COLUMBUS - U.S. Under-23 Men's National Team head coach Peter Nowak has called 22 players into training camp at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., including three from the Crew, in preparation for a two-match tour in China where the U.S. will face the Chinese U-23 national team. It will be the first gathering of the U-23 MNT since Nowak took the reigns in August and among his selections are Crew midfielders Eddie Gaven and Robbie Rogers and defender Tim Ward.
It is also the first major camp in preparation for the final round action of the 2008 CONCACAF Men's Under-23 Championship to be held from March 11-23, 2008, in Los Angeles, Tampa and Nashville. That eight-team tournament will send the two finalists to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The team will gather on Saturday (Dec. 1) in Carson and train for a week before departing for China on Dec. 8. The U-23s will play two matches against the Chinese U-23s, first on Dec. 13 at the Changsha He Long Sports Centre in Changsha, then three days later at the Yue Xiu Shan Stadium in Guangzhou.
Of the 22-man roster assembling in Carson, 20 are playing professionally in the United States and abroad. Charlie Davies (Hammarby) and Sal Zizzo (Hannover 96), are the representatives from Europe, each having earned their first caps with the full team earlier this year. All told, seven players on the squad made their debut at the senior international level in 2007, while Gaven, still just 21, made his senior debut back in 2004, at the age of 17, and was a member of the U.S.'s Copa America squad last summer. He scored five goals and added seven assists in 27 games for the Crew this season, which was already his fifth in the professional ranks.
The heavily-MLS laden roster features the 2007 Rookie of the Year Maurice Edu as well as two winners from the MLS Cup-winning Houston Dynamo, midfielder Stuart Holden and defender Patrick Ianni. New England Revolution striker Adam Cristman represents the runners-up, having posted four goals and four assists in his rookie season for the Revs.
Nine players are graduates of the U-17 Residency Program in Bradenton, Fla., and 14 of 22 players have represented the United States in a world youth championship event.
Seven players, including Rogers and Ward, were part of the USA's quarterfinal run in the 2007 U-20 World Cup in Canada this past summer. Four of them - Rogers, Jozy Altidore, Nathan Sturgis and Zizzo - started all five matches for the United States, while goalkeeper Chris Seitz turned in one of the stellar performances for the U-20s in Canada. Additionally, both Ward and Sturgis were part of the 2005 FIFA Youth World Championship squad coached by current Crew head coach Sigi Schmid, which opened with a stunning 1-0 victory over eventual champions Argentina and then shut out Germany (0-0) and Egypt (1-0) to win Group D before eventually falling to Italy, 3-1, in the Round of 16 to finish in 11th place.
Ward, 20, who is coming off of his third professional season - one with New York and two with the Crew - has appeared in 30 career MLS games. He is currently in Spain with a team of MLS Generation adidas players. Rogers, 20, tallied three goals and one assist in his first MLS campaign, after spending six months with Heerenveen of the Dutch First Division.
