The Dallas Cup is a tournament I wasn't really familiar with until I saw a tweet on the US Soccer feed about Rongen releasing the roster for the Super Group at the Dallas Cup. The DC is a pretty significant youth tournament outside of the realm of the usual FIFA dates. It brings together some national sides as well as club sides for tournaments at 7 age levels. The Super Group is the U-20 level and features some fairly significant clubs. The US, Mexico, and Japanese U-20 sides will be attending. Club sides include Tottenham, Chelsea, Cruizero, and Chivas de Guadalajara. Youth sides from Germany, France, England, Costa Rica, and Mexico will be participating at other age levels as well. Notable former players include Rafa Marquez, Landon Donovan, Brian McBride, Oguchi Onyewu, Wayne Rooney, David Beckham, Michael Owen, Peter Crouch, Raul, Maicon, Luisao, Michael Carrick, and, of course, Hakeem Olajuwon...yes...that one. Here's the US roster: GOALKEEPERS (2): Justin Luthy (Boston College; Dublin, Ohio), Zac MacMath (Maryland; St. Petersburg, Fla.) DEFENDERS (7): Chad Barson (Akron; Lewis Center, Ohio), Jesus Gonzalez (CZ Elite; Burbank, Calif.), Ian Hines-Ike (Chivas USA; Littleton, Colo.), Tyler Polak (CSA Legacy; Lincoln, Neb.), Kofi Sarkodie (Akron; Huber Heights, Ohio), Zarek Valentin (Akron; Lancaster, Pa.), Jared Watts (Wake Forest; Statesville, N.C.) MIDFIELDERS (7): Jose Altamirano (San Diego State; San Diego, Calif.), Bryan De La Fuente (Chivas USA; Bell, Calif.), Ruben Gonzalez (Chivas USA; Hawaiian Gardens, Calif.), Amobi Okugo (Philadelphia Union; Sacramento, Calif.), Will Packwood (Birmingham City; Concord, Mass.), Dillon Powers (Notre Dame; Plano, Texas), Cesar Zamora (Chivas USA; Sylmar, Calif.) FORWARDS (4): Will Bates (Virginia; Chester, Va.), Ryan Finley (Duke; Lumberton, N.J.), Francisco Navas Cobo (Houston Dynamo; Richmond, Texas), Moises Orozco (Tigres; Oxnard, Calif.) I'm not too familiar with many of these players. Packwood, Powers, Polak, and Watts were on hand for the youth tournaments over the summer and had varying levels of personal success. It appears that many of the big guns at this level are not available due to club commitments (Lletget comes to mind quickly). I don't know if or how I'll be able to keep up, but I'll see what I can find. The US opens with Mexico then plays Eintracht Frankfurt and Vancouver Whitecaps.
I don't know if they've made it there yet or not. Either way, I think they'll be in Dallas. Hoffenheim is there as well.
I was also assuming Renken is healthy. He's had a lot of ACL problems that might be holding him back.
The US lost last night to Mexico 1-0 and will be playing again today against Vancouver Whitecaps. Joseph Gyau and Charles Renken are with Vancouver for this tournament, so that could be an interesting meeting.
Yanks Abroad with a shit ton of news on the U-20s at the Dallas Cup: Here's the match report from the 1-0 loss to Mexico. US was down a man after Chad Barson tripped while trying to defend a long ball in the box and took down a Mexican streaking on goal. The ref awarded a penalty and sent Barson off with a straight red. Keeper Zac MacMath saved the penalty. Mexico scored when Taufic Guarch (Tecos) headed home a corner in the 50th. According to the report, Dillon Powers and Cesar Zamora did a solid job in a counter attack for the US, who had their chances, but failed to send one home to draw level. Francisco Navas Cobo was born in the Houston area, then returned to his mother's native Colombia as a child...before making a comeback to Houston as an 11-year-old and joined the Houston Dynamo youth academy. Cobo has since joined the Dynamo senior roster and will be looking to fill the void of Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden in midfield. Moises Orozco is another forward with Tigres who was born in Southern-California, born to Mexican parents. His dual citizenship got him in with Tigres where he has been working towards breaking in with the senior team where he would join fellow Mexican-American (or are they American-Mexicans if they're in Mexico?) Edgar Castillo. Also, no word on whether or not he is related to Philly Union center-back Michael Orozco. Will Packwood is a member of the Birmingham U-18s who was with the US U-17 in Egypt this summer. Packwood plays defensive midfield, but at 6'2", he has caused some problems for opposing keepers on set pieces. Dillon Powers was with the US U-20 at the last Youth World Cup and looks to be an experienced leader when the team goes for the 2011 U-20 World Cup. Powers served as captain for the US in the match against Mexico and should be continuing with the armband through to Colombia in 2011.
Moises Orozco scored the lone goal in the US 1-0 win over Vancouver. Joseph Gyau suited up for Vancouver in that one and produced the Canadian side's best chance of the match. The US then lost 1-0 to Eintracht Frankfurt and has been bounced from the tournament. Not a good showing, but the team was without several top players. Gale Agboussamounde (Braga), Sebastian Lletget (West Ham), Luis Gil (MLS), Marlon Duran (???), Jack McInerney (Philadelphia Union), Charles Renkin (Vancouver/Injury), Zachary Herold (Toronto FC), Mikkel Diskerud (Staebeck) and Joseph Gyau (Vancouver) all figure to be key for the US in the U-20 World Cup qualifiers and in the final in 2011.
