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Watch this sick goal by Under-17 U.S. national team star Josh Sargent against Mexico

Josh Sargent
Josh Sargent has three goals in two games at the CONCACAF U-17 Championship. (U.S. Soccer)

The Under-17 United States men’s national team is currently playing in the CONCACAF U-17 Championship in Panama. And on Wednesday, it beat Mexico for the first time ever in World Cup qualifying, which this tournament doubles as. The 4-3 win also ended Mexico’s 25-game undefeated run in this tournament.

But what really caught the eye was one of Josh Sargent’s two goals – giving him three in two games for the tournament.

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Watch the 16-year-old captain turn a Mexican defender inside-out by flipping a ball over him and gently heading it into his own path, run away from him and then nutmeg the goalkeeper for the goal.

That’s a special goal, at any age. And it’s only building atop the excitement that already existed about Sargent among American soccer’s admittedly small band of youth soccer cognoscenti.

Sargent still plays his club soccer for a youth team in his native St. Louis, but he has already trained with Bundesliga side Schalke 04, which also has the American teenaged prodigy Haji Wright under contract.

Which, naturally, brings us to the subject of hype and its historically destructive effect on promising American teenagers not named Christian Pulisic. A knee-jerk reaction would be to try not to place any such burden on a young player – and have at it in the comments section – but then handling pressure is every bit as much a part of surviving as a prospect as what you do on the field.

At any rate, Sargent displayed in a single flash a technique and finesse that’s uncommon in young American players (again, not named Christian Pulisic). Plainly, there’s talent there. To make the most of it, he surely will need just as much composure.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.