New York Red Bulls striker Juan Agudelo and West Ham midfielder Sebastian Lletget are among the players called up for the U.S. Under-20 national team's upcoming participation in the Torneo de las Americas later this month.
The U.S. team will face Colombia on Nov. 26th and Mexico on Nov. 28th at Kennessaw State University in Georgia.
The squad also includes highly-regarded defender Gale Agbossoumonde and Los Angeles Galaxy forward Tristan Bowen.
Here is the full squad:
GOALKEEPERS (2): Cody Cropper (Ipswich Town; Athens, Ga.), Eduardo Fernandez (Real Salt Lake AZ; Casa Grande, Ariz.)
DEFENDERS (7): Gale Agbossoumonde (G.D. Estoril Praia; Syracuse, N.Y.), Bryan De La Fuente (Chivas USA; Bell, Calif.), Greg Garza (G.D. Estoril Praia, Grapevine, Texas), Korey Veeder (Crystal Palace Baltimore; St. Petersburg, Fla.), Parker Walsh (Karlsrucher SC; Roanoke, Va.), TBD, TBD
MIDFIELDERS (7): Sebastian Lletget (West Ham United; San Francisco, Calif.), Alex Molano (NK Dinamo Zagreb; Grapevine, Texas), Amobi Okugo (Philadelphia Union; Sacramento, Calif.), Moises Orozco (Tigres; Oxnard, Calif.), Conor Shanosky (D.C. United, Sterling, Va.), Alex Zahavi (Maccabi Haifa F.C.; Lisbon, Portugal), Cesar Zamora (Chivas USA; Sylmar, Calif.)
FORWARDS (4): Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls; Barnegat, N.Y.), Tristan Bowen (Los Angeles Galaxy; Van Nuys, Calif.), Fuad Ibrahim (Toronto FC; Richfield, Minn.), Omar Salgado (Unattached; El Paso, Texas)
What do you think of the squad? Who are you excited to see be a part of the group?
Share your thoughts below.
I don’t think McInerney is good enough for this pool. Agudelo is much better, Ibrahim and Bowen are a little bit better, and Salgado has more potential for the WC. This is one stacked forward pool. This isn’t even counting Doyle, who seems to getting some minutes for the Championship still, or Adrian Ruelas, who did quite well in the Milk Cup. Can all these guys develop to help out the MNT? We need it.
No Vacation, no injury. Snub
Barnegat, NJ. Gotta be a typo
Is Agudelo from Barnegat NY (is there one) or Barnegat NJ?
FTW
I meant leads all forwards from mls.
I think Jack Mac leads all the forwards and is tied with Ibrahim from mls with 3 goals from only 350 minutes played. He was pretty much a goal scorer with the u-17 in almost every tournament. Scored in the only tournament he played with the u-20’s. Was not able to play with the u-20 because unlike Agudelo, his club needed his services. I hope its an injury or a vacation for jack otherwise this is a pretty big snub, especially to a kid from Georgia.
Can’t wait to see the TBD twins in action!
/ready to coronate the next great U20 player
seconded … it’s time to move on from Rongen
Im tired of being slagging Thomas Rongen. Guy might have made mistakes in the past but his 2009 squad was very weak, and he has scouted to globe and found many players, most professional, to play for the US this cycle: Adrian Ruelas, Omar Salgado, Alex Molano, Alex Zahavi, Moises Orozco, Victor Garza, Parker Walsh, John Anthony Brooks, are just a few of the players he has found and brought into the US camps for this cycle. Most of these guys werent on the USYNT radar. If the US U20 flames out of this tournament then maybe his position should be questioned but he has worked hard this cycle and unearthed alot of talent.
I believe the rule is that if you’re eligible for more than one federation at the time you play for a youth team, then you do not lose eligibility…unless you’re 21.
