IT HAS BEEN A BIG week for United States youth national teams as U-17 head coach Gonzalo Segares announced his roster for the U-17 World Cup while the U.S. U-22 national team came up with a big win at the PanAm games in Santiago.

Here are a few thoughts on everything.

Segares names U-17 World Cup team

Gonzalo Segares named his roster for the U.S. U-17 World Cup and most of the players will remain from the World Cup qualifying team in February. In total, the World Cup roster contains 13 of the 20 players from qualifying. Two of the notable absences are midfielder Adrian Gill and goalkeeper Diego Kochen who are both based with Barcelona but who are injured.

But historically with the U.S. U-17 team, there is not as much change between the rosters of qualifying and the World Cup.

ROSTER BY POSITION 

GOALKEEPERS (3):?Adam Beaudry (Colorado Rapids; 7/0; Castle Pines, Colo.), Zackory Campagnolo (Colorado Rapids; 1/0; Ft. Myers, Fla.), Duran Ferree (San Diego Loyal SC; 4/0; San Diego, Calif.)

DEFENDERS (6):?Noahkai Banks (Augsburg/GER; 3/0; Dietmannsried, Germany), Tyler Hall (Inter Miami CF; 14/0; Miramar, Fla.), Aiden Harangi (Eintracht Frankfurt/GER; 11/1; Reston, Va.), Stuart Hawkins (Seattle Sounders FC; 16/0; Fox Island, Wash.), Tahir Reid-Brown (Orlando City SC; 0/0; Orlando, Florida), Oscar Verhoeven (San Jose Earthquakes; 16/0; Pleasant Hill, Calif.)

MIDFIELDERS (7):?Matthew Corcoran (Birmingham Legion FC; 1/0; Dallas Texas), Taha Habroune (Columbus Crew; 9/4; Columbus, Ohio), Cruz Medina (San Jose Earthquakes; 18/6; San Francisco, Calif.), Peyton Miller (New England Revolution; 3/0; Unionville, Conn.), Santiago Morales (Inter Miami CF; 1/0; Weston, Fla.), Paulo Rudisill (Unattached; 18/2; Irvine, Calif.), Pedro Soma (UE Cornella/ESP; 16/1; Coconut Creek, Fla.)

FORWARDS (5):?Nimfasha Berchimas (Charlotte FC; 4/2; High Point, N.C.), Micah Burton (Austin FC; 17/5; Mounds View, Minn.), Keyrol Figueroa (Liverpool/ENG; 10/8; Warrington, England), Bryce Jamison (Orange County SC; 4/0; Lake Forest, Calif.), David Vasquez (Philadelphia Union; 13/0; Los Angeles, Calif.)

Schedule

The U.S. team's schedule:

• November 12: United States vs. South Korea
• November 15: United States vs. Burkina Faso
• November 18: United States vs. France

A few thoughts

This team has a brutal draw at the U-17 World Cup with France, Burkina Faso, and South Korea. It is an unlikely task ahead for the U.S. team to advance and the odds are in their favor. This team wasn’t particularly strong in qualifying and hasn’t been terribly convincing all cycle.

A lot of the team’s hopes are on its leading scorer Keyrol Figueroa of Liverpool. The big and powerful forward who plays for Liverpool’s U-18 team had seven goals in seven games in CONCACAF’s U-17 qualifying. But has since struggled upon his return to Liverpool, mostly through injury. He’s only made two appearances this season and he hasn’t scored since notching a hat trick against Wolves’ U-18 team on April 1.

It is hard to see the U.S. U-17 team putting up much of a fight unless Figueroa is able to play extended minutes.

In terms of the team’s potential breakout star, David Vazquez is a good bet. The Philadelphia Union academy product is better centrally than on the wing, but Segares has mostly played him on the right wing as opposed to the middle, or on the left wing where he can cut centrally. Still, he remains talented and a potential impact player. He’s also a player the Union desperately need to get inked to a homegrown deal and having him go to the U-17 World Cup unsigned presents a big risk.

Finally, there were a pair of notable omissions on this team. Matai Akinmboni and Caden Glover didn’t make it and neither seemed to be in the plans for Segares all cycle.

Akinmboni is the biggest surprise given that he is a central defender who has played well on occasion for DC United this year. Wayne Rooney spoke highly of him and Akinmboni delivered with a great performance in a 2-0 win over NYCFC in their season finale. At that point, DC United still had legitimate playoff chances.

Finally with Glover, he is a homegrown for St. Louis and made a pair of appearance this season (becoming the first 2007-born player to play in MLS). He is a forward and with questions surrounding Figueroa’s form/fitness, Glover would have made sense.

U.S. picks up big win in the PanAm games

The United States U-22 national team at the PanAm games lost its opener to Brazil 1-0 (where the U.S. team was badly outplayed) but came back on Thursday with a big 2-1 win over Honduras.

Trailing 1-0, the U.S. team equalized in the 73^rd minute when Seattle Sounders midfielder Danny Leyva (who recently played the 2023 season on loan with Colorado) headed home a cross from New England homegrown Jack Panayotu.  

Jack Panayotu assisting Danny Leyva for the equalizer at the PanAm games.

The U.A defeated Honduras 2-1.

The U.S team faces Colombia on Sunday pic.twitter.com/rUeYfkKBOB

— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) October 26, 2023

Then in stoppage time, it was DC United’s Ted Ku-DiPietro with the winning goal after Alex Freeman carried the ball into the attacking third to disrupt the Honduran defense.

Ted Ku-DePietro wins it for the U.S team in stoppage time over Honduras at the PanAm games. The subs changed the game pic.twitter.com/SfEqXkBK9F

— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) October 26, 2023

This win gives the U.S. team three points and now they will face Colombia on Sunday looking to advance. Both the U.S and Colombia are even on points, goal differential, and goals scored. So if they draw on Sunday, advancement to the semifinals could come down to fair play.

Many people are wondering what is the point of this tournament for U.S Soccer? After declining to participate in previous PanAm games (other teams have also declined), the U.S. team accepted the call-up here and are being led by U.S. U-19 head coach Michael Nsien.

The answer is that the U.S. team needs games for players because there is a crunch going on. The Olympic team still needs to look at some players and the U-23 camps in October and  November can’t give opportunities for everyone. Here, we have seen Ku-DiePietro, Freeman, and Leyva get looks even if it is unlikely they go to the Olympics.

Also, for the U.S. U-20 team, that cycle is set to begin soon and the team needs to move quickly in 2024 as there are rumors that CONCACAF’s U-20 World Cup qualifying could take place next summer (in less than eight months). This team consists of four players who are eligible for that team (Nolan Norris, Sergio Oregel, Brooklyn Raines, and Rodrigo Neri). This tournament gives those players a head start.

This tournament is not necessarily a referendum on depth but is rather the best squad available under a very limited set of circumstances. It can only essentially consist of players who are not needed by their clubs right now – either because they are reserve team players, or their teams are eliminated. It also does not consist of players who were part of the recent U.S. U-23 camp.