University of North Carolina Athletics
Two Tar Heel Recruits Tapped For Under-20 Team At World Championships
June 9, 2006 | Women's Soccer
June 9, 2006
CHICAGO, ILL. - U.S. Under-20 Women's National Team head coach Tim Schulz has named the 21-player roster for the 2006 FIFA Under-20 Women's World Championship being held Aug. 17 - Sept. 3 in Russia. The 21-player squad includes of pair of incoming University of North Carolina recruits -- midfielders Tobin Heath of Basking Ridge, N.J. and Casey Nogueira of Raleigh, N.C.
Schulz's team has played about 50 matches since January as he whittled his team down to 21 players who will participate in the 3rd FIFA world championship for youth women. Schulz evaluated 47 players in game action with the U-20s over the course of this year before finalizing the roster.
The tournament in Russia marks the first time the competition will be played as an Under-20 event. The USA won the first-ever FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship in 2002 in Canada and finished third at the 2004 U-19 tournament in Thailand. Several current and former Tar Heel players including Lindsay Tarpley (2002), Heather O'Reilly (2002), Ashlyn Harris (2002 and 2004), Kendall Fletcher (2002), Lori Chalupny (2002) and Yael Averbuch (2004) played in those for the United States. Robyn Gayle played in both the 2002 and 2004 U-19 Championships for Canada.
For the 2006 tournament, the USA was drawn into Group D and will face first-time World Championship participant DR Congo, as well as Argentina and France in first round play. Players must be born on or after January 1, 1986, to be eligible for this year's U-20 World Championship.
All of the USA's midfielders will be playing in their first world championship and Schulz has some dynamic talents at his disposal. Flank midfielders Danesha Adams, Tina DiMartino, 18-year-old Tobin Heath and 17-year-old Casey Nogueira are unique one-on-one players while Brittany Bock, Amanda Poach and Allie Long all possess skills and ball-winning abilities in the central midfield. Nogueira, who was born in 1989, was the youngest player selected.
Seventeen of the 21 players named to the roster will be entering their sophomores or junior year of college eligibility in the fall, with the exceptions of Cheney, O'Hara, Tobin Heath and Casey Nogueira, all of whom will be entering college as freshmen next fall. Schulz named eleven players born 1986, seven born in 1987, two in 1988, in O'Hara and Heath, and one in 1989 in Nogueira. The USA will likely be one of the younger teams in Russia.
The roster features six players from California, two from Colorado, two from Ohio, two from New York, two from New Jersey, and one each from Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Texas, Georgia, Maryland and North Carolina.
Schulz named the roster two months before the tournament to give the team time to gel. So far in 2006, the U.S. team has had nine events and will have four more camps/events before the World Championship, with a training camp at the Home Depot Center up next from June 11-18.
The 2006 FIFA World Championship will be contested with 16 teams: host Russia, Australia, China and North Korea from Asia, Nigeria and DR Congo from Africa, the USA, Mexico and Canada from CONCACAF, Brazil and Argentina from South America, France, Switzerland, Germany and Finland from Europe and New Zealand from Oceania.
The 2006 FIFA U-20 Women's World Championship will take place at four stadiums in Moscow (Dynamo, Lokomotiv, Shchelkovo and Torpedo) and at one in St. Petersburg (Petrovsky).
UNITED STATES UNDER-20 WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEAM ROSTER BY POSITION
2006 FIFA U-20 Women's World Championship - Aug. 17-Sept. 3 - Russia
GOALKEEPERS (3): Kelsey Davis (Thousand Oaks, Calif.), Joanna Haig (Inver Grove Heights, Minn), Val Henderson (Orinda, Calif.);
DEFENDERS (6): Carrie Dew (Encinitas, Calif.), Erin Hardy (Costa Mesa, Calif.), Nikki Kryzsik (Clifton, N.J.), Stephanie Logterman (Austin, Texas), Stephanie Lopez (Elk Grove, Calif.), Sara Wagenfuhr (Colorado Springs, Colo.);
MIDFIELDERS (8): Jordan Angeli (Lakewood, Colo.), Danesha Adams (Shaker Heights, Ohio), Brittany Bock (Naperville, Ill.), Tina DiMartino (Massapequa Park, N.Y.), Tobin Heath (Basking Ridge, N.J.), Allie Long (East Northport, N.Y.), Casey Nogueira (Raleigh, N.C.), Amanda Poach (Bowie, Md.);
FORWARDS (4): Lauren Cheney (Indianapolis, Ind.), Amy Rodriguez (Lake Forest, Calif.), Kelley O'Hara (Fayetteville, Ga.), Jessica Rostedt (Kent, Ohio).
