Concacaf: U17s clinch spot in Round of 16

by Travis Clark

May 4, 2019

Taking the field for the second time in three days, the U.S. U17 MNT scored four times from set pieces, paving the way to an easy 6-1 win against Barbados at the Concacaf Championship.

Gianluca Busio scored twice, while Kobe Hernandez, Adam Saldana and Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez provided the goals. An own goal rounded out the scoring for the United States, as Barbados tallied a 54th minute consolation from the penalty spot.

Head coach Raphael Wicky made seven changes from Thursday's opening win against Canada, with Kobe Hernandez, Busio, Daniel Leyva and Gianluca Busio the lone holdovers from the opening match.

After a nervy 20 minutes of scoreless soccer, Hernandez provided the game's first goal, and first set piece goal of the match. He caught the Barbados goalkeeper by surprise, finding the side netting with a high, looping strike.

That goal opened up the floodgates, and the U.S. would strike three more times before the half; Busio scored from a nice free kick of his own, before Saldana finished off a nicely worked short corner. Busio would grab another to make it 4-0 at the break, driving a worm burner over the ground from a set piece.

With the game more or less already won, the U.S. tacked on two more, as a Jack de Vries cross was turned into the net by a Barbados defender, and Ocampo-Chavez finished off the sixth goal of the game, finishing nicely from a Hernandez ball out of the back.

U.S. U17 MNT Lineup: Chituru Odunze; Joseph Scally, Kobe Hernandez (capt.), Tayvon Gray, John Tolkin, Daniel Leyva (Mauricio Cuevas, 55), Adam Saldana, Gilbert Fuentes, Jack de Vries (Griffin Yow, 81), Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez, Gianluca Busio (Tyler Freeman, 46)