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The last game of Group D of the Classification Stage of the 2017 CONCACAF Men's U-17 Championship technically has something in it for both teams, but realistically only the USA will truly benefit from this game.
Cuba can throw the group into a three-way tie with a win, but it needs to win by at least five goals to give itself the necessary goal-difference advantage to qualify for the U-17 World Cup as one of the top two teams in this Classification Stage group. Cuba has scored in every game it has played so far in this tournament, but it has only scored more than once in 90 minutes on one occasion, and its last outing brought a 7-1 loss to Honduras - the team the USA just beat 3-0.
So this is probably the end of the World Cup qualifying cycle for this Cuba U-17 cohort.
Since all the USA has to do is not lose by five goals to achieve World Cup qualification, it is likely the team will rest a few players against what looks like a much weaker opponent. But there is the slight chance of slipping up: the reason Cuba is in this round of the tournament is it beat a Canada side that was expected to handle the Cuban challenge a lot better than it did. A loss of any sort would cost the USA a place in the final of this Championship, and this team surely wants to win this year's CONCACAF U-17 title - so don't expect the Americans to take this game too lightly. They will want to just enough to secure their place in the final, without costing any individual player a shot at playing in the title match.
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