As some of you may know, our U-17s are playing in Florida right now in the Nike Friendlies. They won on Thursday 2-0 vs Russia. Today they faced off against Brazil, and won 2-0. They face Turkey tomorrow, the game will air on tape delay on FSC at 8 pm (est).

I missed the first game, but I caught the second. A couple thoughts:

We were lucky to come away with a 2-0 result.

Gyau can play. He is unbelievable.

Edwards (GK) is incredibly solid. Commands the box. Not many rebounds. Not really challenged with a solid shot though.

Renken (13 year old prodigy) did not impress me as much as I thought he would. He was injured in the second half but he never seemed to find his rhythm in the game.

Martinez (mid) has scored in both games. Both quality goals.

Jerome (forward) is a great prospect. He has a wide receivers body with a pretty skillful touch. Promising. Scored in both games too.

Caberra seems like a great coach. I hope he can take over Rongen's spot at the U-20s. Speaking of which Hackworth, Rongen, and Bradley were all at the game. Supposedly scouts from Chelsea, Barcelona, and Reading were there. They also mentioned a few players were being looked at by Bayern Munich.

Dammit, forgot about these games. Can catch the game on delay tomorrow hopefully.

The game isn't on til Tuesday (on delay). It would be worth the watch though.

Russia beat Turkey 4-3 btw.

Ah okay. What's the deal with the 13 yr old? I've heard the name before but never realized he was so young. What position does he play and all that?

Center midfielder. Very smooth on the ball. He made 4-5 poor decisions today against Brazil though. Careless passes and some ill-advised pass-backs. From what I heard of the game on Thursday, he had incredible vision and was compared to a hybrid of O'Brien, Reyna, and Adu. From the game today, I would say you can clearly tell he is 13 (maturity and decision making wise, physicality wise he looks 30). He had one good combo play against Brazil with Gyau that led to a weak shot by Gyau. I hope to see more of him in the game vs Turkey.

Gyau plays right mid, btw.

I am trying to remain pessimistic about this group, stats tell us that 9% of players that play in u-17 world cups end up playing in the real world cup. But damn, this talent pool is incredible to watch. I really like our chances in the next u-17 tournament. If we shore up the back line (another right back) and add another forward (the ones paired with Jerome have been terrible so far), we could be looking at an incredible team. Lletget (sp?) is another player to watch, already been on trial with West Ham and they expressed interest in him. He is injured for the nike friendlies though.

Side note: the fan support there has been amazing. Great chants. Lively atmosphere. Great to see at the youth level.

Half time vs Turkey (tape delay)
0-2 Tukey.
Terrible half for US. We are playing nine new starters for this game. We have only had a handful of chances.
We are going to have to go to the bench if we have a chance to win this.

Turkey wins 2-0. Not a great showing by the US. The support did look pretty good in Bradenton though, even though most of the fans I saw were cheering on Turkey.

That was the worst support of the weekend, I think most people knew that USA was going to sit the stars and they headed home early. It was a poor outing. Obviously, our depth is our weakness at this level.

What's the 13 year old's name?

Renken, I think.

I didn't get to see him in the first half of the Turkey match.

He was injured and kept off the roster for the game, same with Gyau.