U.S. Under-20 Team to Take On World
Saturday’s tie with Jamaica leaves the United States national team in an excellent position to qualify for a world championship.
The younger version of the U.S. team, however, already is trying to win one.
Today, at Estadio Malvinas Argentinas in Mendoza, Argentina, the U.S. under-20 national team will play China in its opening game of the 11th FIFA World Youth Championship.
On Wednesday, Coach Wolfgang Suhnholz’s squad will play Chile, and it then will end the first round Saturday with a game against Ukraine.
The top two teams from each of six four-team groups advance to the round of 16, as do the four best third-place teams. The championship runs through July 8.
This might be the strongest and potentially most competitive team the U.S. has sent to the under-20 tournament.
“The more I look at the roster, the more excited I am,” said Suhnholz, who in his playing days was a pretty useful midfielder for the Los Angeles Aztecs of the old North American Soccer League.
“I honestly think that if our team plays well, we can play with any team in the world.”
American youngsters’ eagerness to turn professional early and Major League Soccer’s willingness to accept them means that the U.S. no longer has to rely on only college and high school players at such events.
The U.S. squad of 18 features five professionals: Landon Donovan of the San Jose Earthquakes, DaMarcus Beasley of the Chicago Fire, Bobby Convey of Washington D.C. United, Edson Buddle of the Columbus Crew and Conor Casey of Borussia Dortmund in the German Bundesliga.
And the team is deep in international experience too.
Seven of the players, including Donovan, Beasley and Convey, were on the U.S. under-17 team that finished fourth at the FIFA Under-17 World Championship in New Zealand in 1999.
The other four are defender Oguchi Onyewu of Clemson and the UCLA trio of goalkeeper D. J. Countess and defenders Alexander Yi and Nelson Akwari.
The alphabet foursome of Akwari, Beasley, Casey and Donovan (ABCD) all played in the 1999 Pan American Games, where the U.S. won the bronze medal.
In addition, Casey and Donovan played on the U.S. team that finished fourth at the Sydney Olympic Games.
“I think right now we have great talent coming up with this U-20 team and our future U-20 team with [MLS] players like Santino [Quaranta] and Edward Johnson,” Suhnholz said. “It’s going to help us produce a great national team in the future.”
Good Omen
In a statistic that will not have gone unnoticed by today’s opponent, China, the American under-20s have posted shutout victories in their opening matches each of the last three times they have reached the World Youth Championship.
They defeated China, 1-0, to open the 1997 tournament in Tunisia; edged England, 1-0, in 1999 in Nigeria; and trounced Turkey, 6-0, to kick off the 1993 championship in Australia.
Fraser Rerun
The final chapter has yet to be written in the national team career of former Galaxy captain Robin Fraser.
The Colorado Rapids’ defender did not play in Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Jamaica in Kingston, but he was on the squad and U.S. Coach Bruce Arena made it clear that Fraser, 34, is still in his plans.
“I was pleased with the way he played against Ecuador [in a 0-0 tie June 7] having been away from international competition for so long and just coming back [from shoulder and groin injuries] to a starting role in MLS,” Arena said.
“His progress has been pretty good. We know he’s not 100% fit at this point, but I just wanted to let him know he’s still a guy we’re looking at and he’s still part of our [national team] pool and we need to have him ready to go.”
Fraser, traded to the Rapids this spring by the Galaxy, has played 27 games for the U.S.
“It’s great to be back in the picture,” he said. “I was really happy that Bruce called me in as early as he did once I started playing [again]. It’s great to get a chance. I feel like I’m slowly working my way back in and I’m glad to be here.”
