By Mike Woitalla
The U.S. U-15 boys national team, coached by John Hackworth, won the Torneo Delle Nazioni with a 3-2 win over Austria on Friday. The Americansscored 15 goals in five games at the tourney hosted by Italy, Austria and Slovenia.
Here’s a look at the U.S. scorers:
Andrew Carleton (6 goals): The GeorgiaUnited striker scored twice in three wins: the final, and 6-2 and 4-1 wins over Croatia and Costa Rica in group play. Carleton has also played for Southern Soccer Academy and United Futbol Academy,with which he won the U-14 Golden Ball at the 2014 US Youth Soccer National Championships.
Ayomide Akinola (4 goals): The Michigan-born striker who plays for TorontoFC’s academy scored four goals in the win over Croatia.
Lucas Del Rosario (2 goals): The North Carolina product from Capital Area RailHawks (CASL) scored twice in thewin over Costa Rica.
George Acosta (1 goal): Scorer in the 3-2 group-stage loss against Slovenia, Acosta assisted on the USA’s opening goal in the final. TheFlorida product played for Weston FC’s Development Academy before moving to Argentina’s Estudiantes.
Christopher Goslin (1 goal): A teammate of Carleton’s atGeorgia United, Goslin scored against Slovenia.
Tim Weah (1 goal): The son of former Liberian great George Weah, the 1995 World Player of the Year, scored thedeciding goal in the final win over Austria. Now Paris Saint-Germain’s youth program, he played New York youth ball with BW Gottschee and the New York Red Bulls. Weah converted his spot kick inthe sixth round of the tiebreaker after the USA’s scoreless semifinal against Italy.
Hackworth’s 20-player roster was comprised of 17 players born in 2000 (U-15s) and three U-16sborn in 1999 — Del Rosario, goalkeeper Eric Lopez (LA Galaxy II) and Nicholas Taitague (Richmond United). Austria fielded a U-16 team.
Photo courtesy U.S. Soccer
May 1 in Gradisca d’Isonzo, Italy
USA 3 Austria 2. Goals: Carleton 12, Carleton 23, Weah 63;Meister 65, Meister 77.
USA — Lopez, Bailey, Lindsey, Cornfield-Saunders, Vaughn, Durkin, Goslin (Arteaga, 67), Acosta (Anguiano Diaz, 55), Del Rosario (Weah, 55), Akinola(Villegas, 67), Carleton (Perez, 83).
Austria — Karalic, Donnerer (Riegler, 41), Maresic, Meisl, Burgstaller, Muller, Wagnes, Fischerauer, Sittsam (Kirim, 35), Meister,Baumgartner (Sturm, 49).
Tourneo delle Nazioni Champions
2015 USA
2014 Slovenia
2013 Japan
2012 Croatia
2011 Montenegro
2010 Mexico
2009 Croatia
2008 Italy
2007 Italy
2006 Romania
2005 Italy
2004 Italy
2003 Italy
U.S. U-17s convene in New Jersey
Coach Richie Williams has called in a 20-player squad for a May 2-11 camp at the New York Red Bulls’ practice facilityEast Hanover, N.J., as preparations continue for the 2015 U-17 World Cup hosted by Chile in October.
Five of the players called in weren’t part of the squad that qualified with athird-place finish at the U-17 Concacaf Championship in March: Matt Constant, Logan Panchot, Terrell Lowe, Auston Trusty, George Braima.
U.S. U-17 Roster
GOALKEEPERS (2): William Pulisic (Richmond United; Mechanicsville, Va.), Kevin Silva (Players Development Academy; Bethlehem, Pa.).
DEFENDERS (7): Hugo Arellano (LA Galaxy Academy; Norwalk, Calif.), Matt Constant (Dallas Texans; Carrollton, Texas), Tanner Dieterich (Real Salt Lake Academy; Nashville, Tenn.), JohnNelson (Internationals; Medina, Ohio), Logan Panchot (St. Louis Scott Gallagher Missouri; St. Louis Mo.), Auston Trusty (Philadelphia Union Academy; Media, Pa.), Alexis Velela (San Diego Surf; SanDiego, Calif.).
MIDFIELDERS (6): Tyler Adams (New York Red Bulls II; Wappinger Falls, N.Y.), George Braima (Columbus Crew Academy; Columbus, Ohio), Eric Calvillo (Real So Cal;Palmdale, Calif.), Terrell Lowe (Portland Timbers Academy; Hillsboro, Ore.), Matthew Olosunde (New York Red Bulls Academy; Trenton, N.J.), Alejandro Zendejas (FC Dallas; El Paso, Texas).
