By now, you may have heard the 17 year old kid named Juan Agudelo who became the youngest scorer in USMNT history. Below is his impressive goal that certainly had an element of luck behind the strike.
Impressed? You should be. But let’s not look into this too much. South Africa is not exactly the most quality opponent. He looked to bring an energy amongst essentially a US “JV” squad as soon as he stepped on the pitch in the second half as a substitute and he certainly accomplished that. The US is notorious for over-hyping young talent across all sports and soccer is no different. Tell me where you can find Freddy Adu (without looking it up on Wikipedia) and I’ll give you a high five. Show me a time when Jozy Altidore plays in a relevant game AND scores a goal as a starter. Luckily for us, the hype will die down a bit for Agudelo. There is a long break until the next USMNT friendly and the MLS season (for him) is over. There was hardly a season for Agudelo anyway, getting only 2 appearances for the New York Red Bulls and playing only 14 minutes in total. Yes, he’s 17. Yes, he’s a forward, something which the USMNT is desperately seeking from any and all directions. I fully expect the kid to get more chances with his squads, both international and club. Let me know in a year how he’s doing and we’ll talk. For now, everybody calm down. Because we may have already seen Agudelo’s happiest day in his career (crossing my fingers this is not true).
Written By Chris Behrens, writer for SoccerProse.com
