U.S. U17 Men’s National Team head coach Richie Williams pulled up three players from the 1999 age group to play with the 1998s at the recent Copa Mexico de Naciones, a youth tournament held in Mexico City in August between the best teams from North, Central, and South America.

The three players, Tyler Adams, Edwin Lara, and Nicholas Taitague, playing up an age helped the U.S. to a third-place finish at the event with a penalty kick victory over Paraguay in the consolation match. Following the game, the trio jumped on a plane and headed to camp with their age group at the StubHub Center in Southern California.

“It was a lot of fun to play against older competition,” Adams told TopDrawerSoccer.com. “I think we got a lot out of it – they were hard games, international matches for us.”

International games are hard to come by at the youth level, as not every federation starts the process at the U14 age group. The 1999 squad went on a trip to Croatia earlier this year, which was the first trip for the age group outside of the country.

“I think it was a great experience because we were a year younger and they were international matches on a really high stage,” Taitague added.

Left back Edwin Lara concurred with his teammates.

“It was a really good experience to play against older guys internationally. We developed faster and played at a high level.”

Stepping into a new group is typically awkward, especially for Taitague who did not get called into the camp right before the trip but made the roster for the tournament. He still felt welcomed by the group.

“Like [Adams] said, they helped us out especially in the first few days there. They welcomed us into the group.”

Adams and Lara quickly gained the trust of Williams and his staff. The two defenders made the leap into the starting line up at right and left back respectively. Taitague found minutes hard to come by with the older group, as he fought for playing time in the midfield among an established group of regulars.

Taitague did start the final game of the competition against Paraguay, which was played in the world famous Estadio Azteca.

“That was my best memory from the trip,” he said about playing in Azteca. “I started and I thought I played well. It was my favorite experience.”

Adams and Lara did not make an appearance in that game, but featured regularly throughout the competition with 286 and 253 minutes played respectively from the six 70-minute games.

Now back with the 1999s, the trio is not taking much of an ego from the recognition of the U17 MNT coaching staff. Instead, they are determined to make their age group better with every training session.

“It is the same competition,” Adams said. “You still have to fight for your spot. You still have to play with high intensity. Coach Hugo [Perez] has helped us a lot with the playing style that he implements. He has developed us through the five camps to go play with the 98s. I think it is great to come back and play with my teammates again.”

Adams featured at right back with the older squad, but moved back to his regular position at center back for the scrimmage on Wednesday with the 1999s.

Perhaps partially due to the score and partially due to his newfound enjoyment of getting into the attack, Adams was much more active getting forward with the younger squad.

“I had the opportunity to go forward, so I took it,” Adams said. “[Unfortunately], I hit the post [on my shot].”

Lara also had positive takeaways from returning to the 1999 age group after a successful run with the old team.

“I like to support my teammates [with the 1999s]. They tell me what to work on, and we get better as a group.”

Perez knows that Adams, Lara, and Taitague are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of 1999s who will get called into the older squad before the CONCACAF Championship next year.

“The 17s are looking at these guys. They have to be motivated,” Perez said. “Our goal is to pass them along, and we have three already that have been called. And there might be more.”