The road to Turkey runs through Mexico, and on Friday, Tab Ramos called in 20 players for a weeklong training camp in Puebla ahead of the CONCACAF U-20 Championship next month.
Seven MLS players are among Ramos’ squad, including Real Salt Lake midfielder Luis Gil. The other half-dozen are all Homegrown players: LA’s Jose Villarreal and Oscar Soto, FC Dallas’ Jonathan Top, Sporting KC’s Jon Kempin, Colorado’s Shane O’Neill and Columbus’ Wil Trapp.
Ten members of the squad are on college teams, while the other three are based in Mexico: Tijuana’s Alejandro Guido, Santos Laguna’s Daniel Cuevas and out-of-contract Juan Pablo Oceugueda, who most recently played for Tigres UANL.
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During the camp, which runs from Jan. 14-22, the US squad will face their Panamanian counterparts twice in closed-door scrimmages.
The CONCACAF tournament begins on Feb. 18 in Puebla and runs through March 3. The US were drawn into Group A, which also includes Costa Rica and Haiti. The four semifinalists of the 12-team tourney qualify for this summer’s FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey, which kicks off in June.
FULL US U-20 ROSTER
GOALKEEPERS (2): Jon Kempin (Sporting Kansas City; Overland Park, Kan.), Kendall McIntosh (Santa Clara; Santa Rosa, Calif.)
DEFENDERS (7): Mikey Ambrose (Maryland; Frisco, Texas), Eric Miller (Creighton; Woodbury, Minn.), Juan Pablo Ocegueda (Unattached; Riverside, Calif.), Boyd Okwuonu (North Carolina; Edmund, Okla.), Shane O’Neill (Colorado Rapids; Boulder, Colo.), Oscar Sorto (LA Galaxy; Los Angeles), Javan Torre (UCLA; Santa Monica, Calif.)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake; Garden Grove, Calif.), Alejandro Guido (Club Tijuana; Chula Vista, Calif.), Mikey Lopez (North Carolina; Mission, Texas), Daniel Metzger (Maryland; Holmdel, N.J.), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew; Gahanna, Ohio)
FORWARDS (6): Brandon Allen (Georgetown; Old Bridge, N.J.), Daniel Cuevas (Santos Laguna; Sacramento, Calif.), Daniel Garcia (North Carolina; Dallas), Darius Madison (Virginia; Philadelphia, Pa.), Jonathan Top (FC Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas) Jose Villarreal (LA Galaxy; Inglewood, Calif.)
