Photo by Tony Quinn/ISIPhotos.com
Juan Agudelo, Omar Salgado, Perry Kitchen and Joe Gyau were among the players called in by U.S. Under-20 head coach Thomas Rongen for the team's training camp in January in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
The Under-20 team will be in camp from Jan. 2nd to Jan. 13th in Fort Lauderdale as Rongen looks to finalize his squad ahead of Under-20 World Cup qualifying.
Agudelo will be with the team until Jan. 6th, after which he will join the U.S. senior national team in Carson, California.
This U-20 camp will feature the debut of Bayern Munich midfielder Fabian Huerzeler, a German youth national team player who is considering making the change to play for the United States (though he has yet to formally apply for a national team affiliation switch).
Here is the full training camp roster:
U.S. Under-20 Training Camp Roster
GOALKEEPERS– Cody Cropper (Ipswich Town; Athens, Ga.), Zac MacMath (Maryland; St. Petersburg, Fla.), Brian Sylvestre (Vancouver Whitecaps FC; Hollywood, Fla.)
DEFENDERS– Gale Agbossoumonde (GD Estoril Praia; Syracuse, N.Y.), Greg Garza (GD Estoril Praia; Grapevine, Texas), Moises Hernandez (FC Dallas; Dallas, Texas), Sacir Hot (Boston College; Fair Lawn, N.J.), Sebastian Ibeagha (Duke; Missouri City, Texas), Perry Kitchen (Akron; Indianapaolis, Ind.), Zarek Valentin (Akron; Lancaster, Pa.), Korey Veeder (Out of Contract; St. Petersburg, Fla.), Ethan White (D.C. United; Kensington, Md.)
MIDFIELDERS– Joe Gyau (Hoffenheim; Silver Spring, Md.), Fabian Huerzeler (Bayern Munich; Munich, Germany), Sebastian Lletget (West Ham United; San Francisco, Calif.), Alex Molano (Dinamo Zagreb; Grapevine, Texas), Moises Orozco (Tigres; Oxnard, Calif.), Dillon Powers (Notre Dame; Plano, Texas), Kelyn Rowe (UCLA; Newport Beach, Calif.), Conor Shanosky (D.C. United; Sterling, Va.), Alex Zahavi (Maccabi Haifa; Los Angeles, Calif.)
FORWARDS– Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls; Barnegat, N.J.), Conor Doyle (Derby County; McKinney, Texas), Omar Salgado (unattached; El Paso, Texas), Bobby Wood (1860 Munich; Irvine, Calif.)
What do you think of the squad? Who are you excited to be called in? Anybody missing that surprises you?
Share your thoughts below.
Looks like there are 4 USDA teams in the Dallas area. Another 3 in Houston. 1 in San Antonio. Jeez.
I’d have to agree. Bob plays one style, a typical “American” style of counter attacking with last ditch tackles to save the game.
However, most of these kids in this pool and emerging on the men’s team come from places where they’re used to playing a more dynamic way. Passing, movement, building up attacks over a length of time.
You do get the sense that Bob isn’t ready for that and you don’t see any real American choices who can handle the European/new age college playing style. I say “new age” in that you see some colleges now playing a style closer to the European way of keeping possession.
There again, we haven’t had the talent to concern ourselves with that before. Someone like Torres or Holden (playing in the middle) could use a shift in playing style.
solid group. I wonder if any of the games will be shown on tv?
I hear what you are saying but sometimes hiring a foreigner does not work out. Just take the England and Capello example. I thought Klinsmann would be a good hire as long as he brought in someone who was very good at tactics, which I believe he would.
He has switched. He actually stated his intention to switch a couple of months ago while most people where still thinking it was a pipe dream.
(SBI-According to U.S. Soccer he has yet to formally switch.)
There are some strong youth programs in the DFW area and this is not a recent thing.
Not a knock on BB either (although I’m not really a fan of Coach Sweats), but I think we need to hire abroad ASAP. A different perspective on things may help, who knows.
Id like to preface this comment with saying, this is not a smack on Bob Bradley. Ok, but does anyone else feel that our development of talent on the field is outpacing our development of talent at coach/GM at the national level?? I don’t know that much about the levels below the senior squad, but it just seems that we are heavily investing in getting better talent in the lineup, but not really doing much with player mgmt. I guess we can always hire abroad if need be??
My bad I replied to the wrong quote, stupid computer went down too far.
Gatt has club commitments! His club starts Preseason on Jan 7th so it is quite possible they did not allow him to go.
when lletget has seen time w/ the hammers, what position is he playing? center mid/attacking mid?
