, you will get that instead.
i mean you could xerox this shooting critique from the senior team this week or the U20s last summer.
i find it particularly concerning as U17 is the last age group where the pool is largely amateur and they have long national camps together. the age groups above this, eg, U20/U23 are more professionalized these days (used to be college kids but that’s flipped around now) and they get them once in a while, like the full nats. but U17 remains the stereotype youth national team of kids run through select, scouted/screened in ODP, regional and national camps. if the final product can’t finish IMO they are picking the wrong people. and the failings seem consistent enough it suggests some sort of system distortion. who picks forwards on purpose who can’t finish?
last, since there is a lot of missionary malarkey at work these days, like this is the best our soccer has ever been, and we owe it to GB and his underlings, the peak of the U17 was the 1999 team that made the semis with landon, beasley, convey, and gooch. just like the peak of the senior team was either the 2002 quarters team or the 2009/10 team that beat peak spain, had brazil on the ropes in the confed cup final, and came a dumb clark starting decision away from a big world cup knockout run. you look at recent U17 performances and it’s a line of round of 16 exits. we may play the ball on the floor more than we used to but the tactics are naive and we have eroded, not gained, in our relative position to the world. i thought this system was going to catch up to the elite, i instead get to listen to people excuse us losing to germany at any age group we can find.
Just as clarification all of these U17s are either in European academies playing up levels (4) or they are playing in MLS Next Pro (most playing domestically have signed homegrown contracts and are professionals, one USL). I would imagine they’re really depending more on MLS and USL doing their screening now than the traditional route you described. But are likely still missing kids.
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One other note in 1999 there were only 16 teams invited. Not one European team advanced out of the group, they just didn’t take it very seriously. The US faced Mexico , Australia, and Ghana in the knockouts. This year the quarterfinals are Argentina v Brazil, Spain v Germany, Morocco v Mali, likely England v France. Obviously the big boys take it more seriously than they did before. Morocco has players at PSG and Ajax, Mali is the only non big nation with mostly domestic players. They do have one American kid Leintu who has come off the bench. He was born in Mali, but according to transfermkt he has US citizenship. Maryland kid wonder why DC United hasn’t grabbed him?
Huh. Well the U-20’s since 2015 have made it to the QF stage.
There dome talent in this u 17 tram. Overall I liked their ability to dominate possession in all of the games, but lack of offensive cutting edge and allowing far to many shots for a team that dominated possession did this team in. Also never really got Figueroa going in attack. But like I said there are some gems in this team.
Figueroa has been injured all fall. I think he’s only played once for Liverpool before leaving for WC. The two original starting CBs were suspended so Soma the 6 had to play CB. That forced Habroune to play in the double pivot with Corcoran. That probably helped possession but limited defensive bite. I didn’t see the match but those things might have been part of why Germany had good looks.