Photo by ISIphotos.com
By DARRELL LOVELL
Just over a month away of the CONCACAF qualifying for the 2013 U-20 World Cup, U.S. head coach Tab Ramos has tapped 20 players to participate in a week-long camp in Puebla, Mexico starting next week.
As the team moves closer to qualifying the roster seems to be taking shape. Of the group of 20, 16 are holdovers from December’s camp and the roster is headlined by nine players currently attached to professional clubs.
Notable names in the group include Club Tijuana midfielder Alejandro Guido, who debuted for the club in August in Copa MX action and young MLS attackers Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake) and Jose Villarreal (LA Galaxy).
Other notable names include recent Homegrown signing Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew), Generation adidas class of 2013 member Mikey Lopez (North Carolina) and Santos Laguna forward Daniel Cuevas.
The camp, that starts January 14th and ends the 22nd, will be highlighted by two closed door matches versus Panama, as Ramos looks to prepare his squad for the qualifying tournament that starts February 18th in Puebla and ends March 3rd.
Here is the full roster by position:
GOALKEEPERS (2): Jon Kempin (Sporting Kansas City; Overland Park, Kan.), Kendall McIntosh (Santa Clara; Santa Rosa, Calif.)
DEFENDERS (7): Mikey Ambrose (Maryland; Frisco, Texas), Eric Miller (Creighton; Woodbury, Minn.), Juan Pablo Ocegueda (Unattached; Riverside, Calif.), Boyd Okwuonu (North Carolina; Edmund, Okla.), Shane O’Neill (Colorado Rapids; Boulder, Colo.), Oscar Sorto (LA Galaxy; Los Angeles, Calif.), Javan Torre (UCLA; Santa Monica, Calif.)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake; Garden Grove, Calif.), Alejandro Guido (Club Tijuana; Chula Vista, Calif.), Mikey Lopez (North Carolina; Mission, Texas), Daniel Metzger (Maryland; Holmdel, N.J.), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew; Gahanna, Ohio)
FORWARDS (6): Brandon Allen (Georgetown; Old Bridge, N.J.), Daniel Cuevas (Santos Laguna; Sacramento, Calif.), Daniel Garcia (North Carolina; Dallas, Texas), Darius Madison (Virginia; Philadelphia, Pa.), Jonathan Top (FC Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas), Jose Villarreal (LA Galaxy; Inglewood, Calif.)
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What do you think of the roster? Any names left off you wanted to see?
Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
Hope Kempin gets into the games, that kid might be a starter in MLS come the 2014 season.
Texas stand up!
A lot of college players here…
Omar Salgado is injured right? Do you guys think hell recover in time to make the wc.I think he has one of the highest ceilings out of the players in this class.
They have enough to qualify, but this is an attempt to fill out the roster. I think last set of call-ups are closer to the roster than this one. Ramos has his work ahead of him though.
We don’t have to worry about Hispanics being underrepresented because “Hispanic/Latino” isn’t actually a race, and was a term invented by the U.S. Government in the 70’s. That’s a HUGE misconception in this country. It’s ignorant to think that a mestizo from Mexico,a white person from Uruguay,and black person from Cuba are all the same race because they speak Spanish.
Sorry for going OT like that, but I just wanted to say that.
It seems to be the only race defined by a language.
And that’s why Brasilians are not Latinos.
Yeah, they are. Haitians are Latinos too. The term come from being from a Latin American country who has a Lang from Latin. Ex. French, Spanish, Portuguese. Brazil does so they are Latino, but not Hispanic.
So Villareal is in but no Jack McBean?
Ive been impressed with mcbean in concachampions but plays little in league
Time for Luis Gill to grow into a leader
Does anybody know why there has been no mention of Cody Cropper getting a sniff with the first team at Southampton? Davis, Boruc and Gazzaniga have all had horror moments this season and have proven they are not top flight quality. Despite this, Cropper has not even been mentioned in Saint circles. Is he just not at that level yet? If that were the case one would assume he would secure a loan to gain experience?
i lived in Puebla for a year. why didn’t this happen then?!! bummer! 😉
Ives, where’s Marc Pelosi?
Never mind, thanks 2tone.
I doubt this team qualifies for the World Cup, hopefully more of the young pros will be at the WC if we make it.
Well considering this isn’t the actual qualifying team your remarks are void. The team has plenty of talent. Man US fans are way to depricating at times.
2tone. Obviously, also I wasn’t talking about he current called in considering it’s not the qualifying squad to which I was referring to. If history is an indication, we will struggle to qualify like last campaign since our best players do not get released by their clubs and we have to resort to essential B squad of college players and decent MLS players ( apart from Gil). I just don’t see it happening with the current college core he keeps inviting to camps.
Have you seen the draw? Not exactly challenging.
I just hope Ramos selects the right players by teh qualifying tournament. Heres to hoping Pelosi, Stanko, and Rodriguez are released from their respective teams in Europe for the Qualifying tournament.
Rodriguez who? Cropper should be on the final roster too
How can you forget John Anthony Brooks??
Well I didn’t list JAB because he is “not” going to be released. Hello he is Herthas starting LCB. It’s not going to happen.
Mario Rodriguez he is at Kaiserslautern.
Mario Rodriguez cant even get off the bench for Kaiserslautern II. Hes not better than whats at this camp
Well, we don’t have to worry about Hispanics being underrepresented in US soccer now, at least not in this team. Don’t get me wrong — these may be the best players and I could care less what race they are.
But please, somebody tell me we have stronger U-20s — black, white, Hispanic, Cherokee, whatever — than this group. There are some skilled players there, but not much pro experience.
Gil and Villareal have skill, yet Gil is still very young and is not a regular starter at RSL. Villareal has barely seen time outside of the Concacaf Champions Cup, although he has looked great there and in very limited MLS action.
With some of our best players (Packwood, Brooks, Cropper, Bijev, Kiesewetter, Stanko, McCargo) either injured or unlikely to be released from their clubs for Qualifiers; Ramos has to look at various options of who could potentially fill in and get us into the actual U-20 WC. I think we have the players to do it….but it could be scary.