Photo by USA TODAY Sports
By DAN KARELL
The U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team will have to defeat the likes of Jamaica, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago for them to earn a chance to play at the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
The road to New Zealand for the U.S. U-20s was revealed on Thursday evening, as the USA were drawn into Group A of the 2015 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship. Joining Tab Ramos’ squad in Group A were hosts Jamaica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, and Guatemala.
“It was a difficult draw for many of the teams, including Group A because we will be one of the teams that has to travel from Kingston to Montego Bay during the tournament,” Ramos said in a statement. “I think getting drawn with Jamaica and Panama in particular, those will be some difficult opponents. At the end of the day, if you want to advance to the World Cup, you need to beat good teams, so we’re looking forward to the tournament.”
The U.S. will open up the tournament, which will be hosted in Kingston and Montego Bay in Jamaica from Jan.9-24, with a match against Guatemala on Jan. 9. The USA follow that up with matches against Panama (Jan. 11), Aruba (Jan. 14), Jamaica (Jan. 18), and finishing with the Soca Warriors of Trinidad and Tobago on Jan. 21.
Four nations can qualify for the U-20 World Cup through the CONCACAF Championships.
Following all five group stage matches, the top two teams qualify automatically for the U-20 World Cup and will meet each other in the tournament final. Under the new tournament format, the second and third place teams will be re-seeded and the highest-seeded team will play the fourth-seeded team, along with the second-seeded squad taking on the third-seeded squad.
The winners of those two matches will also qualify for the U-20 World Cup.
To prepare for the grueling qualifying tournament, the U-20s will take a ten-day trip to Marbella, Spain, with matches scheduled against Russia U-20s on Nov. 12, the Republic of Ireland U-21s on Nov. 15, and Canada U-20s on Nov. 18.
“As we get into Spain, that will be a great opportunity to see some of our European-based players, so I’m excited about finally getting that camp in Europe,” Ramos said. “Come December, when we are putting things together, I believe we will have a group that will help us qualify for the World Cup. It is a deep group, so we will definitely have some difficult decisions to make.”
In early September, Ramos said that he and his coaching staff were preparing to focus on only calling in players that they knew would be available for the January tournament. Ramos was hopeful that U-20 regular Russell Canouse of Hoffenheim would be made available, but the U-20 head coach was less assured over the availability of FC Utrecht’s Rubio Rubin or Sunderland’s Lynden Gooch.
The roster for the Spain trip will be released in the coming days.
The U.S. finished in second place in the 2013 CONCACAF U-20 Championship held in Puebla, Mexico, falling to El Tri, 3-1, in extra time.
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