Brian Rowe has come a long way in one season.

He wasn’t the Galaxy starting in goal entering the 2016 MLS season, but took advantage of an opportunity and finished up appearing in 31 of 34 games. He recorded nine clean sheets and made 113 saves.

“It was my first long stretch of games played, but knowing what it takes to be a starter throughout the year and how to prepare yourself week in and week out to be healthy,” Rowe said. “I felt like I met a lot of goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the year and I know there is still a lot of work to be done.”

His performance eventually translated into receiving a call into his first national team camp.

Rowe is one of four keepers in camp with the U.S as they prepare for Sunday’s friendly against Serbia. He is joined by David Bingham (San Jose), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake) and Luis Robles (New York).

“It is a great honor to get called in and to be one the goalies that gets to represent his country in this camp,” Rowe said from national team training recently. “Once camp had started, I was getting ready for the Galaxy season, I was kind of planning my workouts. Then Matt Reis called me to tell me that (Seattle goalkeeper Stefan) Frei had been injured and they were bringing me in.

“First day was a little rusty, jumping right in, but I’ve been slowly getting the wheels going and I feel more comfortable and just have fun with it.”

Bruce Arena, who coached Rowe with the Galaxy knows that the future is certainly bright for Rowe.

“This will be a good experience for Brian,” Arena said. “We had some choices, but we know the player and I think he could come in right away and contribute in training. We’ll see how he progresses in the goalkeeping competition.

“With any inexperienced goalkeeper, the more games you get the better. Two hundred games from now, he’s going to be a heck of a lot better than he is now. Goalies need games. He got better as the season went on.”