At 1 a.m. on Monday, the day of the U-17 U.S. men’s national team’s first qualifier for the U-17 World Cup in November, 16-year-old forward Chase Adams woke up. He was dealing with a stomach bug that kept him up until 7 a.m. – 13 hours before kickoff in Alajuela, Costa Rica against the U.S. Virgin Islands.
By the end of the day, Monday, Adams scored 10 goals in a 22-0 win, beginning their qualifying campaign on a historic note.
“Obviously, it didn’t have that much of an effect on us if I was able to score 10 and we were able to score 22,” Adams told CBS Sports the day after the U-17 USMNT’s lopsided victory.
There were a lot of goals to speak of. The USMNT opened the scoring just two minutes in courtesy of Chance Cowell, building the foundation for a completely dominant performance. They were up 14-0 by halftime, boasted 78% of possession by the final whistle and outshot the U.S. Virgin Islands 53-0 when all was said and done. It was the largest margin of victory in a World Cup qualifying game by any U.S. national team, outdoing the 20-0 win the U-17 women’s national team notched in 2022, and eight total players were on the scoresheet.
Adams said the group knew they were the heavy favorites to win the game, but they were not exactly targeting a record-breaking win.
“The biggest messaging was, honestly, maintaining our standard all throughout the game, no matter the score,” Adams said. “I don’t think 22-0 was on our bingo [board], but I think it was probably – we knew we were going to have a good little goal amount, so making sure that once we even got to a higher amount, maintaining the standard, maintaining our level and having the discipline to keep scoring and keep to how we want to play and not letting them dictate how we want to play.”
The quick start offered a clue about how the game would go. The USMNT were up 3-0 by the eighth minute, when Adams scored the first of his 10 goals.
“I think pretty much after the second or third goal, we kind of sensed that this was kind of going to be our game to control, this is going to be our game to dictate,” he said. “We kind of sensed that it was going to be us that decide what the score’s going to be, and especially, I think after my third goal, I could tell I was going to have a really good day.”
Adams completed his hattrick in the 13th minute and had six by the time the halftime whistle blew, setting a new record for goals scored by an individual for the U-17 USMNT in a World Cup qualifying match. The previous record was four, with four players hitting that mark – Cruz Medina in 2023 against Barbados, Gio Reyna in 2019 against Guadeloupe, Joe Gallardo in 2015 against Cuba and Josh Perez in 2015 against Guatemala.
Though the USMNT’s goalscoring pace slowed somewhat in the second half, putting eight past the U.S. Virgin Islands. Adams himself added four more to his account, inspiring memories of the senior USWNT’s lopsided 13-0 win over Thailand at the start of the 2019 Women’s World Cup winning campaign. Like the World Cup winners, it did not occur to Adams and his teammates to slow their roll, even if the mission was technically accomplished.
“The biggest thing for us was, honestly, even though we had so many goals, it was to not slow down and it’s because of the standard that we want,” Adams said. “We could easily have just stopped. Honestly, it would be a little bit disrespectful to not even play, to just play around and tease with them but it’s best if we just continue playing how we want, continue playing to our standard and to the capabilities that we have and that’s what we did. Obviously in the second half, maybe we didn’t have as many goals but we knew, and the halftime speech was about maintaining the standards, maintaining the level, maintaining our capabilities.”
In the process, the Columbus Crew 2 player, who scored 10 goals in all of 2024 with the MLS Next Pro team, outdid one of his idols. Erling Haaland first made a name for himself in 2020 at the age of 18, scoring nine goals in Norway’s 12-0 win over Honduras at the U-20 World Cup. Adams insisted that all of his 10 goals inspired the same amount of joy, but he did single out a few of them.
“I do not have a favorite from those,” he admitted. “Honestly, they all have a uniqueness to them. That’s kind of what makes them so good to me, is how unique. They all kind of show my different abilities and capabilities of scoring, so I don’t think I have a favorite. Maybe the header because I don’t do a lot of those, or maybe a weak foot goal but I think the header would probably be my favorite if I had to choose.”
Thanks to their 22-0 win on Monday, the U-17 USMNT are currently top of Group F in the Concacaf U-17 men’s qualifiers. The top team from each group will qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, which will take place in November in Qatar and will be the first version of the competition that will feature 48 teams. The USMNT return to play on Wednesday, when they face St. Kitts and Nevis.
Adams’ big introduction
The 10 goal showing is an unconventional introduction for Adams to the soccer world, though he said Monday’s performance offered glimpses of the professional player he hopes to become.
The 16-year-old models his game after Haaland, ex-England international Wayne Rooney and 2023 MLS MVP Cucho Hernandez, who recently left the Columbus Crew on a big money move to La Liga’s Real Betis, because of the versatility in their game. Adams himself showcased his range on Monday, notching the assist on Cowell’s game-opening goal.
“I don’t want to just be a scorer. I want to be able to create my teammates and base my game off Cucho, who had a lot of goals and assists and I want to be that type of player where maybe if I’m not having a great day of scoring like I did yesterday, I still have the three or four assists I could have and I’m still contributing to the game in multiple ways,” he said. “[They] have a little bit of the physical and get emotional and get very into the game.”
Don’t expect the short-haired forward to adopt his idols’ hairstyles, even if they sported notably distinct looks.
“I don’t think I’m going to go with the skinhead look that he had,” he said about Rooney’s look during his playing days. “I don’t think that would suit me.”
The same is true for Haaland’s signature long blonde locks, which were surprisingly top of mind.
“My hair’s currently really long and I have been wanting to get a haircut for a while, so that’s probably why,” Adams said. “My hair goes way too straight when I go long. It goes straight out, it’s cornrows, it’s nothing good.”
