Chelsea Academy duo lead England U17 to victory

For followers of the Chelsea youth teams it should come as no surprise that 16-year-old Dominic Solanke and 17-year-old Izzy Brown were involved in creating and scoring a goal. Both of them have been impressing all season at U18 and U21 levels, respectively.

Brown, with his great presence, lovely skills, and even lovelier hair, is the more familiar of the two by virtue of being on Chelsea TV more often. Chelsea's in-house TV station has gone to great lengths to cover the U21 and U19 sides, but has basically ignored the U18 team outside of the FA Youth Cup all season. It's a great shame, too, for Solanke has 18 goals in 22 appearances total for Adi Viveash.

This was England U17's first match in the elite round of qualifying for this summer's Euro U17 Championship. Playing hosts Czech Republic, England dominated the second half en route to a 1-0 victory. Solanke scored the only goal - an easy tap-in - after Brown's shot rebounded off the far post. Brown created the goal for himself by nicking the ball off the Czech defender. A poached goal created by pressuring the defender? Total future football!

I tried to find a video clip of just the goal, but the best I could do was a video of the entire match. Hurray for no time limits on YouTube nowadays! You're more than welcome to watch the whole thing of course, but clicking on this link should take you directly to the goal, which occurred in the 53rd minute, or about 1:52 into the video.

As always, we should remember that while it's impressive that these boys are dominating their current level of competition, they have a long way to go yet before being anywhere near ready to make an impact at first team level. Still - and this is a refrain we often repeat - the Chelsea Academy looks well stocked for a bright future.