CARSON, California — The U.S. U17 Men’s National Team played to a 2-2 draw against Orange County Blues on Wednesday at the National Training Center in the first scrimmage from the July camp.

Blue Stars trotted out a reserve lineup that consisted of players on the fringes of the USL-Pro side against the teenagers of the youth national team.

The older squad had the better opportunities early as Blues pushed the pressure high up the field and tried to take advantage of misplayed passes from the U17 backline.

U.S. weathered the storm and had a very good spell of five minutes from the 15-20 minutes with multiple chances. Christian Pulisic had the first look when he popped up on the end of an Eric Calvillo cross. Pulisic’s first touch was perfect, but the Blues goalkeeper did well to cut the angle and managed to parry away Pulisic’s shot.

On the ensuing corner kick, Pulisic was again in the mix when he put his head on a poor clearance. With the goalkeeper caught in no man’s land, Pulisic’s effort look bound for the goal, but a Blues defender leaped to the clouds and headed the shot away for another corner.

The creative attacking midfielder facilitated the next golden chance on the next corner kick when he delivered a cross to the far post whenre center back Tanner Dieterich was waiting free of his mark. The Blues goalkeeper was up to the challenge and pushed away Dieterich’s sliding effort.

The teams exchanged possession for the next 20 minutes prior to the halftime break.

The second half offered a more open affair and Blues capitalized on a mistake early for the opening goal.

Alejandro Zendejas was dispossessed in the middle as the U17 MNT tried to build out of the back. Blues quickly struck on the turnover and took the lead in the 42nd minute.

Blues doubled the advantage eight minutes later when the U.S. failed to put pressure on the ball, which resulted in an opening for a Blues winger who drilled a shot from 25 yards out into the upper corner of the net.

U17 MNT answered immediately with Logan Panchot’s charging run down the right side. Panchot weathered a stiff challenge and then delivered a cross into the center of the six-yard box, which was knocked home thanks to a recovering Blues defender.

Blues appeared to have regained the two-goal advantage minutes later when a diagonal ball left the U17 MNT defense in the wake, but the raised flag of the assistant referee wiped the score off the sheet.

The youth national team dominated the chances over the final 20 minutes with Joshua Perez hitting the post twice.

With seven minutes left, the U17s found the equalizer when Perez, Pulisic, and Kai Koreniuk linked up with some quick, crisp passing 20 yards from goal in the center of the field. Pulisic played the ball to Koreniuk who flicked the ball back to him on a give-and-go, which left Pulisic open in front of the net. The No. 10 buried the shot for the equalizer.

“I haven’t played with Kai [Koreniuk] much, but he is such a good player and he is good on the ball,” Pulisic told TopDrawerSoccer. “I just yelled for the ball and I passed it to him and he gave it right back to me in a great position to score. It was a good play.”

The U.S. pushed for the game-winner over the final few minutes and Koreniuk had the best chance when he turned his defender and had the angle to pull off a clean shot on goal. Koreniuk hammered the shot off the post and the teams ended all square at two-a-piece.

“I thought [the team’s performance] was really good,” Pulisic said. “Over the past year, we have really gone as a team. I think that showed today in how quickly we could move the ball against an older team.”

U.S. U17 Men’s National Starting XI: Kevin Silva; John Nelson, Tanner Dieterich, Alexis Velela, Logan Panchot; Eric Calvillo, Alejandro Zendejas, Christian Pulisic; Pierre Da Silva, Joe Gallardo, Josh Perez

Subs: Kai Koreniuk, Orrin McKenzie Gaines