U.S. U-17 WNT blanks Chile 1-0 to win Copa Provincia de Buenos Aires

Mar del Plata, ARGENTINA (Via U.S. Soccer) – The U.S. Under-17 Women’s National Team defeated Chile 1-0 in its third and final game at the Copa Provincia de Buenos Aires tournament, with midfielder Samantha Kroeger scoring the game’s lone goal in the 20^th minute.

The victory gave the USA the tournament title and a sweep of all three games after also defeating Argentina 9-0 and Uruguay 4-1.

“We’re very proud of the team for winning the tournament and scoring fourteen goals over the three games,” U.S. U-17 WNT head coach Mark Carr said. “We were able to accomplish many of our objectives during this trip and playing different teams in South America highlighted some growth areas for us moving forward. We have high standards in our program and we will continue to improve ahead of qualifying in April.”

Kroeger, who was seeing her first action of the tournament, was one of four players on the roster born in 2002. The goal was her second in the third U-17 cap.

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The winning score came when defender Kennedy Wesley took off on a long dribble into the Chile defensive half and then played a pass to midfielder Talia DellaPeruta on the left wing. She sent in a hard cross on the ground from outside the penalty area, sliding the ball across the goal for the hard-charging Kroeger to finish.

In March, the U-17 WNT will have a domestic camp in Florida that will feature two games against Japan.

The USA will then participate in the 2018 CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship being held in Nicaragua from April 19-29. The Americans seeded into Group B where they will face Costa Rica, Bermuda and Canada in the tournament that will qualify three teams to the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.

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U.S. Under-17 Women’s National Team Match Report

Match: United States U-17 WNT vs. Chile U-17 WNT
Date: February 18, 2018
Competition: Copa Provincia de Buenos Aires
Venue: Estadio José María Minella; Buenos Aires, Argentina
Weather: 72 degrees; clear, light wind

Scoring Summary:   1          2          F
USA                              1          0          1
CHI                               0          0          0

USA – Samantha Kroeger (Talia DellaPeruta)                      20^th minute

Lineups:
USA: 22-Julia Dohle; 4-Talia DellaPeruta, 23-Kennedy Wesley, 5-Tori Hansen; 2-Makenna Morris; 6-Astrid Wheeler, 10-Mia Fishel (capt.), 24-Croix Bethune; 16-Payton Linnehan (9-Jordan Canniff, 67), 18-Sunshine Fontes (8-Diana Ordonez, 46), Samantha Kroeger (7-Samantha Meza, 46)
Subs not used: 1-Angelina Anderson; 3-Kate Wiesner, 12-Cayla White, 13-Isabella D’Aquila, 15-Natalia Staude, 17-Maya Doms, 20-Sophia Jones
Head Coach: Mark Carr

CHI: 1-Tina Lyngcsh, 2-Emilia Pastrian, 3-Krishina Cabrera, 4-Sonya Keefe, 5-Valentina Diaz, 6-Elisa Duran (17-Martina Cordova, 70), 8-Antonia Alarcon, 9-Isadora Olave, 10-Michelle Olivares, 11-Elisa Perez, 18-Isabelle Kadzban
Subs not used: 7-Llanka Grof, 12-Antonia Canales, 13-Margarita Collinao, 14-Carolina Farias, 15-Yessenia Parra, 17-Martina Cordova, 22-Constanza Barrientos
Head Coach: Milenko Valenzuela

Stats Summary: USA / CHI
Shots: 20 / 1
Shots on Goal: 5 / 1
Saves: 4 / 1
Corner Kicks: 11 / 1
Fouls: 4 / 4
Offside: 3 / 0

Misconduct Summary:
None