USA settles for fourth place after loss to Brazil

• by Soccer America , Aug 11, 2014

[COPA MEXICO DE NACIONES] The U.S. under-17 men's national team had to settle for fourth place at the Copa Mexico de Naciones in Mexico City when it fell to Brazil, 2-0, in the third-place game at Azteca Stadium. Evander of Vasco da Gama scored both goals to win the tournament's award as the leading scorer. The win for Brazil was revenge for its 4-1 loss to the USA in the 2013 Nike International Friendlies.

The USA has entered the tournament with three straight first-place finishes in international tournaments to which it brought the first team: the Nike International Friendlies, plus tournaments in Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The U.S. U-17s are 12-5-1 in international play in 2014. Besides the losses to Ecuador, the tournament winner, and Brazil in the Copa Mexico, the other three losses came with the "B" team at the Open Nordic Tournament that ended Aug. 2.

The USA finished third in 2013 with the same age-group team when the tournament was a U-15 tournament. Joe Gallardo, the tournament's leading scorer in 2013, was lost in the first game of the 2014 tournament with a broken leg.

Ecuador beat Paraguay in a shootout in the final after their game ended in a 1-1 tie. Paraguay's David Colman was named the tournament's best player.