The U.S. Under-17 Women’s National Team battled to a 1-1 draw with England in its second of three matches at the La Manga Women’s Under-19 Ten Nations Tournament.

The U.S. team is playing up in age against teams that feature players one and two years older in this exhibition competition, where each country will play three matches. The USA defeated France 2-0 on March 4 in its first match.

Both goals came in the first half and the English tallied first when the aptly named Bethany England received the ball off a throw-in near the right sideline about 25 yards out. She dribbled just inside the 18-yard box and shot from the top right corner low to the far post to put her side ahead in the 29^th minute.

The Americans equalized just before halftime when Miranda Freeman played a ball out of the back to Gabby Miranda, who was on the left flank near midfield. Miranda played a pass down the left sideline to Summer Green, who ran onto the ball and crossed on the ground into the center of the penalty area. Morgan Andrews was making a dynamic run up the middle and finished from 10 yards out.

"I thought it was a very good performance by our team today,” said U.S. head coach Albertin Montoya. “We played a very organized and physical English team and I thought we actually played much better than we did against France, even though unfortunately we didn’t get the result today. We put them under a lot of pressure right from the start, which is something we wanted to do. We hit the post twice in the first half and we kept up the pressure in the second half, hitting the post again, and we definitely created a lot more opportunities than we did against France.”

The two teams took penalty kicks after the match as part of the developmental nature of the tournament, with the USA falling 4-3 after missing its first and fifth attempts.

The U.S. team will finish its competition on March 8 against the Netherlands.

“Overall, I thought we were solid defensively, except for the one goal we gave up,” said Montoya. “We showed a lot of heart and determination against a very strong English team. I am pleased with our performance and I think we're moving in the right direction. I think this game was better than our first game, so hopefully we can finish the tournament off with a strong win against the Dutch."

The U.S. team is currently preparing for CONCACAF Women’s World Cup Qualifying that will be held from May 2-12 in Guatemala City, Guatemala, as the Americans will try to earn a berth to the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbaijan.

-- U.S. Under-17 Women's National Team Match Report --

Match: United States U-17 Women’s National Team vs. England
Competition: La Manga Women’s Under-19 Ten Nations Tournament
Venue: La Manga Club (La Manga, Spain)

Scoring Summary:             1              2              F             
USA                                       1              0              1
ENG                                       1              0              1

ENG – Bethany England                                                    29^th minute
USA – Morgan Andrews (Summer Green)                     44

Lineups:
USA: 1-Jane Campbell; 19-Morgan Reid (2-Brittany Basinger, 58), 3-Maddie Bauer, 4-Miranda Freeman, 16-Gabbi Miranda; 9-Morgan Stanton (17-Maggie Purce, 63), 10-Morgan Andrews, 13-Sarah Robinson; 11-Summer Green (14-Lauren Kaskie, 79), 6-Andi Sullivan (12-Amber Munerlyn, 46), 15-Emily Bruder
Subs Not Used: 7-Elizabeth Raben, 18-Carissa Miller, 20-Toni Payne
Head Coach: Albertin Montoya