U.S. under-20 women

Schulz names roster of 20 for world tourney qualifying.

(Monday, January 9, 2006) -- Coach Tim Schulz announced a 20-player roster for the United States team for the CONCACAF Women's Under-20 Qualifying Tournament which will be competed January 18-27 in Mexico.

The top three finishers in the eight-nation event advance to the world championships August 16-September 2 in Russia.

The U.S. was drawn into Group B in the qualifying tourney and will face Jamaica on January 19, Surinam on January 21 and El Salvador on January 23. All the first-round matches will be held at Rafael Murillo Vidal Stadium in Córdoba.

Group A includes Mexico, Canada, Trinidad & Tobago and Panama and will be competed in at Luis Pirata Fuentes Stadium in Veracruz.

The first- and second-place finishers in each group advance to the semifinals January 25 in Veracruz. The championship game and consolation match will take place in Veracruz on January 27.

Two years ago, the U.S. lost 2-1 to host Canada in the CONCACAF qualifying championship match.

Schulz selected his roster after eights days of training at Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. "It was a very difficult process," Schulz said in a U.S. Soccer Federation press release. "The coaching staff deliberated every night and we went back and forth on lots of players. I know there is going to be some exciting internal competition for starting spots and that's a good thing. I also think we have a lot of depth, so we can go to our bench during the tournament and have fresh bodies when we need them."

Seven players chosen were members of the U.S. team that finished third at the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship in Thailand. Five of the players are sophomores in college, 13 are in their freshman years and two are high school seniors -- forwards Lauren Cheney and Kelley O'Hara, the youngest player on the squad at 17.

Joining Cheney and O'Hara on the front line are Amy Rodriguez (Southern California) and Jessica Rostedt (Virginia), both of whom led their college teams in scoring as freshman. Rodriguez had two goals and two assists in Thailand, while Rostedt had three goals despite playing only 178 minutes in four games.

The other Thailand veterans are defenders Stephanie Lopez and Stephanie Logterman, both of whom played every minute of that tournament, defenders Meagan Holmes and Nikki Krzysik, and goalkeeper Kelsey Davis.

Lopez, who earned her first cap with the full U.S. team at the Algarve Cup in Portugal last year, also made the roster for the American senior women's trip to the Four Nations Tournament January 18-22 in China. She will join the U-20s in Mexico immediately after the completion of that competition.

Stephanie Rodriguez is the only U-20 player other than Lopez to have been capped at the senior level, playing in two matches at the 2005 Algarve Cup. Cheney has been in two training camps with the full team. Cheney, Rodriguez and Lopez were also members of the U.S. under-21s who won the Nordic Cup last summer, the seventh straight time the Americans won that tournament.

"We have a lot of diversity on the team," Schulz said in the release. "I like that we have the air game covered and we have creativity covered, and we have utility players that can play in a multitude positions. We also have great camaraderie. It's a tight-knit group already."

Of the colleges, UCLA having has four players on the U-20 roster, plus Cheney has committed to the Bruins. Santa Clara, Notre Dame, Texas and Virginia have two players apiece. Midfielder Lindsey Beam becomes the first player from Charlotte to make a U.S. qualifying roster, while defender Sarah Wagenfuhr holds that same distinction from Florida State.

Midfielder Allie Long was chosen after attending her first national training camp and just completed her freshman season at Penn State. O'Hara, the leading scorer for the U.S. under-17s in 2005, will attend Stanford in the fall.

Both U.S. goalkeepers attend UCLA -- Valerie Henderson, the sophomore starter and Kelsey Davis, the freshman backup for a team that advanced to the Final Four and conceded 12 goals in 26 games (0.45 per game).

Sixteen nations will compete for the third women's under-20 world title with five coming from Europe, including host Russia, with three coming from both Asia and CONCACAF, the region that includes North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Two participants apiece will come from Africa and South America, and one from Oceania.

Germany, France, and surprise qualifiers Finland and Switzerland join Russian at the European contingent. The other entrants in the world championships are yet to be determined.

January 27 (Veracruz)
Third-place game, 1 p.m.
Championship game, 4 p.m.

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