CARSON, CALIF - U16 play began Sunday as the USSF Development Academy conducted the 2nd day of its national finals at Home Depot Center. With cardboard cutouts of Freddy Adu and Landon Donovan looking on amidst all the US Soccer tents, players from 8 teams began the quest to become the inaugural age group champions in this competition. Eight additional teams began U18 play Saturday.

Action kicked off as Los Angeles FC, the winners of the Southern California region, took on Albertson Soccer Club, the winners of the Northeastern Region from Long Island. The first half was a battle in the trenches with both teams attacking very well early on.

Andrew Jean-Baptiste, an Albertson midfielder, strongly controlled the middle for the majority of the half as Albertson continued to make runs. Gerson Giron, a lightning fast Albertson winger/forward, played brilliantly; hustling to every 50-50 ball and setting up forward AJ Laza for some great chances inside the box early on.

LAFC did not sit back and relax though, as they continued to counter-attack and charge their half of the field. Quick and agile LAFC forward Andrew Peebles displayed breathtaking speed and ball handling skills as he weaved through Albertson defenders for some great looks to the goal just outside the box. Albertson kept hustling as they entered into the last 10 minutes of the half which quickly paid off as midfielder Nuno Rodrigues set up Zach Kupfer for a beautiful goal in the box at the 32nd minute.

LAFC continued to fight and after a foul by Albertson defender Steve Suntzenich just outside the box, LAFC evened up the score in the 37th minute with a perfectly placed direct kick about an inch under the crossbar in the center of the goal by Antonio Benitez to make it 1-1. Before anyone had time to blink, the LAFC fans were cheering once again as Peebles put the ball in the back of the net in the 39th minute. Albertson failed to get back on defense after a failed corner kick, and LAFC capitalized as Peebles made the run and with a perfectly struck pass from Benitez, Peebles put the ball past Albertson goalie Billy Wasserman and helped LAFC take a 2-1 lead going into halftime.
    
The beginning of the 2nd half was all Albertson. Albertson midfielders Rodrigues and Kupfer came back with a vengeance. The duo dominated the first 20 minutes of the half with constant attacking down the middle of the attacking third, giving each other and their teammates good opportunities to score. Kupfer scored with a one touch shot off a Rodrigues cross in the 51st minute and Rodrigues followed his second assist of the game with a goal of his own off a penalty kick in the 56th   to put Albertson up 3-2.

Even after taking the one goal advantage, Albertson kept putting pressure on the LAFC defense, and although LA attempted to do the same, defenders Fardad Sabzevari and  Steve Suntzenich kept the Albertson defense locked down. As the clock began to wind down on this first of U-16 matches for the week, LAFC began to get desperate for an equalizing goal. Finally, in the first minute of injury time, defender Brian Green headed in a beautifully curving cross into the box into the goal and evened the score at 3-3.

With just three minutes left in the game, both teams continued to fight for that last goal to get the ‘W'. It wasn't until the last minute of injury time, which LAFC rallied and scored off another winding cross into the center of the box and a deflection into the goal. LAFC took the lead at 4-3 and with close to no time left, LAFC closed the math at that score, securing their first win of the week.

LA head coach Teddy Chronopoulous was philosophical after the game.

"The boys fought hard, played to the last whistle, and plain out got lucky," he said "Right now the guys just need to rest. They started cramping and we just need to give them time to recover. We don't have much time to prepare so right now the kids just need to recover … The kids get all the credit for this one; it's been a very long season and they've done great. US Soccer has done an amazing job with these tournaments and this week and season are great platforms for these kids to reach a high level of soccer play"

Carmel United Soccer Club, the winners of the Great Lakes Region from the Indianapolis area, faced off against Schulz Academy, the winners of the Southeast Region from Boca Raton, Florida. Taylor Anthony scored for Carmel in just the 2nd minute of the match and with Austin Oldham's goal in the 40th and closing minute of the half, Carmel took a 2-0 lead. Jabari Garibaldi scored in the second minute of the 2nd half for Schulz to bring the lead down to one, but the game ended at that same score of 2-1 in Carmel's favor.

The next game was between Chicago Magic, who came in from the Mid America Region and Raleigh, NC club CASL, who were the Atlantic Region champs. CASL came out firing, taking an early 1-0 lead in the 9th minute with a goal from Matthew Wescoe but Chicago managed to tie the game at 1-1 in the 52nd minute from an equalizing second half goal by Christopher Meingast . Both teams kept fighting hard for the remainder of the half, but neither was able to close the game as it ended as just the second draw of the week, at 1-1.

The day's events finished with the evening game between Real Colorado and PDA from Zarephath, New Jersey. Things calmed down with the last game of the day as Robert Barrera scored the only goal of the match in the 53rd minute to give PDA the 1-0 victory.

The groups of 4 will play 2 more group matches (Tuesday and Thursday) followed by Saturday's championship match and classification matches for the others in the table.