U.S. Under-17 women’s youth national team head coach Natalia Astrain has named 21 players who will represent the United States at the Under-17 Women’s World Cup in India from Oct. 11-30.

The USA kicks off Group A on Tuesday, Oct. 11 against host India (10:30 a.m. ET on FS2) in Bhubaneswar. The match will be played in a stadium that will likely be filled to capacity (19,000). The USA continues the group on Oct. 14 vs. Brazil (7 a.m. ET on FS2) and wraps up first round play against Morocco on Oct. 17 (10:30 a.m. ET on FS2). All of the matches of the tournament will be broadcast on either Fox Soccer Plus or FS2.

Astrain named the final roster after a successful three-game trip to Spain at the end of August in which the USA won and drew with Spain and then defeated Germany. Due to the global pandemic, this group of players didn’t return to international play until late April of this year at the Concacaf Women’s U-17 Championship in the Dominican Republic, a tournament in which the USA won all seven of its games to qualify for the World Cup and take the regional title.

Players born on or after Jan. 1, 2005, are age-eligible for this World Cup. Astrain chose 16 players born in 2005 and five born in 2006. Eleven players will be 17 years old at the start of the World Cup and 10 will be 16.

“I give a lot of credit to players for how much this group has grown in a short time,” Astrain said in a statement. “They are a very united team, not only in their dedication to playing our style of soccer on the field, but in supporting each other off the field. They are a team full of positive spirit and competitiveness, and the opportunity to represent the USA in a World Cup is one they are embracing with humbleness and tremendous excitement. We are really looking forward to seeing the positive impact this World Cup will have on their developmental journeys.”

Astrain named 15 players who were part of the USA’s Concacaf championship team (in part due to a few injuries late in the selection process) and six players who made late runs to earn a World Cup roster spot. This will be the first U-17 Women’s World Cup since 2018 after the 2020 tournament was cancelled due to the global pandemic and thus the first World Cup experience for every player on the roster.

The tournament will be a truly special experience for midfielder Mia Bhuta, whose father was born in Mumbai and grew up in Rajkot in the state of Gujarat in Western India. He came to the USA when he was 16. His daughter, the first player of Indian descent to represent the U.S. women’s national team in a World Cup, will get to do so in a country in which she still has many relatives.

 

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.