GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala – Anywhere on the field, the teenager stars.
Perry Kitchen, the best central defender on the United States U-20 squad, played in the defensive midfield against Panama on Saturday night in his team's second match of the CONCACAF Championship. The D.C. United rookie wasn't perfect in the new role, but he showed well enough to lead the Americans to an easy victory over their only competition for the top spot in Group B.
Head coach Thomas Rongen conceived the change to protect starter Amobi Okugo from picking up a second yellow card that would have seen him suspended for the all-or-nothing quarterfinal, but the US manager was not worried that his captain would struggle when positioned up the field.
"We knew that Perry would do well for us," Rongen said after the 2-0 victory.
It's not exactly a new position for the former Akron star, but he has rarely trained there with the U-20 side. He spent the night supporting the defensive pairing of Gale Agbossoumonde and Sebastian Ibeagha, which kept a clean sheet but struggled to communicate at times.
"I thought I did all right," the United rookie told MLSsoccer.com. "I could have done better picking up second balls and stuff like that, but overall I'd say it was a decent game."
In the quarterfinal, Rongen will slide his captain back into a full defensive role, but the 19-year-old may see more time in the midfield in the future. If Agbossoumonde and Ibeagha can learn to play together – something that more experience together should bring – Kitchen may find himself in the midfield if the US take the field at the World Cup this summer.
If he does, Kitchen will have to learn to lead from a different position.
"It's definitely harder because I can't see as much, but it's the same thing: just make sure the guys in front of me are organized and make sure we don't get too stretched," he said. "And actually [Saturday], we did get too stretched so I need to do a better job of organizing there."
Against Panama, the Americans started off exceptionally well, working two wonderful goals in the opening 20 minutes. After the tallies, however, they seemed to forget their drive and let the opponents back into the match. Like a true skipper, Kitchen blamed himself for not rallying the troops.
"It was brutally hot first half, and we kind of lost our rhythm," he said. "As captain, I should have helped get us back into the swing of things, but sometimes that's how games go. You just have to stick things out. And hey, we kept the shutout and we won by two, so we can't complain."
Increasingly, it's hard to complain about anything the versatile Kitchen does.
Noah Davis covers the United States national team for MLSsoccer.com. Follow him on Twitter at @noahedavis.
