Chivas USA Academy: Ivan Gutierrez called up to Mexican national team for CONCACAF U-17 Championship

Another week, and another bit of recognition for someone in the Chivas USA Academy.

This time, CONCACAF released the complete tournament rosters for the upcoming U-17 Championship, which gets underway Friday and will be held in Honduras, and a Junior Goat, Ivan Gutierrez, has been named to Mexico's roster. The selection is the latest for Gutierrez, who has been part of El Tri's set-up for some time now, including a training camp last month.

Meantime, a former Chivas USA Academy player, Josh Perez, who is now officially "unattached" after returning to the U.S. from Italy, was named to the U.S. roster for the same tournament. Perez played in one of two tune-up friendlies this past weekend against Bermuda, and beat them comfortably. In the first game, which the Americans won 5-2, Perez scored the winning goal and added two assists, while the U.S. won the second game 4-0 (Perez's involvement was unclear).

In other CUSA Academy news, in our last update we told you about the exploits of Ulysses Llanez while with the USMNT U-14 team on their trip to Spain. The group wrapped up their stay with a final friendly, against Extremadura's U-15s, and lost that game 2-0. Llanez played the second half. Still, the U.S. went 2-1-0 on the trip and beat youth squads of La Liga sides Rayo Vallecano and, oh yeah, Real Madrid.

And if you were wondering about the Academy itself, we have some recaps for you as it was a clean sweep for the weekend. The U-16s beat FC Golden State on Saturday 2-0, with the goals scored by Orlando Lopez in the 20th minute and Matthew Huerta in the 36th minute. The U-18s also beat FC Golden State, by a 3-1 margin. The goals, which all came in the final 15 minutes, came courtesy of Jonathan Hernandez (75th minute) and a brace from Adrian Moreno (82nd and 90th minutes), with Golden State's tally coming from Gilberto Avalos in the 84th minute.

Finally, the U-14s also faced Golden State on Saturday, and beat them 4-2. Efrain Alvarez opened the scoring in the 2nd minute, but Golden State then scored two goals. Chivas came roaring back to regain the lead, as they scored in the 24th minute (Misael Becerra), 70th minute (Becerra again), and the 80th minute (Diran Bebekian).

The older two teams inched closer to the playoff spots with the result, so we may see postseason action among a Chivas USA team (or two) yet. But there's still work to do on that front.

All three teams will be in action against next Saturday. We'll be sure to have updates on all CUSA Academy happenings soon!

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