U-20 World Cup Roster Update

The roster for the US U-20 World Cup team was announced this week.

GOALKEEPERS:
Brian Perk (UCLA)
Steve Sandbo (SMU)
Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake)

DEFENDERS:
Tony Beltran (UCLA)
Amaechi Igwe (New England Revolution)
Ofori Sarkodie (Indiana University)
Nathan Sturgis (Columbus Crew)
Julian Valentin (Wake Forest)
Tim Ward (Columbus Crew)

MIDFIELDERS:
Freddy Adu (Real Salt Lake)
Bryan Arguez (D.C. United)
Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen)
Dax McCarty (F.C. Dallas)
Danny Szetela (Columbus Crew)
Anthony Wallace (F.C. Dallas)

FORWARDS:
Andre Akpan (Harvard)
Josmer Altidore (N.Y. Red Bulls)
Gabriel Ferrari (Sampdoria)
Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)
Johann Smith (Bolton F.C.)
Sal Zizzo (UCLA)

It's nice to see so many professional players on the roster. Of the 21 players, seven are still in college while 11 play in MLS and 3 play for clubs in Europe. Heck, the depth is getting so good for the US at this level that Preston Zimmerman who is signed to Hamburg in Germany was left off the roster. Just a few years ago, he would have been a shoo-in for an U-20 team with that pedigree.

The other interesting thing is that five of the players (Perk, Adu, Altidore, Arguez and Wallace) are so young that they'll be eligible for the the next U-20 World Cup in 2009.

The US starts their group play games in Montreal on Sat, Jun 30th against South Korea. The following Tuesday, Jul 3rd, they'll be playing Poland in Montreal. Their final group round match will be against Brazil in Ottawa on Fri, Jul 6th.

I have my ticket for the South Korea match but the Poland match conflicts with the 4th of July parade in Montpelier...a can't miss event. I'm still up in the air whether I'm going to make the trek to Ottawa. I guess it depends on how the first two games go. Tickets are available via Admission.com.