June 15, 2007

Chicago, Ill. (SMU) - SMU goalkeeper Steve Sandbo has been named to the the 21-player roster that will represent the U.S. at the 2007 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Canada, from June 30-July 22 in an announcement made Friday by United States Under-20 Men's National Team head coach Thomas Rongen.

The roster features 14 professional players, the most ever for a U.S. Under-20 World Cup team, and is led by three-time U-20 World Cup participant Freddy Adu and high-scoring forward Josmer Altidore, the youngest player on the team at age 17.

Sandbo, who will enter his senior season at SMU this fall, sports a Mustang career goals-against-average of 1.40. The Columbus, Ohio, native was also selected to the U.S. U-20 men's national team in 2006.

The U.S. was drawn into Group D with Korea Republic, Poland and Brazil. This is the sixth straight appearance for the U.S. in the world championship and their 11th overall. The U.S. opens against Korea Republic on June 30, then faces Poland on July 3 and concludes group play on July 6 against four-time U-20 world champions Brazil.

The U.S. will play Korea Republic and Poland at The Olympic Stadium in Montreal, before heading to Ottawa to face Brazil at Frank Clair Stadium. Every U.S. match at the U-20 World Cup will be broadcast live on ESPNU, and can be followed live via ussoccer.com's MatchTracker. The 24-team field is divided into six groups of four, with the top two teams from each group and the top four (of six) third-place teams advancing to the Round of 16. The 52-match tournament will take place at six venues in Canada with games in Burnaby, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Victoria. Each game will be broadcast on ESPNU and ESPN360.com.

The 21 players on the World Cup roster will arrive in Somerset, N.J. on June 17 for training before departing for Montreal. The team will also play a preparation game against Chile at Giants Stadium on June 23, with kickoff set for 2 p.m. ET (tickets).

No. Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Birthdate Hometown Club/College
11 Freddy Adu M 5'8" 145 06/02/89 Potomac, Md. Real Salt Lake (MLS)
20 Andre Akpan F 6'0" 190 12/09/87 Grand Prairie, Texas Harvard
12 Josmer Altidore F 5'10" 176 11/06/89 Boca Raton, Fla. N.Y. Red Bulls (MLS)
3 Bryan Arguez M 6'2" 165 01/13/89 Miami, Fla. D.C. United (MLS)
19 Tony Beltran D/M 5'9" 155 10/11/87 Claremont, Calif. UCLA
6 Michael Bradley M 6'2" 185 07/31/87 Pennington, N.J. SC Heerenveen (Netherlands)
17 Gabriel Ferrari F 6'1" 170 09/01/88 New York, N.Y. Sampdoria (Italy)
4 Amaechi Igwe D 6'0" 165 05/20/88 Belmont, Calif. New England Revolution (MLS)
10 Dax McCarty M 5'9" 145 04/30/87 Winter Park, Fla. FC Dallas (MLS)
18 Brian Perk GK 5'11" 175 07/21/89 Santa Margarita, Calif. UCLA
8 Robbie Rogers F 5'10" 165 05/12/87 Huntington Beach, Calif. Columbus Crew (MLS)
21 Steve Sandbo GK 6'3" 195 02/23/87 Columbus, Ohio SMU
13 Ofori Sarkodie D 5'9" 170 06/18/88 Belmont, Calif. Indiana University
1 Chris Seitz GK 6'4" 205 03/12/87 San Luis Obispo, Calif. Real Salt Lake (MLS)
9 Johann Smith F 5'10" 165 04/25/87 Bloomfield, Conn. Bolton FC (Conn.)
5 Nathan Sturgis D 5'11" 155 07/06/87 Redondo Beach, Calif. L.A. Galaxy
7 Danny Szetela M 5'11" 172 06/07/87 Clifton, N.J. Columbus Crew (MLS)
16 Julian Valentin D 5'11" 180 02/23/87 Lancaster, Pa. Wake Forest
14 Anthony Wallace D/M 5'11" 155 01/26/89 St. Petersburg, Fla. FC Dallas (MLS)
2 Tim Ward D 6'0" 165 02/28/87 Waukesha, Wisc. Columbus Crew (MLS)
15 Sal Zizzo F 5'11" 165 04/03/87 San Diego, Calif. UCLA


Roster By Position:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Brian Perk (UCLA), Steve Sandbo (SMU), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (6): Tony Beltran (UCLA), Amaechi Igwe (New England Revolution), Ofori Sarkodie (Indiana University), Nathan Sturgis (Columbus Crew), Julian Valentin (Wake Forest), Tim Ward (Columbus Crew)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Freddy Adu (Real Salt Lake), Bryan Arguez (D.C. United), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Dax McCarty (F.C. Dallas), Danny Szetela (Columbus Crew), Anthony Wallace (F.C. Dallas)
FORWARDS (6): Andre Akpan (Harvard), Josmer Altidore (N.Y. Red Bulls), Gabriel Ferrari (Sampdoria), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), Johann Smith (Bolton F.C.), Sal Zizzo (UCLA)