U.S. Finds Top-Level Players at UCLA
The decades-long streak by UCLA of providing players for U.S. national soccer teams continues this week with four Bruins in the qualifying tournament for the 11th FIFA World Youth Championship in the Netherlands.
The U.S. under-20 national team, under former UCLA coach Sigi Schmid, opens play at 8 tonight in the Home Depot Center against Trinidad and Tobago, the first of three games in five days for the Americans.
Bruin defender Patrick Ianni of Lodi, Calif., will start in central defense for the U.S., and defender Marvell Wynne of Poway, Calif., midfielder Benny Feilhaber of Irvine and forward Chad Barrett of Beaverton, Ore., also could play key roles.
St. Louis University, with two players, including midfielder Sacha Kljestan of Huntington Beach, is the only other college with more than one player on the 18-man U.S. roster.
Quentin Westberg, who plays professionally in France, will start in goal for the U.S., backed by Stanford’s Andrew Kartunen of San Juan Capistrano. Notre Dame’s Greg Dalby will be the starting defensive midfielder, but beyond Ianni, Westberg and Dalby, Schmid declined to reveal his starting lineup.
The U.S. plays Panama on Friday at 8 p.m. and Costa Rica on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. as it tries to qualify for the June 10-July 2 world championship in five Dutch cities.
Each game is part of a doubleheader, tonight’s match being preceded by a 5:30 p.m. game between Costa Rica and Panama. Two of the four teams in the regional qualifying event will advance to Holland.
The U.S. reached the semifinals of the FIFA World Youth Championship in Saudi Arabia in 1989, largely on the play of goalkeeper Kasey Keller, and the quarterfinals in the United Arab Emirates in 2003.
