At 1 a.m. on Monday, the day of the U-17 U.S. men’s national team’s first qualifier for the U-17 World Cup in November, 16-year-old forward Chase Adams woke up. He was dealing with a stomach bug that kept him up until 7 a.m. – 13 hours before kickoff in Alajuela, Costa Rica against the U.S. Virgin Islands.
By the end of the day, Monday, Adams scored 10 goals in a 22-0 win, beginning their qualifying campaign on a historic note.
“Obviously, it didn’t have that much of an effect on us if I was able to score 10 and we were able to score 22,” Adams told CBS Sports the day after the U-17 USMNT’s lopsided victory.
There were a lot of goals to speak of. The USMNT opened the scoring just two minutes in courtesy of Chance Cowell, building the foundation for a completely dominant performance. They were up 14-0 by halftime, boasted 78% of possession by the final whistle and outshot the U.S. Virgin Islands 53-0 when all was said and done. It was the largest margin of victory in a World Cup qualifying game by any U.S. national team, outdoing the 20-0 win the U-17 women’s national team notched in 2022, and eight total players were on the scoresheet.
Adams said the group knew they were the heavy favorites to…
