2007 World Youth Championships - Yanks Abroad's take on who's going from the USA...

For those who don't know, the FIFA 2007 World Youth Championships are being held in Canada this time around. This is a tournament that runs every two years and one where the US is itching to show quality of youth development. After all, shouldn't success at the youth level lead to senior national team success? (I guess that is a whole other debate, just ask Portugal.)

Yanksabroad.com had a 23 tickets to Germany piece going in the run up to WC 2006 and it was a great way to take the pulse of the team through qualifiers. They've started a similar piece for the upcoming 2007 World Youth Championships. Hop on over to get a great look at the breadth of talent possibly going to the tournament next year.

This piece was published coinciding nicely with the US U-20 camp currently going on in Florida. Coach Rongen called eighteen players into the camp. The roster is made up of eleven professionals, eight of which are from six MLS teams.

Here are the players participating in the camp, which includes a match against the Haitian U-23 team, today.

Keepers (2):
Brian Perk (UCLA)
Joe Willis (Denver)

Defenders (4):
Nick Cardenas (San Diego State)
Amaechi Igwe (Santa Clara)
Nathan Sturgis (L.A. Galaxy)
Tim Ward (Columbus Crew)

Midfielders (8):
Freddy Adu (D.C. United)
Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen)
Miguel Gonzalez (New England Revolution)
Rodrigo Lopez (Chivas USA)
Dax McCarty (FC Dallas)
Stephen McCarthy (Santa Clara)
Danny Szetela (Columbus Crew)
Anthony Wallace (USF)

Forwards (4):
Rodrigo Hidalgo (USF)
Quavas Kirk (L.A. Galaxy)
Robbie Rogers (SC Heerenveen)
Johann Smith (Bolton FC)

The tournament kicks off June 30, 2007 in Montreal and Ottawa. Matches are also being played in Toronto, Burnaby, Victoria and Edmonton. The final will take place in Toronto on July 22nd. With MLS expanding to Toronto next season, Canada is certainly going to have a busy summer of soccer.

The US team will begin their qualifying this winter in either January or February. Rongen will no doubt look to have his final group selected for a camp in November/December once the MLS season is over and College soccer has concluded. Most of the European based professionals will be mid-season at that point, and will join the team closer to the start of the qualifiers.

It must be exciting for the college kids in this current group. With so many young professionals, the college kids are no longer locks to make the roster. They're going to need a perfect showing to out class their professional teammates. Good luck to them!