Somehow, some way, CONCACAF managed to pair Mexico and the U.S. in a U17 CONCACAF Championship group.
There’s some history at work here. Until this year, the U.S. and Mexico had never been paired together in a group in U17 World Cup qualifying, and they haven’t even played each other at this event since 1996 (Mexico won 3-1 in the final qualifying stage). CONCACAF employed a new seeding procedure this year, whereby Panama, Mexico and Costa Rica were all guaranteed different groups from one another; Panama by virtue of hosting, Mexico as the returning champions and Costa Rica, interestingly enough, due to its position as the best-ranked team at the 2015 U17 World Cup behind Mexico.
Costa Rica, it should be said, had a significantly easier group than the U.S. in 2015 and finished second among Russia, North Korea and South Africa. The U.S. finished at the bottom of a group featuring eventual champion Nigeria, host Chile and a Croatia team that beat Germany in the knockout phase.
In any case, the seeds being what they were, the U.S. was thrown into an essential CONCACAF lottery with the chance of getting Mexico in its group. And sure enough, the fates aligned.
Group C: El Salvador, Jamaica, Mexico, United States
This is not so apocalyptic as it may seem, although the U.S. has a pesky habit of drawing some tremendously difficult groups at the U17 and U20 international levels of late. In fact, since 2013 the U17 and U20 teams have either drawn the host or the eventual champion in every World Cup. One of those groups includes the 2013 French U20 team that fronted Paul Pogba. So that helps ease the sting at least a bit.
In any case, the U.S. has some direct experience with two of its three group opponents at this event, which kicks off later this month on April 21. Here’s how the U.S. fared in those three games.
