United States Under-20 National Team head coach Thomas Rongen announced his roster for the Busan International U-20 Four Nations Tournament from Aug. 29-Sept. 2 in Busan, South Korea. Included in the 18-man squad is a pair of FC Dallas players as midfielder Dax McCarty and defender Blake Wagner have once again each once again been called in by Rongen.
This is the fourth time this year that both McCarty and Wagner have been included in the U-20 squad. In April, the pair played three games in Argentina and last month they each participated in the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland, with McCarty captaining the side to a second place finish. In early July, both players were called up by Rongen for a 10-day training camp in Canada. Wagner participated in this camp, playing a pair of games against Canada's U-20's, but McCarty was forced to withdraw from it because of a groin injury.
The U.S. roster is a unique mix of 10 professional and seven high school players because Rongen was unable to call in the majority of players in college as the college soccer season is just beginning. UCLA freshman goalkeeper Brian Perk is the only college player that is included on the roster.
For four players - Brandon Bumpas, Erik Hort, William Koss and Miguel Gonzalez - this will be their first-ever call-up to the U.S. Under-20 MNT.
The U.S. will travel to Busan on Friday, Aug. 25 and have two days of training before kicking off the four-team tournament on Tuesday, Aug. 29 against South Korea. The U.S. will then face Slovakia on Thursday, Aug. 31 before finishing round-robin play on Saturday, Sept. 2 against Argentina. All six games of the tournament will be played at Busan Asiad Main Stadium, a 2002 World Cup venue.
Of the 10 professional players only Preston Zimmeman and Erik Hort are playing in clubs overseas. Zimmerman, a former U-17 standout, signed with Hamburg SV earlier this year and has been seeing time as a forward with the reserves. Hort, a native of Montabello, N.Y., who been with Sparta Prague since January of 2005 and has been playing as an outside back with the reserves.
Two teams provided half of the eight players coming from Major League Soccer. FC Dallas provided midfielder Dax McCarty and defender Blake Wagner for the tournament while the New York Red Bulls released two forwards in Josmer Altidore and David Arvizu.
The other MLS players are Nikolas Besagno (Real Salt Lake), Carlos Borja (Chivas USA), Miguel Gonzalez (New England Revolution) and Tim Ward (Columbus Crew), who will be involved in his first camp with the U-20s since being dropped from the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship roster due to injury.
The seven high school players named to the squad are Bryan Arguez, Corben Bone, Cameron Brown, Brandon Bumpas, Kyle Davies, Sonny Guadarrama, and William Koss.
