[CONCACAF UNDER-17 WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP] Summer Green has gotten all the attention, scoring nine of the USA’s 18 goalsin its three wins in group play at the Concacaf Under-17 Women’s Championship, but U.S. coach Albertin Montoya says the U-17s have plenty of options. A berth inthe 2012 Under-17 Women’s World Cup will be on the line on Thursday when the USA faces Panama at Guatemala City’s Estadio Cementos Progreso (kickoff: 3:30 p.m.). The USA was upset by Canada in ashootout after a scoreless draw in the semifinals of the Concacaf Under-17 Women’s Championship two years ago, but it is not expected to be shut out by Panama.
“I don’t think any team cannecessarily prepare for us because we have so many different options and so many ways to break teams down,”
Montoya is so confident inthe depth of his team that he might make three or four changes in the starting lineup for the Panama game.
Panama reached the semifinals despite opening with a 6-0 loss to Canada in theirGroup A opener. A 7-1 win over Guatemala got Panama back on track. Karla Riley, Laurie Batista and
Montoya says Panama isn’t as athletic as some of the teams in the tournament and he may make some lineup changes to try to break it down.
I am thrilled to support our girls and wish them the best. However, I am not too impressed by these blowouts against teams that can’t defend. I watched all those early May highlight clips on youtube and most of those goals were set up by big kicks through/over the defenders to strikers who ran on to balls. As U team grows into the WNT this kick-and-run approach will not work against top teams. Perhaps all our weapons should be concentrating on working the ball on the ground through the midfield. We may be scoring gobs of goals now but this style of play cost us against Japan. Are the lessons learned there being applied at the U17 level? It doesn’t look like it.