The USA Under-17 players departed Jamaica on Monday satisfied that most, if not all, objectives coming here were met in their two-match international friendly series against their Jamaican peers.

In those two games, the Americans won 3-0 in the first on Wednesday and 4-0 on Sunday, but suffered a 0-1 defeat to an Arnett Gardens Under-20 outfit in a sidebar fixture.

“I think our objectives were met. It was good to come here to see what the fields are like, to be immersed in the culture for a week and playing two internationals, plus a game against Arnett Gardens… this whole process was by design,” admits USA coach, John Hackworth after Sunday’s final game.

“These fixtures were extremely important to us and the players took great joy in playing these games and were excited about the trip and the opportunity to come here and to play a good opponent,” he added.

As he steps up preparation for the CONCACAF Under-17 Championship next year, the American noted that the three matches played in Jamaica formed a crucial plank in the overall developmental programme.

The match against Arnett Gardens, Hackworth explained, was physically “challenging” for his players, but said key lessons were subtracted from the exercise nonetheless.

“My job is to develop players, so I want to make sure all 22 players have the experience of playing, as you won’t develop as a player unless you play. That experience (playing Arnett), while tough, was invaluable for them as it was challenging even the guys who didn’t play would have learnt something,” he said.

Looking back on Sunday’s game against the Young Reggae Boyz, where the USA’s George Acosta missed a penalty, Hackworth cited improvement over the opening contest.

“I thought we played some good moments in the first half and we finished with some good moments in the second half. We never felt we played a complete game on Wednesday and we stressed that all of the time,” he said.

“We knew we had to come and establish a rhythm and we knew we had to move the ball around quickly and we had to get an early goal, and we did that. But unfortunately, the second one took a little longer to come and we dealt with what they threw at us,” Hackworth shared.

Scoring on Sunday were Acosta (sixth minute), Andrew Carleton (46th, 53rd) and Bryan Reynolds Jnr (87th).

Though Jamaica were clearly second-best over the two encounters to their better-prepared opponents, Hackworth believes the Young Boyz could be a better unit by the time the CONCACAF qualifying tournament comes around April 21-May 7, next year.

“We are not taking anything for granted as this was a friendly series and we wanted to come here and play good soccer, but we know in five months’ time before Panama it may be a completely different team for Jamaica and maybe a totally different team for us,” he noted.

The Americans’ next assignment will be the Nike International Friendlies, where they will face top-shelf opponents in Brazil, Portugal and Turkey before going into the Christmas break.

— Sean Williams