FORWARDS (5): Pierre da Silva (Orlando City SC Academy; Port Chester, N.Y.), Mckinze Gaines (Lonestar SC; Austin, Texas), Josh Perez (Unattached; La Habra, Calif.), Brandon Vazquez(Club Tijuana; Chula Vista, Calif.), Haji Wright (New York Cosmos; Los Angeles, Calif.).
Youth soccer shakeup in South Texas
In what will be considered a win for US Club Soccer in its turf war with US Youth Soccer, top youth clubs from the greater Houston, Austin and San Antonio areas will this fallbegin competing under the US Club Soccer umbrella in the United Soccer Clubs (USC).
The USC Champions League will be the top level of competition in the league covering boys and girls, U-11through U-18. Teams will compete for the opportunity to advance to US Club Soccer national championship events.
“When leaders from multiple clubs work together to change and improve theenvironment in which they compete, great things happen for the game,” US Club Soccer Executive Vice President Christian Lavers said in a press release. “The vision andleadership shown by the Directors of Coaching in southern Texas in creating this new platform will have a hugely positive impact on their players, teams and clubs.”
United Soccer Clubs (USC) 2015
Albion Hurricanes FC, Austin Texans, Challenge SC, Classics Elite SC, Dynamos SC, Eclipse SC, Houston Express SC, Houstonians FC, Kingwood AllianceSC, Liverpool FC America, Lonestar SC, Lonestar SC-San Antonio, Space City FC, Texans SC, Texas Rush SC.
Region 1 ODP team placesin Italy
The US Youth Soccer’s Olympic Development Program (ODP) Boys Region I (2001) team finished fourth at the 36-team Piccole Grandi Squadre Tournament in Italy.
Theteam, which went undefeated in regulation time in seven games but was eliminated in spot-kick tiebreaker, was coached by Eastern New York’s Jose Luis Rebay and assisted byVermont’s Craig Stone.
Vermont’s Francis Nardiello-Smith led the team with fourgoals. Its wins included a 1-0 victory over Hungary on a goal by Virginia’s Jack Ruddy. It beat eventual runner-up Genoa in a PK shootout thanks to three saves byLorenzo Gordon of Virginia. Sampdoria won the tournament and Juventus finished third.
“We could not be more proud of this team both by their play on the field and howthey represented us off the field,” said Keith Tabatznik, US Youth Soccer ODP Boys Region I Head Coach. “They played the 4-3-3 to perfection with excellent possession fromthe back and an increasing ability to create dangerous chances. … In the entire tournament (7 games) we allowed just 1 goal and that came off a free kick.”
Lucas Del Rosario is a 99 U16 player and he also had several assists for this team. So was Golaie Lopez a U16. Would have been nice to see how far they could go without the help of the 3 U16 players they took. That5s why they were listed as U16 on that tourney website.
Great result none the less for this team who mostly played up but would have been nice to see how far they got without the 99’s like Italy did with all U15’s making it to Semi and losing in Pk vs USA. Italy already proving to be a force for next U17 World Cup with this result.
“When leaders from multiple clubs work together to change and improve the environment in which they compete, great things happen for the game,” In this ongoing pissing contest between Club and Youth, I have seen zero difference in development/performance/improvement. What exactly are “Great Things”? Thanks for the nebulous marketing schtick Mr. Lavers. Parents are so often uninformed/uneducated/oblivious about the game but end up carrying so much weight because of their check-writing ability. So many parents falsely believe competition between teams and “playing at the highest level” will make their child the best player they can be. This is not the case. It’s competition between players on the same team that is the forge that improves player performance. It’s the practice, not the game, that creates a superior player. There should be one Houston team, one from Austin and one from San Antonio each with a roster of about 25. We have too many teams and not enough good coaches, and our player development suffers as a result. If the Wild West environment we have now was working we should have hundreds of world class players. Changing from Youth to Club is just rearranging deck chairs. This is not good enough, Klinsmann.
R2, can we say the same for USSDA except for maybe a few clubs? That is also just rearranging deck chairs. All i see is same style of play with a change in how age groups are broken up. Brutal play, extremely low level officiating. Glorified NPL is what it is. Most of the Full time Academy players this year will play NPL next year especially in the U14 and U16 divisions. WHy? Because the older players within the club will get the USSDA pick over the younger ones mostly because of physical advantage but also because they were promised the year before as long as they showed “loyalty” which means pay your NPL season. It’s all a joke. USSDA is now implementing a U12 division. For what?? Meanwhile Liga MX U17 and U20 clubs are forced to play 2 year younger players 765 minutes per season or pay a fine.
To Francisco “Pancho” Villa and R@Dad: MUCHAS GRACIAS for your keen and insightful commentary!!!
So what’s the name of this 15 yr old?,I was in a hurry and did not have time to read the whole article proper . Please some one let me know , I will check it out tonight when I get home Thanks.
@Rick Andrew Carleton…