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The 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup will be staged in South Korea, running from May 20 to June 11 next year. The USA U-20 Men's National Team will first have to make it through February's CONCACAF U-20 Championship (from which four teams will advance to South Korea). And before that tournament starts, U-20 MNT head coach Tab Ramos will have to figure out his squad.
There are several months for that work to be done. Right now, Ramos has a squad assembled for the NTC Invitational tournament in Carson, California. The 21-man roster is missing some of the more prominent players from this cohort: no Christian Pulisic, Gedion Zelalem, or Cameron Carter-Vickers, for example. Neither are the two New York Red Bulls' academy products who made the USA squad for the 2015 U-17 World Cup - Tyler Adams and Matt Olosunde (now at Manchester United) - in the team.
But the U-20s are now about six months away from the CONCACAF Championship that will decide if they go to South Korea next summer, so this tournament is not without significance.
The USA is up against Costa Rica, Panama, and Japan.
In the first round of games, the US beat Costa Rica - who will host next year's CONCACAF tournament. Watching the 2-0 win, US youth team soccer-watch Brian Sciaretta singled out RBNY Academy grad Marcello Borges as the stand-out on a back-line that might otherwise be expected to be entirely replaced by better-known names for the big tournament(s) next year.
Borges is joined on the roster by fellow RBNY Academy alum, Andrew Lombard - who didn't get off the bench against Costa Rica.
Heavy squad rotation is expected, not least because the primary purpose of this tournament for Ramos is talent evaluation. So tune in via US Soccer's YouTube channel to have a glance at the emerging generation of CONCACAF internationals, including (maybe) a couple of RBNY prospects.