A Christian Pulisic brace and a goal from FC Dallas Homegrown forward Alejandro Zendejas (pictured above) highlighted the US Under-17 national team’s 3-1 victory Friday over England in the teams’ opener of the 2014 International Friendlies tournament at the Premier Sports Campus in Lakewood Ranch, Fla.
Zendejas opened the scoring in the 11th minute, volleying home a cross from Josh Perez. The unattached Pulisic, the MVP of last year’s tournament, then added on with a 40th-minute penalty kick after an England handball in the box. He scored his second goal in the 48th minute – finishing off the build-up play from Luca de la Torre and Perez – for his 16th national-team tally of the year.
England’s goal came in the first minute of stoppage time when Sunderland product Daniel Wright finished a pass from Leicester City's Layton N’Dukwu.
The 20-player U-17 roster features five MLS Academy players, including Zendejas, New York Red Bulls' Tyler Adams and Matthew Olosunde, LA Galaxy's Hugo Arellano and Real Salt Lake's Tanner Dieterich, along with 16 players from last year’s championship team.
The US next face Australia on Sunday and then Brazil on Tuesday in the six-game tournament in preparation for the 2015 CONCACAF U-17 Championship from Feb. 27-March 14 in Honduras.
