Every day before training, new U17 US Women’s National Team Head Coach Natalia Astrain runs a video session. They’re told to analyze, observe, and learn. Pick up on the details. Pass quicker. Hold a higher line. Find an open player.

It’s standard practice for more senior players, but for 16-year-olds serious tactical analysis is a newer concept.

But it’s one they’ve embraced.

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“You cannot imagine how quickly they applied it,” Astrain said. “It’s absolutely impressive.”

It’s that kind of learning curve, that kind of staunch focus that Astrain has seen from her squad ahead of the Concacaf Cup. And it could well carry the U17s through to the World Cup.

Astrain took charge of the group back in November, inheriting a squad whose international debuts were put on hold by the Covid-19 pandemic. For two years of crucial development, they had been cut out of the US soccer system, denied the opportunity to learn the ropes and style of play to represent the country.

Such a change has made things admittedly difficult for Astrain. She’s hosted three camps, and seen glimpses of what her squad could be capable of. But she hasn’t seen them take the pitch for a competitive match. That will change Saturday when the team opens group stage play against Grenada.

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“I think it's a great opportunity for this group of players that they will have their first experience [of international competition],” Astrain said.

The U17s are expected to win the group, and will likely comfortably get by Grenada, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. So, for Astrain, the focus is on development and getting her team to embrace the US model.

There’s a standard practice in soccer: to have youth teams imitate the play style of the first team, so that once it’s time, they can slot into the XI with a baseline of familiarity. It’s one that the USWNT subscribes to, and encourages at all age groups. For the next two weeks, then, the priority is getting that right.

“It's very beautiful because we are trying to create this identity, this culture, about what it means to belong to the national team,” Astrain said.

Finding the right group of players to do that hasn’t been easy. With no former internationals to lean on, Astrain has relied on clips and performances from club play — where talent level can vary massively from state-to-state. Her previous camps were large, with 28 players called up to the November 2021 one in Califonia.

In that short time, though, she’s seen some commonalities across her squad — a certain trait that all American players have.

“I always say that US players have special superpowers,” Astrain said. “That mental capacity to compete is special.”

That drive has been a baseline that Astrain can work with. Regardless of talent, the competitive nature of her team runs deep.

Here is a squad, then, that simply won’t give up. One that’s eager to learn, willing to study film, and looking for the opportunity to move up through the ranks — and, hopefully, into the first team.

And the next few weeks, with World Cup qualification on the line, might be the perfect chance to do so.