What jumps out at me is what the heck is in the water in Grapevine, Texas (although maybe there’s a clue in the name)? To have two players from that I’ve-never-heard-of-it-before town, though. On the city website, it cites a median income of around $80K, which I assume must be fairly high by Texas standards? Is it an upper-middle class bedroom community for DFW that puts a lot into its soccer programs? Are these two kids related, or is this some soccer hotbed I’m too ignorant to have heard of (or both!)?
The USSOCCER writeup is more illuminating than my comment.
Oops
“with an eye to getting him to make the switch.”
Are we sure Huerzeler has actually switched affiliation? When Rongen first announced he’d be at the camp, it was with an eye too getting him to make the witch. It was also made clear he wouldn’t need to make the switch just to be in camp…only if he plays.
Rongen has been pretty high on Molano. id expect he and Zahavi both getting the start with Huerzeler coming in as a sub and starting a different match.
Wood did well for the U20s in the netherlands, he might find his way onto the starting XI, though Agudelo and Salgado have been pretty solid of late.
kind of surprised by Agudelo’s callup. He’s had a busy couple months with traveling, playing and training.
agudelo is keeping in the mix until Bob decides if he wants him with the Gold Cup squad. At the very least he’ll help the U20’s qualify.
Okugo deserves a rest. He’ll be with the U20 squad quals and the cup
Reulas is with Celtic. I would expect him to get an offer in Jan. He’s been receiving nothing but positive marks
McInerney is the victim to a very deep striker pool. Same goes for Saad. Perhaps same with Bowen. All have done well, but the pool is that deep (which is a good thing for us, tough on Rongen)
Gil is young enough to fill in next U20 pool. Same goes for Salgado, who might find himself on the outside looking in come Quals and WC for this cycle. ALTHOUGH he’s been absolutely stellar in the recent camps. He might make it through to be honest, and Rongen typically likes to bring up 1-2 players capable of playing the next cycle to have experienced players ready.
There are some players on this roster who are getting a final look, or perhaps a warmup before quals. But just b/c they are picked for quals does not mean they’ll make the WC roster
from what ive read by some german posters is he was being left behind with Germany’s U20’s
I have seen more of Gil than Gatt, but Gatt’s current form has been fantastic…that has to count for something.
+1
–Juan Agudelo—-Omar Salgado–
—-Joe Gyau/Sebastian Lletget–
Alex Zahavi———Fabian Huerzeler
———–Moises Orozco?——-
who ever—————-who ever
—–Gale boss–Sebastian Ibeagha
Great team?
How many people who chime in on these boards about players have seen them for an extended period of time? I find it hard to believe that people have seen enough of a Luis Gil or a Josh Gatt to make any kind of recommendation that they should be on the roster.
Can’t wait to see Fabian Huerzeler.
it really is amazing to see how many of these kids are playing professionally, let alone overseas compared to the same age pool 10, 5, heck even 3 years ago. massive youth movement for the next crop of US internationals.
Or there are three #10 players already on the team who are older…Lletget, Molano, Orozco.
Absolutely. In 2014 we may have more than just a couple of top-flight outfield players.
Chasing birds — i see what you did there!
Looks like 4(5) from MLS, (7)8 from NCAA. More played for MLS-associated youth teams, but how many more I don’t know. Pretty good mix.
Soony Saad?
Parker Walsh?
or okugo
I am disappointed that Gil isn’t getting a look. I realize he is still young but had hoped him going pro would speed up his development. Guess not playing for most of the year hurt him.
Any more information about Fabian Huerzeler? Why’d he switch? Any good?
An update on Ruelas would be great.
Let me quote Ives here: WOW. This team is loaded. But no Jack Mac or Luis Gil? I CANNOT wait to see what Fabian Huerzeler does. The kid is a thoroughbred.
Also Amobi Okugo is missing, he deserves the rest though, been a busy offseason for him.
Or Bowen?! Hmm
Ruelas still with Celtic and Gatt is with his team on pre-season training. I still think Gatt is behind some people but Adrian Ruelas is our starting CF for sure.
No Ruelas, Gatt, or Mcinerney! the first two could have club commitments… and mcinerney sounds like a snub… this is THE most talented pool of u20s ive ever seen.
No Gatt?
Two names I expected to see were Ruelas and Gatt. I wonder if club commitments played a role here.
Renken is playing again at Hoffenheim. Not really sure at what level, but he is back to playing. Young guys like Renken and Gil are for next cycle.
Very glad to see most of the kids in professional setups and not chasing birds on college campuses…
MacInerney?
Maybe because the U20 World Cup is next year?
This appears to be every “Blue Chip” U-20 player we’ve got except for Maybe Juan (with the USMNT) and maybe Josh Gatt (Had a hand in all 5 goal in last match against Canada). This is a very Deep and Talented group of players.
Double ACL knee surgery I believe?
What’s the point in Agudelo being in this camp?
So this is the definite A-team? Anyone noticeable missing?
any body know what happened to Charles Renken?