The U.S. U-16 boys national team, after opening the 13th Tournament Delle Nazioni with a 2-1 loss to Croatia and a 2-2 tie with Slovenia, beat Brazil, 2-1, on goals by Konrad de laFuente and Marcelo Palomino on Wednesday.
Barcelona-based de la Fuente opened the scoring in the 38th minute and Palomino (Houston Dynamo) scored the gamewinner twominutes after Brazil’s 59th minute equalizer via a Eduardo Blancas‘ own goal.
After falling behind to an eighth minute goal against Slovenia, Arriaga and Rivas (Weston FC)shot the USA ahead before Slovenia equalized with 10 minutes left in the 70-minute game. Against Croatia, the USA went down, 2-1, before Leonardo Sepulveda was ejected, forcing CoachShaun Tsakiris‘ team to play a man down the entire second half.
Croatia’s head-to-head result over the USA earned Croatia second place in Group C over third-place USA, whichawaits Thursday’s Group B results to learn its opponent in the knockout stage that will determine 5th through 8th place of the 12-team tournament. Slovenia, which is co-hosting the tournament withItaly, finished first in Group C. Brazil, which tied Croatia, 2-2, and fell to Slovenia, 2-1, finished fourth with one point.
April 27 in Nova Gorica,Slovenia
USA 2 Brazil 1. Goals: de la Fuente 38, Palomino 61; own goal 59.
USA starters — Defreitas-Hansen, Hansen, Blancas, Pellegrino, De Almeida(Hilton, 47), Booth, Hategan (de la Fuente, 36), Morel, Mendonca (Rivas, 36), Vassilev, Segal (Palomino, 54).
Brazil starters — Emerson Weber, Joao Vitor, Caique Rodrigues,Victor Santos, Lucas Lourenco, Rian Lopes, Angelo Chaves, Tiago Figureiredo, Matheus Souza, Rodrygo Goes, Vinicius Silva.
April 26 in Bilje, Slovenia
Slovenia2 USA 2. Goals: Nikolovski 8, Maher 60; Arriaga (Palomino) 15, Rivas (Arriaga) 23.
Slovenia — Gril; Nikolovski, Ocko, Makovec, Burin; Prelec (Ceh, 36; Marc, 65), Simic,Svetlin, Mutavcic; Zizek (Maher, 52), Urbancic
USA — Rando; Hansen, Sepulveda, Serpa, Blancas; Hilton, Arriaga (Pellegrino, 36), Booth (Llanez, 65), Palomino (Segal, 52), Rivas(De Almeida, 36); De la Fuente, Vassilev.
April 25 in Vipolze, Slovenia
USA 1 Croatia 2. Goals: Llanez (Palomino) 16; Brnic 19, Kukovec 24.
USA —Defreitas-Hansen; Hansen, Sepulveda, Pellegrino (Blancas, 49), Hilton; Arriaga, Booth, Palomino, Llanez (Rivas, 49); Segal (De la Fuente, 56), Vassilev (Mendonca, 56).
Croatia– Josipovic; Mihanovic, Milinovic, Vuskovic, Fruk, (Nikl, 46); Svrznjak, Krizmanic, Jancic (Dakovic, 60); Vujcic, Brnic (Tadic, 46).
Red Card — Sepulveda (USA) 32.