CHICAGO, Ill. (October 6, 2006) ? University of South Florida's Rodrigo Hidalgo has been named to the U.S. Under-20 Men's National Team roster for an upcoming four-day camp from Oct. 8-12 in Sunrise, Fla., as announced by head coach Thomas Rongen yesterday. The 16-player roster is comprised of 10 professionals and six collegiate athletes.
The camp will include a closed-door match against the Haiti Under-23 Men's National Team. The players and staff will arrive on Sunday, Oct. 8, and train for three days before facing Haiti on Oct. 11.
Hidalgo, who is making his first U-20s appearance since 2004, will leave for the camp following USF's contest at Cincinnati and will return in time for the Bulls' nationally-televised game versus Stetson (Fox Soccer Channel) on Thursday, Oct. 12. Hidalgo is tied for the team lead in goals scored (4) and game-winning goals (2). Named to the Hermann Trophy Watch list, Hidalgo will be playing in his 50th-career match at USF during Saturday's Cincinnati contest.
The U.S. is preparing for the 2007 Under-20 Final Round Qualifying Tournament, which will take place in Mexico and Panama next year. A total of eight teams ? four in each group ? will be looking to progress to the 2007 U-20 FIFA World Cup in Canada.
Group A of the 2007 CONCACAF Under-20 Final Round will take place from Jan. 17-21 in Panama City, Panama. All six matches will take place at the Estadio Rommel Fernandez. Group B will occur a month later from Feb. 21-25 in Culiacan, Sinaloa, which is on the Western coast of Mexico. All six matches will take place at Estadio Carlos Gonzalez y Gonzalez.
The U.S. will join hosts Panama and Mexico in the final qualifying groups, along with Guatemala, Costa Rica and three teams from the Caribbean qualification. The top two squads from each of these groups will qualify for the 2007 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.
U.S. Under-20 MNT Roster By Position
GOALKEEPERS (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 (6): Freddy Adu (D.C. United), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Miguel Gonzalez (New England Revolution), Rodrigo Lopez (Chivas USA), Stephen McCarthy (Santa Clara), Danny Szetela (Columbus Crew)
FORWARDS (4): Rodrigo Hidalgo (USF), Quavas Kirk (L.A. Galaxy), Robbie Rogers (SC Heerenveen), Johann Smith (Bolton FC)
