Andrew Carleton dazzled the crowd with a goal and two assists in a stunning performance that propelled the U.S. to the quarterfinals of the FIFA U-17 World Cup for the first time since 2005.
Facing Paraguay in the first round of the knockout stages, Carleton was deployed in a more central attacking midfielder role after playing largely on the wing the past few matches. His impact from the middle was almost immediate, with a key contribution that didn’t even show up on the scoresheet. Just 18 minutes into the game, he hit a defense-splitting pass that set up a teammate to cross into Timothy Weah for a tap-in to make the score 1-0.