June 19, 2007

CHICAGO, Ill. - SMU goalkeeper Steve Sandbo has been named to 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.