I doubt he has done that switch just yet because he doesn’t need to do it to go to this camp. He only needs to make it to participate in official competitions so he can still pick between Portugal, Israel, or the US. That said it looks like he will play for the USA
+1
I’m not convinced this individual actually exists. I want to see some proof before I believe that there is actually a person named Alex Zahavi that plays soccer.
He’s at Hoffenheim with Gyau.
Sebastian Lletget scored the winner against Chelsea U-18s recently. Good to see him back after he was out for a while with medical issues (mono and some blood disease).
He played at the Milk Cup, and did pretty well when I watched. In the finals against Northern Ireland, he started and showed good vision. He also took the set pieces which were hit or miss. Not much info, but that’s all I’ve got. Some other sites did full write ups of the milk cup games along with player raters.
I’m pretty sure he’s too old…he’s a ’90.
Mix Diskerud? I guess we’re not going back to that well…
So federation switches can be done only once per player, even if done at the youth level right? Which would mean Zahavi is now tied to the US for good.
The most alarming aspect of this is the continued presence of the idiot Rongen.
Every cycle, it’s easy to fall into the trap that this is our most talented youth crop ever.
Let’s be honest: even in the best of U-20 crops, if two or three guys move on to help the senior team, that is a huge sucess.
where are these vids? Never heard of him
Hey Ives- do you not allow the mention of other soccer blogs on your site? I noticed my colleague’s post from early mentioning one has disappeared.
Does anyone have more info on Alex Molano? I was excited when Dinamo Zagreb signed him to their academy last year but haven’t heard anything since.
What happened to Renken? any info on that???
theatlantabeat.com
Endline seats start at $14, and if you’re into that sort of thing, our AO Chapter will be buying together for the Mexico game.
The best U20’s ever, this is truly our most talented group in a while, cant wait to see them play, Im particularly interested in Salgado.
also Gyau, Renken, Gil, William Packwood, Soony Saad, Carlos Martinez….
First time Lletget, Orozco, Bowen, Agudelo, Molano, Zahavi, Salgado have all been in at a camp at the same time. Add Bobby Wood, Adrian Ruelas, Conor Doyle, Jack Mac and we have some serious fire power at this level! not to mention possible future intl’s Mwanga and Najar would be eligible for this WC if they were citizens already!!!
Powers from ND seems like a gimme. Other options are Valentin and Kitchen at Akron.
Two college guys are supposed to be called up as well I wonder who they will be.
I just looked up some highlights, the kid looks legit.
I think Hoffenheim and Gyau thought it would best for him to stay. Gyau will definitely get a look eventually though.
Who knew that Grapevine, Texas, is a hotbed for young talent? Two kids called up from the small city of Grapevine. Congratulations.
Renken blew both of his knees out. Career is probably finished
Most good college players will be in the NCAA tournament and attending classes. I know the classes part might not be as important to schools, but its fine to keep them on their teams for now.
Good question.
Where is Jack Mack?
Nice that Zahavi is there, along with Lletget.
Gyau? Renken?
I believe their season will have just ended or very close to it. Rongen is probably giving them a rest.
I’m pretty excited about this group of talent. At the very least, they should be interesting to watch. This is without some of the great college talent too. It’s disappointing that both the pros and college talent don’t really get to play together all that often.
happy to see Okugo on there. I really hope the Union use him more next year, he played pretty well.
haha
I want to go to these games! Where can I get tickets?
Where’s McInerney?
So nice to see Lleget and a great bonus to see Zahavi considering both could potential represent different nations.
theres a lot of promising attacking talent in there, as well as midfield. i’m excited to follow the progression of agudelo and bowen, and lletget is an interesting figure as well, as supposedly his technical ability is second to none amongst other players his age in the west ham development academy. agbossoumonde is exciting too. hopefully a few of these guys go on to be USMNT stars in the future
Zahavi, Agudelo, Bowen and Lletget? Ballin’!
No college kids?
the myth of Alex Abraham Zahavi