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It's still a few months before the US U-17 Men's National Team is called on to play fully competitive matches. The 2017 CONCACAF U-17 Championship is - as its name suggests - next year: it starts on April 21. If the young Yanks get through that tournament (which is expected, not least because they have spent much of the past three months handily beating regional opponents), then they will progress to October's 2017 U-17 World Cup.
Competitive play might be a long way off, but there is competition for places in the squads for those tournaments, and some of that is settled by performances in the friendlies that will be played along the way. The Nike International Friendlies carry additional weight because they are recognized as an important scouting opportunity for U-17 talent.
For fans of the New York Red Bulls, that scouting opportunity might be regarded with mixed feelings. One of the most recent success stories to emerge from the Nike Friendlies was Matt Olosunde, who put in a well-regarded performance at the tournament and went on to be scooped up by Manchester United. The US club that was powerless to stop him from moving out of its youth system was RBNY.
The current US U-17 squad contains another top prospect who left RBNY's Academy for one of the world's biggest clubs: Timothy Weah is currently attached to Paris Saint-Germain.
Also in the squad is current RBNY Academy prospect Chris Gloster, who has been a regular starter for the U-17 MNT for some time now. No one is currently talking about Gloster as another Olosunde or Weah, but the Nike Friendlies is the kind of tournament where that sort of talk starts.
The US squad includes a few players already committed to pro contracts with MLS teams - Chris Durkin (D.C. United), Andrew Carleton (Atlanta United), and Bryan Reynolds Jr. (FC Dallas) - but Gloster is not among them. Yet.
Per ussoccer.com, here's where to watch the U-17 MNT's opening game of the tournament: