Haitian-American Josmer Altidore call into US Under-20 National Team training camp.
New York Red Bulls forward Jozy Altidore and Duke sophomore forward Mike Grella of Glen Cove, N.Y. were among 26 players called into U.S. Under-20 National Team training camp at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. from Dec. 12-23.
The camp is to prepare a 20-player roster for the CONCACAF final round qualifying tournament, which will take place in Panama City, Panama Jan. 17-21.
Fairleigh Dickinson's Alejandro Bedoya and former St. John's standout Tony Beltran (UCLA) are two of 14 college players invited into camp.
Also called in were two Columbus Crew players with area ties -- midfielder Danny Danny Szetela of Clifton, N.J. and former MetroStars defender Tim Ward.
Altidore, 17, was a late-season sensation for the Red Bulls, literally saving their playoff hopes with three key regular-season goals during the stretch run and scoring the team's lone goal in the playoffs.
Grella has been a standout at Duke. He was the 2004 BigAppleSoccer.com male youth player of the year.
D.C. United forward Freddie Adu also has been invited.
?We won?t have our entire player pool with us for this camp, but we are brining in guys who will definitely be fighting for some of the final undecided spots on our qualifying roster,? said coach Thomas Rongen, who will name his 20-man roster before the end of the year. ?I?m looking forward to an extremely productive and intense camp that will, in the end, allow us to make the ultimate decisions on who will be helping us attempt to qualify for the 2007 World Cup.?
Rongen will announce the final 20-player qualifying roster before the team returns to Bradenton on Dec. 30 for an eight-day camp. Once again there is a chance the European-based players will be unavailable.
The U.S. is in Group A of the qualifying tournament with Guatemala, Haiti and Panama. The top two teams in the group will qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada, which will take place from June 30-July 22 across six cities -- Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, Burnaby and Victoria. The U.S. will be attempting to qualify for their sixth consecutive competition, formerly called the FIFA World Youth Championship.
The other two of the four CONCACAF berths (not including Canada which gets an automatic berth as host) will come from Group B, which will occur a month later from Feb. 21-25 in Culiacan, Sinaloa, located on the west coast of Mexico. Competing with the hosts will be Costa Rica, St. Kitts & Nevis and the winner between a two-game series between Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago.
The roster:
Goalkeepers (3): Brian Perk (UCLA), Steve Sandbo (SMU), Chris Seitz (University of Maryland). Defenders (11): Tony Beltran (UCLA), Matt Besler (Notre Dame), Kyle Davies (Ballistic United), Amaechi Igwe (Santa Clara University), Quavas Kirk (L.A. Galaxy), Ofori Sarkodi (Indiana University), Nathan Sturgis (L.A. Galaxy), Julian Valentin (Wake Forest), Blake Wagner (FC Dallas), Anthony Wallace (University of South Florida), Tim Ward (Columbus Crew). Midfielders (7): Freddy Adu (D.C. United), Bryan Arguez (West Kendal Optimists), Alejandro Bedoya (Fairleigh Dickinson University), Jeremy Hall (University of Maryland), Dax McCarty (FC Dallas), Danny Szetela (Columbus Crew), Jonathan Villanueva (University of Virginia). Forwards (5): Andre Akpan (Harvard),
Josmer Altidore (N.Y. Red Bulls), Mike Grella (Duke), Rodrigo Hildalgo (University of South Florida), Sal Zizzo (UCLA).