U-20 World Cup is Upon Us...

This entire year I've been more excited about the U-20 World Cup then I have the Gold Cup or Copa America. I guess that is the kind of guy I am. I am disappointed to say I won't be able to see much of either event because I am going to be in Minnesota on a Lake without cable television during the majority of the remaining US Soccer events. I also don't get GOLtv despite paying a ton of money for digital cable, thank you Comcast.

Today Thomas Rongen announced his roster. 21 U-20 players will head to a pre-tournament camp this weekend and their first match in Canada is June 30th against South Korea. Seven of the players are college players and depending on their play in the tournament they could skip the fall college season if the right professional team comes calling. I hope MLS will be included in that group as I think the college kids on this team are some of the most exciting prospects the US has seen. However, foreign clubs use this event as a shopping market of young talent. A good performance in Canada will mean big money for the top talent from around the world.

You can check the above link and announcement for the entire roster. The college players follow:
Brian Perk - GK - UCLA
Steve Sandbo - GK - SMU
Tony Beltran - D - UCLA
Ofori Sarkodie - D - Indiana University
Julian Valentin - D - Wake Forest
Andre Akpan - F - Harvard
Sal Zizzo - F - UCLA

The college kids are certainly at a disadvantage to their professional teammates as they are coming off a short spring season and maybe some PDL time while the MLS pros are coming off 10 weeks of full time soccer and the Euro pros are coming off a full season. It will be interesting to see how coach Rongen integrates the professionals and the non-professionals. They're all going to be at different fitness levels.

Keep an eye on these kids, they're our future pros.