Galaxy Trio Named to U.S. Under-23 Squad
Coach Peter Nowak named three Galaxy players to an experimental U.S. Under-23 National Team squad for the upcoming Toulon Tournament.
"This tournament will give us an opportunity to have a look at some players we have had in previous camps, and also a look at the new faces," said Nowak. "We don't want to be short-sighted with our selection for the Olympics. We want a whole picture that includes a variety of players, and to make sure we see every option before we make final choices."
Selected were Mike Gavin, Bryan Jordan and Julian Valentin.
The U.S. plays Turkey May 21, Ivory Coast May 23 and Italy May 25.
All games are on Fox Soccer Channel.
The full squad: Goalkeepers Dominic Cervi (out of contract), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake), Quentin Westberg (Troyes AC); defenders Tony Beltran (Real Salt Lake), Eric Brunner (out of contract), Kyle Davies (Southampton), Michael Gavin (Los Angeles Galaxy), Kamani Hill (Vfl Wolfsburg), Jonathan Leathers (Kansas City Wizards), Brek Shea (FC Dallas), Julian Valentin (Los Angeles Galaxy), Rob Valentino (New England Revolution), Blake Wagner (FC Dallas) ; midfielders Bryan Arguez (Hertha Berlin), Corey Ashe (Houston Dynamo), Greg Dalby (SC Charleroi), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Lee Nguyen (Randers FC); forwards Gabe Ferrari (Sampdoria), Bryan Jordan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Ellis McLoughlin (Hertha Berlin), Sammy Ochoa (Tecos).
No recall for Rolling Hills Estates' Robbie Rogers, but then if Nowak was paying attention over the weekend, he knows what the Columbus Crew midfielder is capable of:
Updated: Rogers' two-goal performance earned him MLS Player of the Week honors (his first such award) Monday from the North American Soccer Reporters.
It's is the Crew's best-ever start to a season and Sigi Schmid's, too.
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Sportswriter Nick Green has written the 100 Percent Soccer column since 2005. The blog of the same name began in 2007. A native of England, he began writing about soccer in the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat in the stands for one in the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer and is married to a long-suffering soccer widow. Join Nick on FaceBook.
Robbie Rogers probably wasn't even in consideration for the team. No MLS players who are significant contributors or players that have essentially locked up a spot on the Olympic team are included. This is solely a chance to sort through the fringe players.
Nick replies: Yeah, Nowak knows all about Rogers - but he didn't make the Olympic qualifying roster you'll recall......
Rogers was also rumored to be injured during the qualifying campaign and Novak was reportedly asked by the Crew to exclude him from the squad. If he were healthy he would have made the squad and considering the US struggled to find good wing play during the qualifying campaign, he'll surely be in Beijing.
Nick replies: Yeah, he was injured in camp right before qualifying.
I wonder why the Galaxy doesn't at least look at Eric Brunner? I mean, it's not like they have Albright, Ihemelu, Marshall and Dunivant on their backline these days, right?