Bulls Abroad: Tab Ramos calls up Omir Fernandez and Tony Meola to USA U-20s

It would appear the most successful US U-20 Men’s National Team head coach in history is now also responsible for the team’s communications, or Tab Ramos has started 2019 with a renewed affection for Twitter. Either way, Ramos has revealed his roster for the latest US U-20 MNT training camp:

The list includes New York Red Bulls Academy product Omir Fernandez, who you will know a lot about if you’ve been following Wake Forest’s men’s soccer team recently, or Eric Friedlander’s coverage of RBNY prospects for Red Bulls New Network. Fernandez was also recently anointed the top MLS homegrown prospect currently on the US college circuit by Top Drawer Soccer’s Travis Clark for mlssoccer.com, in a piece which described the 19-year-old forward as a near-certainty to sign a homegrown player deal with RBNY in the near future.

Among the coaches assisting Ramos at the January training camp will be his former USA and MetroStars teammate Tony Meola. This isn’t the first time Meola has helped Ramos with the U-20 MNT, but his work with the team is not always publicized.

The U20s will be playing in a World Cup in May, so there isn’t too much time left for Ramos to finalize his squad for the tournament. He won a CONCACAF U-20 Championship in November with a quite different roster of players, so this camp is clearly an opportunity for those who didn’t make the team that qualified the USA for the U-20 World Cup to stake a claim to a place in the squad that travels to Poland in May.