Assessing the offensive explosion, overall performance
Looking at the gaudy box scores, the U.S. Under 17 Men’s National Team put in an impressive three-game performance at this year’s Nike Friendlies. Outscoring three prominent teams by a combined 15-2 score is an accomplishment, particularly against Portugal, Turkey and Brazil.
A lot of that offense was generated by how well the front three of Ayo Akinola, Josh Sargent and Andrew Carleton played at times, scoring 12 of the team’s 15 goals. Their goal scoring efforts trended more towards tremendous individual efforts as opposed to brilliant interplay, using their athletic abilities to fashion chances against less gifted defenders.
