By Mike Woitalla
The USA will face Paraguay, Ghana and defending champion Japan in the first round of 2016 U-17 Women’s World Cup (Sept. 30-Oct. 21) in Jordan, the firstMiddle East nation to host a FIFA women’s championship.
“The international women’s game has evolved at a frenetic pace over the course of the last few years and it is fair to say thatthe quality and sophistication at the U-17 level has mirrored that evolution. We fully expect that the tournament held this fall in Jordan will be the toughest yet at the youth level,” U.S. coachB.J. Snow saidafter Sunday’s draw in Amman. “The number of quality teams in this year’s edition is phenomenal.”
After finishing runner-up at the inaugural U-17 Women’s World Cup in 2008, the USA failed to qualify in2010, exited in the first round of the 2012 World Cup — albeit without losing a game — and failed to qualify in 2014.
Paraguay, which qualified as the third-place finisher in South Americanqualifying, reached the last two U-17 World Cups and exited in group play. Japan has qualified for all four previous U-17 World Cups, won the title in 2014 and finished runner-up in 2010. Ghanareached the quarterfinals in 2014 and finished third in 2012.
“Japan has been at the forefront of youth development on the women’s side, continues to be the gold standard at ourlevel and will enter the tournament as a favorite to repeat as champions,” said Snow. “Ghana is an extraordinary difficult team to play and prepare for with a history of performing well in thepast editions of this tournament. They breezed through qualifying and look to have a team that will enter the tournament with a ton of confidence.
“Paraguay offers its own uniquechallenges and proved in their qualifying that they have some attacking power as evidenced by the fact they scored the second highest goal tally in their region.”
U-17 Women’s World Cup Champs Tijuana Xolos, with seven U.S. starters, fall short in Mexico U-20final
Tijuana Xolos started seven U.S. products in the second leg of Mexico’s Clausura 2016 U-20 championship, a 3-2 win over Queretaro that tied the aggregate score, 3-3.
Queretaro, which started 20-year-old Josue Soto, formerly of Division II school Cal Baptist, won in a penalty kick shootout in front of more than 15,000 fans at the EstadioCaliente.
U.S. players Brandon Vazquez, 17, and Amando Moreno, 20, scored for Xolos. Also starting for Tijuana were Paul Arriola, the21-year-old who scored and assisted in the USA’s 3-1 win over Puerto Rico a week earlier, goalkeeper Carlos Lopez, 19, defenders John Requejo, 20, andAngel Uribe, 17, and midfielder Fernando Arce, 19. Another American, 18-year-old Jesus Enriquez, was on the bench.
Last December, Xolos fellto Santos, also on PKs, in Apertura 2015 final with Santos’ winning spot kick coming from U.S. product Alexis De La Rosa, formerly of the Houston Texans.
The Clausura 2016 U-17 final was a rematch of the Apertura 2015final in which Santos beat Pachuca, which this year prevailed, 8-2 on aggregate. Northern Californian Edwin Lara, who played for Mexico at the 2015 U-17 World Cup after leaving theU.S. program, played 10 games for Pachuca during its title run. Georgia native Luis Flores played 17 Clausura 2016 games for Santos this season.
Spot Kicks
Playing without 17-year-old American ChristianPulisic, who had joined the U.S. national team for the Copa America Centenario, Borussia Dortmund won its first U-19 Germany national championship in 18 years thanks to a 5-3 win over 1899Hoffenheim. Pulisic, who last year helped Dortmund win the U-17 national championship, scored the first goal in Dortmund’s 2-0 win over 1860 Munich in a semifinal second leg that gave BVB a 3-2aggregate win to reach the final. Pulisic, who played in nine Bundesliga games and scored twice after debuting in January, also scored eight goals for the U-19s.
… England’s U-21s beat hostFrance, 2-1, in the final to win the Toulon Tournament for the first time since 1994. En route to the title, Coach Gareth Southgate‘s team beat Japan (1-0), Paraguay (4-0), Guinea(7-1) and Portugal (1-0). The USA, whose U-23s last year used it as a preparation for its unsuccessful Olympic qualifying quest, did not participate in this year’s Toulon Tournament.SkySports: England’s Toulon starlets: GarethSouthgate’s winning squad
… Travis Clark reports on the conflict between the U.S. U-20 women’s national team’s 2016 World Cup quest andthe college season. “My fear right now with the design of this venture into the U20 World Championship is we’re almost sacrificing player development for winning,” North Carolinahead coach Anson Dorrance said. “They want to have full access to the players all fall, which I do not think is to the benefit of their development.”TopDrawerSoccer.com: U20 WC to leave mark on 2016college season
2008 North Korea
2010 South Korea
2012 France
2014 Japan
