Villarreal stars in U17 WNT victory

The U.S. U17 Women’s National Team continued their dominant run at the 2022 Concacaf U17 Championship with a 13-0 win over Puerto Rico on Monday. USA improved to 2-0 at the event with a plus 33 goal differential. [player_tooltip player_id="26447" first="Amalia" last="Villarreal"] was the star of the day with five goals. Villarreal (Michigan Jaguars/Solar SC) is playing up an age group with this team. She was deployed as a center forward on Monday. The young talent typically plays as an attacking midfielder at the club level. The move to a role as a pseudo false nine was a stroke of genius from head coach Natalia Astrain, who is in her first international event as the U.S. youth national team head coach. Villarreal could drop into the midfield, but she also played with her back to the goal. The flexibility made her a tough mark for an overmatched Puerto Rico defense. And as any defender at the club level can attest, Villarreal with a glimmer of space is lethal. She proved that again on the international level on Monday. Villarreal’s skill on the ball and positioning opened up so much space in the midfield that [player_tooltip player_id="33426" first="Lauren" last="Martinho"] gleefully took advantage of that empty field with the opening goal. Martinho had a number of key passes as USA’s attack was churning along in the second game of the tournament. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">[player_tooltip player_id="26447" first="Amalia" last="Villarreal"]’s (<a href="https://x.com/44AmaliaV?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@44AmaliaV</a>) second goal from the first half against Puerto Rico is a thing of beauty. <a href="https://x.com/hashtag/USWNT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#USWNT</a> 🍝🍝 <a href="https://t.co/RqpZq46QHU">pic.x.com/RqpZq46QHU</a></p> — J.R. Eskilson (@JREskilson) <a href="https://x.com/JREskilson/status/1518692994970390528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> [player_tooltip player_id="21915" first="Riley" last="Jackson"] wore the captain’s armband and was also fantastic in the game. Puerto Rico rarely broke free of the pressure from USA as Jackson did well in her positioning and cut out all of the outlet passes. In the attack, Claire Hutton added three goals. [player_tooltip player_id="25073" first="Taylor" last="Suarez"] scored twice. Nicollette Kiorpes and Nicki Fraser also scored for USA. USA is back in action on Wednesday against Costa Rica to close out group play. <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>USA Starting XI vs Puerto Rico:</strong></span> [player_tooltip player_id="24616" first="Abby" last="Gundry"], Gisele Thompson, Alyssa Gonzalez, Nicki Fraser, Keegan Schmeiser; [player_tooltip player_id="21915" first="Riley" last="Jackson"], Claire Hutton, [player_tooltip player_id="33426" first="Lauren" last="Martinho"]; [player_tooltip player_id="24957" first="Mia" last="Oliaro"], [player_tooltip player_id="26447" first="Amalia" last="Villarreal"], [player_tooltip player_id="25073" first="Taylor" last="Suarez"]