PHOENIX, Arizona, - After watching the Turks celebrate with song and dance; their country’s flag waving high and celebratory water showers raining down, it was the U.S. team that had to feel a little like a turkey.  

Sunday’s 2-0 loss to Turkey relegated the U.S. U17 Men’s National Team to a third-place finish at the round-robin Nike International Friendlies after entering the night needing a win to claim the competition.

Instead they had to stand around while the Turk squad posed for pictures and soaked up the moment. It kind of put a damper on what was an otherwise good showing for the Americans who defeated South Korea Republic on Wednesday and tied Brazil on Friday.

Sunday’s match was much more exception than rule as they played somewhat passively and hardly caused their opponent a scare.

“Today we didn’t do one of the most important things, and that’s finish,” said U17 coach Wilmer Cabrera. “We’re not taking advantage (of opportunities). We’re rushing in the last 20 yards and that’s where you have to be most calm and put together combinations.”

Playing without Alejandro Guido, after he was hurt early against Brazil, the U.S. showed some attacking life via midfielders Nicholas Melo and Marc Pelosi – both of whom played well.

Melo is extremely dangerous in taking defenders on, and made some good things happen. Pelosi, too, has great maneuverability and a strong right leg, though he didn’t get a ton of opportunities to show what he could do.

As every other team has thus far, Turkey honed in on gifted striker Mario Rodriguez and refused to play nice with him.

Rodriguez was bodied up regularly. Turkey’s Taha Can Velioglu was ejected in the second half when he took Rodriguez down from behind. Even with the man advantage, the Americans were unable to capitalize, similar to their fate Friday when they failed to score with a two-man advantage against Brazil.

Rodriguez himself picked up a yellow card in the first half after getting into a physical battle with defender Aykut Guler.

“I think he was a little frustrated,” Melo said. “They were on him. He’s not used to getting bodied like that. He’s usually the one putting a body on other teams.”

If only the U.S. defense could’ve produced the same kind of impediment.

Turkey went up 1-0 in the 17th minute where a corner kick and shot attempt were followed by Ahmet Yilmaz Calik who put a scoring header past goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh.

In the second half, U.S. defender Kellyn Acosta, who had kind of a tough game, botched a pass that led to a Turkey counter attack.

Striker Enver Cenk Sahin went into a dead sprint – an impressive sight – with only Nathan Smith tracking back to obstruct. McIntosh came off the line but Sahin slipped the ball past him for the clincher.

“We fell asleep in the back,” Melo said. “They were very fast and good with the ball.”

Cabrera conceded that he felt Turkey was the better team with better players at this point, and the Turks were certainly that, as the only group that won two of its three matches – Brazil finished second with two ties and a win, and Korea Republic last with three defeats.

But the U.S. U17s have a lot to be proud of as well, even though little of it was on display Sunday.   

U.S. U17 Men’s National Team Lineup
GK: Kendall McIntosh
D: Andrew Souders, Kellyn Acosta, Nathan Smith, Mobi Fehr
M: Tarik Salkicic, Matt Dunn, Marc Pelosi, Dillon Serna, Nicholas Melo
F: Mario Rodriguez
Subs: Fernando Pina, Esteban Rodriguez, Alejandro Guido, Joseph Amon,Paul Arriola, Alessandro Mion, Luis Martir, Andrew Oliver, Daniel Flores

Turkey National Team Lineup
GK: Sercan Sen
D: Selahattin Ozcan, Aykut Guler, TahaCan Velioglu, Ahmet Yilmaz Calik
M: Kadir Ari, Okay Yokuslu, Recep Niyaz, Mehmet Erkut Senturk
F: Ibrahim Yllmaz, Enver Cenk Sahin
Subs: Yusuf Mersin, Hakan Calhanoglu, Beykan Simsek, Burak Yilmaz, Illkay Durmus, Burak Kardes, Okan Deniz, Tugay Kacar, Berk Imail Unsal