The U.S. U-17 men’s national team is set to play Argentina on Feb. 4, after a week of training in Buenos Aires at the Boca Juniors training facilities. The Argentina U-17s, who will begin qualifying for the 1999 U-17 World Championship in March, are coached by Jose Nestor Peckerman. While under his tenure Argentina were bronze medal winners at the 1995 FIFA U-17 Championship, and quarterfinalists at Egypt ’97, where they fell to Brazil 2-0, allowing their only goals of the tournament. In addition, Peckerman’s U-20 team was world champions at Malaysia ’97. “We decided to play Argentina because we felt that their individual skill and speed of play would most resemble Costa Rica’s style of play, our first opponent in the 1999 CONCACAF qualifying tournament”, said U.S. U-17 coach John Ellinger. “Argentina will be a good test to see where our team is going into qualification”. With the help of U.S. Soccer, Ellinger has conducted one of the most extensive training programs for his team in preparation for CONCACAF qualifying and the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship. Over the past year the U- 17s have had over six domestic training camps, traveled over 140 days, played in eight different countries (France, Italy, Jamaica, England, Belgium, Austria, New Zealand and Argentina), won two international tournaments (K.C. Mechelen Tournament in Belgium; Christchurch Cup in New Zealand), logged over 40,000 miles and entered a 10-month full-time residency program on Jan. 17, 1999. The U-17s are led by the offensive tandem of Jordon Cila (Jericho, N.Y.) and Landon Donovan (Redlands, Calif.), who combined to score 28 goals in 1998. After the Argentina match, the U.S. will return to Florida before leaving Feb. 21 for Montego Bay, Jamaica for CONCACAF qualifying for the 1999 World U-17 Championship in New Zealand. The U.S. is playing in Group A, and will meet Costa Rica on Feb. 24, Honduras Feb. 26 and finally host Jamaica on Feb. 28. The group winner advances to New Zealand ’99.