The US Under-20 national team officially kicked off its newest cycle on Friday, with head coach Tab Ramos naming a 23-man roster that will compete at next month’s Stevan Vilotic-Cele Tournament in Serbia.
Sixteen of the 23 players called by Ramos are affiliated with MLS clubs, with eight players signed to MLS contracts, one player contracted to an MLS club’s USL side and seven more in MLS academies. The group will begin training on Aug. 30 in Serbia, beginning the tournament on Sept. 3 against the host nation before playing France on Sept. 4. The US will conclude the tournament with a placement match on Sept. 7.
The tournament marks the first camp of the new U-20 cycle following the US’s quarterfinal showing at the FIFA U-20 World Cup earlier this summer.
“We’re giving a bunch of players an opportunity here to make an impression in the beginning, and I’m excited to be starting a new cycle that will hopefully end in the World Cup in South Korea in 2017,” Ramos said in a statement. “We’re taking 23 players in this camp, and the main reason for that is that we have back-to-back games. We play Serbia on Sept. 3 and we play France on Sept. 4, so those will be two completely different lineups and everybody will be able to get on the field and show themselves and show themselves against excellent competition.”
Real Salt Lake lead the way among MLS clubs with two players on the roster in Justen Glad and Sebastian Saucedo. Six other MLS clubs have one full professional on the squad, with Sporting Kansas City’s Erik Palmer-Brown, Chicago Fire’s Collin Fernandez, Columbus Crew SC’s Ben Swanson, FC Dallas’ Coy Craft, Houston Dynamo’s Christian Lucatero and Seattle Sounders' Victor Mansaray all on the team.
Real Monarchs goalkeeper Christian Herrera, a RSL academy product, is the lone USL player on the roster.
FULL US UNDER-20 ROSTER
GOALKEEPERS (2): Christian Herrera (Real Monarchs; Las Cruces, N.M.), Justin Vom Steeg (Santa Barbara; Santa Barbara, Calif.)
DEFENDERS (8): Kyle Duncan (New York Red Bulls Academy; Brooklyn, N.Y.), Justen Glad (Real Salt Lake; Tucson, Ariz.), Nicholas Hinds, Andrew Lombard (Northeastern; New York Red Bulls Academy; Montclair, N.J.), Christian Onalfo (LA Galaxy Academy; Redondo Beach, Calif.), Erik Palmer-Brown (Sporting Kansas City; Lee’s Summit, Mo.), Pablo Pelaez, Mauricio Pineda (Chicago Fire Academy; Bolingbrook, Ill.),
MIDFIELDERS (8): Amir Bashti (Stanford; San Jose Earthquakes Academy; Cupertino, Calif.), Collin Fernandez (Chicago Fire, Downers Grove, Ill.), Cam Lindley (Chicago Fire Academy; Carmel, Ind.), Abuchi Obinwa (Hannover 96; Orlando, Fla.), Emmanuel Sabbi (Chicago Magic PSG; Libertyville, Ill.), Martin Salas (North Carolina; FC Dallas Academy; Dallas, Texas), Kyle Scott (Chelsea; Winterbourne, Bristol), Ben Swanson (Columbus Crew SC; Grove City, Ohio)
FORWARDS (5): Coy Craft (FC Dallas; Frisco, Texas), Christian Lucatero (Houston Dynamo; Pasadena, Texas), Victor Mansaray (Seattle Sounders; Des Moines, Wash.), Nebojsa Popovic (Saint Louis University; Loznica, Serbia), Sebastian Saucedo (Real Salt Lake; Casa Grande, Ariz.)
