Tab Ramos named 20 players to participate in the first U-20 training camp of the year. The week-long camp in Florida starts on December 15 and will help the coach pick his squad for the CONCACAF U-20 Championship, held from Feb. 18 to March 3 in Puebla, Mexico. The tournament doubles as the qualifying tournament for the U-20 World Cup
The roster is split between college players and pros. Five Major League Soccer players join the ranks, including three from the Los Angeles Galaxy: Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake), Jack McBean (LA Galaxy), Shane O’Neill (Colorado Rapids), Sorto (LA Galaxy) and Jose Villarreal (LA Galaxy).
Gil, Liverpool’s Marc Pelosi, and Santos Laguna’s Benji Joya headline the attack, while a defense missing rising stars including John Anthony Brooks and Will Packwood is very thin. Southhampton signee Cody Cropper will have his work cut out for him in net.
The full roster, courtesy of USSoccer.com:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Cody Cropper (Southampton FC; Maple Grove, Minn.), Tomas Gomez (Georgetown; Webster Groves, Mo.), Kendall McIntosh (Santa Clara; Santa Rosa, Calif.)
DEFENDERS (6): Dakota Edwards (Maryland; Sayville, N.Y.), 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, Calif.), Javan Torre (UCLA; Santa Monica, Calif.)
MIDFIELDERS (8): Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake; Garden Grove, Calif.), Benji Joya (Santos Laguna; San Jose, Calif.), Mikey Lopez (North Carolina; Mission, Texas), Collin Martin (Wake Forest; Chevy Chase, Md.), Daniel Metzger (Maryland; Holmdel, N.J.), Marc Pelosi (Liverpool FC; Sunnyvale, Calif.), Caleb Stanko (SC Freiburg; Holly, Mich.), Wil Trapp (Akron; Gahanna, Ohio)
FORWARDS (7): Brandon Allen (Georgetown; Old Bridge, N.J.), Daniel Cuevas (Santos Laguna; Sacramento, Calif.), Daniel Garcia (North Carolina; Dallas, Texas), Darius Madison (Virginia; Philadelphia, Pa.), Jack McBean (LA Galaxy; Newport Beach, Calif.), Mario Rodriguez (1. FC Kaiserslautern; North Hollywood, Calif.), Jose Villarreal (LA Galaxy; Inglewood, Calif.)