2026 CONCACAF U17 Qualifiers, Feb. 2026: All Teams & Tournament Thread [R]

I half watched on tape. St. Vincent wasn't much competition and they completely gave up towards the end. Goal 7 was two guys unmarked in front of goal on a set piece.

Thought Spivey popped the most, but I think that was less play than just fluidity. Not that he played poorly but I don't think the competition level allowed for a lot of differentiation. Forfor was similar.

Medina with the first half hat trick kind of encapsulates youth strikers -- they just clean up on weak opposition. At least one goal was a nice finish but at senior level, you aren't left alone in front of goal very often.

I'm not sure what to think of Jakupovic. Some nice things but not nearly as polished as I expected.

 

These games are just like exhibitions now. the pizazz is gone with the every year and play no one hard setup. No matter how good they look against minnows we don't learn much. probably more competition in random Euro tournaments.

 

That was a difficult watch.

You feel sorry for the opponents in games like this. Those kids want to do well and make an impression. They're not equipped to do so.

I turned the game off after goal 7. The one with our attackers were completely unmarked in front of goal.

Somehow CONCACAF and FIFA have conspired to make me uninterested in events at this level.

If people want to know why I'm not in favor of taking our top band of prospects to these events any more, watch a replay of this game. What would have been the point of taking Cavan Sullivan, Mathis Albert, etc. to that? What would they gain?

 

Waiting for the DR game. That's the only one that provides reasonable competition.

 

Close to worthless games. Qualify, don’t have anyone get injured, and get players provisionally cap-tied. Those are the aims.

 

At some point a bunch of MLS teams will prefer to have their young players at MLS/MLSNP preseason training than play these games. There's almost nothing to be gained from this from a development perspective.

All the USSF can say is: "If you want to go to the World Cup in the Fall, you need to be with the team for the qualifiers."

 

I don't even think they have that ability because at the actual WC we'd get killed and embarrassed without our best. It's just a bad situation.

 

That's one of the things that turned me off of the Women's Team. Their fans. Gloating after doing that against that amateur Thai(???) team. Not realizing how much more support the US women have historically had than other teams. We all realize the teams the men / boys beat like that are at a disadvantage and feel sorry instead of gloating.

 

But with the event now being held every year, and with an expanded field, the whole thing has lost all of the luster it had. And that was only a little to begin with.

As @SUDano implied earlier in the thread, 20 years ago we took these U17 events VERY seriously on the board. Hell, we took U17 friendly tournaments with Bradenton squads very seriously.

That's all gone. Its all gone. And if we on this board don't care a lot for these U17 events, then who does????? How many people were actually watching that match on Fox last night?

 

The U17 World Cup has never really been a spectator driven event. It's a youth tournament intended to help develop players and to drive countries that lag in player development investment to do so.

I think we'll still have people watching the U17 World Cup on this board. There will be less, because as the senior team gets better, people care less about about prospects. Most top fanbases don't watch their youth teams like the US fans do -- part of that is a lack of college recruiting culture, but part of that is simply that England fans know that most of these guys won't ever make the senior team.

Whereas we were desperate for a savior.

But this event ... CONCACAF has turned it into something boring for a good team in the name of expediency. I personally think it wouldn't be that hard to have a little semis and finals or whatever to cap off the tournament, but apparently not.

We don't even have our best U17s here because of it. So of course, people are not really interested in an easy massacre.

 

For a long while I thought this board was way too focused on U17 and it seemed to stem from the 1999 fourth place where we identified a lot of key guys very early.

 

I know your pain. It's getting tougher and tougher to consolidate fans in one place to be able to watch and talk about obscure aspects of soccer.
That's why I miss the old days.
The days of bringing our best team to Concacaf for qualifying are over, The growth of development. Missing probably 10-12 top domestic players and not tapping any foreign born US talent and we bring a pretty formidable team. Myles Gardner in the 2nd half really impressed me. Malik J. Does have good upside but I really judge top players as those who make really good decisions on how and when to pass, and he simply was playing too much hero ball having multiple open players in front of goal but holding the ball too long or just making terrible decisions.
Spivey is a stud and Espy reminds me alot of Josh Wynder and I'm a big fan of his. Too bad he went to Portugal, they just won't play Americans.
Go to Netherlands or France please.

 

They already are. Two years in a row Red Bulls wouldn’t release important players to this.

 

US up 4-0 on St Kitts at halftime with a hat trick from Jakupovic and another from Garcia. DR actually did blow out St Vincent 10-0 today so US needs 3 more to match their goal differential, 4 to beat it (not sure what the tiebreakers are).

Realistically The US should have little issue beating DR, but getting 4 more 2nd half goals to force DR to play for a win is a semi tangible goal to strive for in a game like this where it's hard to learn much.

 

Really 5-0 right now with again a comically bad officiating call. Gardner was not offside on what should have been our 3rd. Garcia crosses running toward baseline with a defender who runs off the field but linesman didn't see it, so on the shot by Malik looks like Gardner only has GK but no one knows simple football rules? Even US didn't say much.
Espy is smoother and a better player than Mbaye who has a better physical profile at this point. Espy just knows what skill to use and how to move through space. Walker and Pehar are the weakest links. Not to this level but it is a B level roster though. Garcia, Gardner, Malk J may be 1st team players on this roster. Thought Gardner would be a tall gangly uncoordinated but boy I was wrong. Great touches, movement, decisions. Similar to Weah at this age but think he's got better ball skills at same age.

 

A pretty cynical foul by The St. KItts goalkeeper where he pulls down Dimarelli on what would have been a tap in. You could have argued for a red, but only yellow is shown. Dimarelli converts the penalty he drew.

Chadwick just made it 6 as I typed this

 

The feed showed the wrong replay on the 6th goal, finally showed the right one a couple minutes later, and while they were doing that we missed Dimarelli scoring The 7th.

US has matched DR's goal differential, need one more to beat it

 

And there's the magic 8th. US sends in a cross to the back post that The St Kitts player just kinda sticks his arm up to deflect it for a penalty. In his defense if he doesn't do it, that ball is falling right at the feet of Forfor just a few feet from goal, but still a really silly one to give up.

Jakupovic converts it, for number 4 and right as I type this Jakupovic decides to score his 5th to make it 9-0

 

Forfor makes it 10, with a pretty nice little strike from a tough angle that bounces off the far post and in.

 

That's a wrap at 10-0. US will qualify for The World Cup if they draw Dominican Republic.

DR has improved incredibly at the youth level in recent years, so they should at least provide a modicum of a game, but ya know this "tournament" is what it is, just get it done and start focusing on Qatar

 

So what scoreline do you see for USA vs DR?

1 - 0? 2 - 0?

 

Seems like the type of game where you play well you can win by 4+, if you play meh you win 2-0 and if you play poorly you're gonna pulling your teeth out, but I'm not gonna pretend to be an expert on their U17 Program. They did play Panama pretty tough last year (losing on an 87th minute goal in the World Cup deciding game) and they blew out the St Kitts and St Vincent too

 

Because St. Kitts had already substituted at keeper, and didn't have a third stringer on the roster apparently, I'm pretty sure the ref gave a yellow and then pretended the foul was in the box (which is wasn't) just to avoid DOGSO and forcing St. Kitts to play with an outfield player in goal.

It didn't cost us, thankfully. But definitely felt like a mercy call.

 

Jamaica versus Canada is the one that could be interesting...................................(as we thought it might be when the draw was announced).