CARY, N.C. — The theme of this week’s U.S. U20 Men’s National Team camp in Raleigh, N.C. should be: “You can’t have enough of a good thing.”
This camp is the first at the U20 age level for 13 of the 24 players called in. Only one, Jesus Vazquez, took part in the team’s runner-up finish in last month’s Dallas Cup.
Meanwhile, 19 invitees are incoming college freshmen and rising sophomores, nine of them with Atlantic Coast Conference schools. Indeed, among the smattering of friends and family watching Tuesday evening’s scrimmage against the Carolina RailHawks were three area college head coaches: North Carolina(m)'s Carlos Somoano, NC State(m)’s Kelly Findley and Wake Forest(m)’s Jay Vidovich.
While being called up by your national team setup is an honor unto itself, the ultimate goal for this group and the team as a whole is next year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand. And according to U.S. U-20 assistant coach Brian Bliss, who is overseeing this week’s camp, the deep pool of players needed for upcoming World Cup qualifying leaves plenty of room for new talent.
“You never know who is going to become available,” Bliss says. “That’s why we created this pool of 60 to 75 players, because we went through 71 guys last year during the [2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup] qualifying process, between injuries and players not being released. We went deeper into the pool than we thought we would have to.
“From this group of guys, I’d say there’s a good half-dozen who have a chance to be in the qualifying,” Bliss continues. “I’m not saying they’re going to go to the World Cup, because the pool will be different then, as well. But I think there’s a good half-dozen guys here who have an opportunity for more camps in the future and participate potentially in the qualifiers.”
