U.S. U-17 WNT set to continue World Cup Qualifying prep
CHICAGO (Via U.S. Soccer) – The U.S. Under-17 Women’s National Team, under head coach B.J. Snow, will hold a training camp from Oct. 11-18 at the U.S. Soccer National Training Center in Carson, California. Snow has called up 24 players for the event and will add two more goalkeepers before it begins.
Fifteen of the players called for the camp were born in 1999, which is the age cut-off year for the 2016 U-17 Women’s World Cup. The other nine players were born in 2000. The camp will be held concurrently with an Under-16 Girls’ National Team camp and the teams will scrimmage once during the week.
The U.S. U-17s are still five months away from qualifying for the next Women’s World Cup. The 2016 CONCACAF Under-17 Women’s Championship will be held on the Caribbean island of Grenada next March. The tournament will send three teams to the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup to be played in Jordan in September of 2016.
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The Under-17 Women’s Championship will feature eight teams, three from the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), two from the Central American Football Union (UNCAF) and three from North America.
Canada, Mexico and the United States are automatically qualified from North America, while the qualifying processes in CFU and UNCAF will take place in the coming months. As the host country, Grenada is automatically qualified as one of the three representatives of CFU.
The eight teams will be drawn into two groups of four teams each and after the group stage, the winner and second-place team from each group will cross-over for the semifinals. The winner of each semifinal match qualifies directly to the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup while the two losing semifinalists will play a third-place match with the winner also advancing to the World Cup.
U-17 WNT Roster by Position:
GOALKEEPERS (2): Laurel Ivory (Sunrise; Surfside, Fla.), Katie Meyer (Eagles SC; Newbury Park, Calif.)
DEFENDERS (8): Kerry Abello (Team Chicago; Aurora, Ill.), Claire Constant (McLean; Alexandria, Ga.), Naomi Girma (Central Valley Crossfire; San Jose, Calif.), Shae Holmes (Real Colorado; Highlands Ranch, Colo.), Karlie Paschall (Tennessee SC; Brentwood, Tenn.), Karina Rodriguez (SoCal Blues; Torrance, Calif.), Olivia Wade (LaRoca FC; Kaysville, Utah), Sydney Zandi (Penn Fusion; West Chester, Pa.)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Croix Bethune (Concord Fire; Alpharetta, Ga.), Coriana Dyke (Colorado Rush; Littleton, Colo.), Emina Ekic (Javanon; Fairdale, Ky.), Nicolette Hernandez (Eclipse; Naperville, Ill.), Jaelin Howell (Real Colorado; Windsor, Colo.), Alexis Loera (Colorado Storm; Thornton, Colo.), Brianna Martinez (New Mexico Rush; Albuquerque, N.M.)
FORWARDS (7): Kayla Duran (FC Stars of Massachusetts; Woburn, Mass.), Rachel Jones (Tophat SC; Lawrenceville, Ga.), Civana Kuhlmann (Colorado Rush; Littleton, Colo.), Adrienne Richardson (Minnesota Thunder Academy; Oakdale, Minn.), Sophie Smith (Real Colorado; Windsor, Colo.), Francesca Tagliaferri (PDA; Colts Neck, N.J.), Jordan Taylor (Ohio Premier Eagles; Wadsworth, Ohio)
