History
2002–2005
The women's U-17 program was started in 2002 and was initially focused on developing players for the U-19 team. The U-17s played their first matches in November 2002, including a 3–0 victory over Scotland. Through 2003, the U-17s went undefeated in international matches, defeating youth teams from Canada and Germany, and repeated that feat in 2004. In 2005, however, the U-17s suffered defeats in matches against the Canadian and Mexican youth teams.
In 2006, the U-17s competed against various youth teams from Argentina and Germany, including a loss to Argentina's senior team. [2]
2007–2008
In February 2007, FIFA began organizing for the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in New Zealand. [3] In preparation for the tournament, the U-17s posted a 9–1–0 record, defeating U-17 teams from Germany and Uruguay and U-19 teams from Denmark, England and Argentina. [2]
In 2008, the U-17s compiled a record of 19–3–2 and 11–2–1 in international matches, winning the CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship in Trinidad and Tobago on July 26, 2008, defeating Costa Rica 4–1. [4]
At the 2008 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the United States lost their opening match to Japan. They scraped through the opening rounds of play with a draw against France, and advanced through the tournament to the final, where they lost in overtime to North Korea. Taylor Vancil was named the best goalkeeper at the tournament. [5] Out of the 13 goals that the US had at the tournament, only three players actually scored them: Vicki DiMartino (5), Courtney Verloo (4), and Kristie Mewis (2). The other two goals were own goals by Paraguay and North Korea. [6]
2009–2010
The U-17s were favored to win the 2010 CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship held in Costa Rica, winning their group and scoring 32 goals. However, they suffered a stunning loss to Canada in the semifinals, on a penalty shootout. This loss prevented the United States from qualifying to the 2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the first time in history that a United States women's national soccer team has not advanced out of their region to a Women's World Cup.
2011–2012
In 2011, Albertin Montoya took over the U-17 squad, intent on developing a more possession style of play. The team started out the cycle slow against powerhouses Germany and Japan, going 1–1–2 in a set of friendlies, but eventually found their form and dominated the 2012 CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship, outscoring their opposition 26–0 on their way to winning the tournament and qualifying for the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. Summer Green set a record with 12 goals, the most by an American player during any CONCACAF qualifying tournament. [7]
However, the World Cup would not be kind to the Americans, as despite not losing a match, they would not make it out of their group. A series of draws between the US, eventual runners-up France, and North Korea meant that the two teams to advance would be decided by total goal differential against the fourth team in the group, Gambia. The US's 6–0 win turned out not to be enough when North Korea sat deep in their own half to protect a draw, knowing they had scored 11 goals on Gambia, and France, knowing it was on the brink of elimination, pressed the outmatched Gambians to score 6 times in the final 20 minutes to turn a 4–2 match in the 70th minute into a 10–2 rout.
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