High-scoring U.S. U-17 women selected for Concacaf Championship

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Mar 28, 2018

Sunshine Fontes (13 goals in 19 games) and Isabella D'Aquila (eight goals in 11 games) will lead the high-scoring U.S. U-17 women's national team with one defeat in 21 international matches into the Concacaf U-17 Women's Championship to be held April 19-29 in Managua, Nicaragua.

USA's Group B Schedule:
April 20 USA vs. Costa Rica, 10 p.m. ET
April 22 USA vs. Bermuda, 10 p.m. ET
April 24 USA vs. Canada, 10 p.m. ET

Coach Mark Carr's 20-player roster includes 17 players born in 2001 and three born in 2002. Kennedy Wesley and Kate Wiesner are holdovers from the 2016 U.S. team that swept all five games at the Concacaf U-17 championship en route to the U-17 World Cup, where it exited in the first round with two losses in three games.

Two other players from the last cycle, forwards Jordan Canniff and Lia Godfrey, and midfielder Ainsley Ahmadian would have likely made the qualifying roster but they suffered ACL knee injuries.

Carr made his final selections after a three-game series against Japan. The USA drew, 0-0, and then won, 4-1 and 2-0, to improve its record to 16-1-4. It has outscored its opponents, 76-12.

"The decision of the final World Cup qualifying roster certainly was not easy," Carr said. "Our coaching staff and I deliberated for days, right up until after our final game with Japan. The credit goes to the players for how they have pushed each other to this point and made the final roster decisions very difficult."

U.S. U-17 Roster:
GOALKEEPERS (2): Angelina Anderson (Mustang FC; Danville, Calif.), Julia Dohle (New York City FC; Scarsdale, N.Y.)
DEFENDERS (6): Michela Agresti (FC Stars, Swampscott, Mass.), Talia DellaPeruta (NTH Tophat; Cumming, Ga.), Smith Hunter (Seattle Reign Academy; Seattle, Wash.), Makenna Morris (Bethesda SC; Germantown, Md.), Natalia Staude (NTH Tophat; Atlanta, Ga.), Kennedy Wesley (So Cal Blues; Rossmoor, Calif.)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Hannah Bebar (Eclipse Select SC; Naperville, Ill.), Croix Bethune (Concorde Fire; Alpharetta, Ga.), Maya Doms (Davis Legacy; Davis, Calif.), Mia Fishel (San Diego Surf; San Diego, Calif.), Sophia Jones (San Jose Earthquakes; Menlo Park, Calif.), Astrid Wheeler (Concorde Fire; Atlanta, Ga.)
FORWARDS (6): Isabella D'Aquila (So Cal Blues; Mission Viejo, Calif.), Sunshine Fontes (Hawaii Rush; Wahiawa, Hawaii), Payton Linnehan (FC Stars; Douglas, Mass.), Samantha Meza (Solar SC; Dallas, Texas), Diana Ordonez (FC Dallas; Prosper, Texas), Kate Wiesner (LAFC Slammers; Monrovia, Calif.).