Vancouver Whitecaps FC striker Omar Salgado has been called into the United States U-20 national team for matches against Uruguay on June 6 and 8, followed by a June 12 game versus Chile in Santiago.
The 18-year-old striker has become a regular selection for 'Caps head coach Martin Rennie over the last two months, having started five of Vancouver's last six MLS regular season matches. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Salgado also earned an assist in his lone start in the Amway Canadian Championship. After being selected first overall in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft by Vancouver, Salgado made 14 appearances for the Blue and White during his rookie campaign.
Following Friday night's Whitecaps FC reserves match at Seattle Sounders FC reserves, Salgado will join his USA U-20 teammates for the reminder of the their domestic training camp at the Houston Amateur Sports Park in Texas. The team will then travel to South America on Monday for their three matches. USA U-20 head coach Tab Ramos added Salgado for this camp after Real Salt Lake midfielder Luis Gil went down with an injury during training this week.
Salgado has been a part of the U-20 team since 2010, when he scored his first international goal in his debut on July 26 during the USA’s 1-0 victory against China in the 2010 Milk Cup international youth tournament in Northern Ireland.
A native of El Paso, Texas, Salgado was also a member of the United States U-17 Residency Program in the fall of 2008.
UNITED STATES U-20 SQUAD
GOALKEEPERS: Cody Cropper (Unattached; Athens, Ga.), Tomas Gomez (Georgetown; Webster Groves, Mo.)
DEFENDERS: AJ Cochran (Wisconsin; St. Louis, Mo.), Christian Dean (California Berkeley; East Palo Alto, Calif.), Jordan McCrary (North Carolina; Marietta, Ga.), Eric Miller (Creighton; Woodbury, Minn.), Juan Pablo Ocegueda (UANL Tigres; Riverside, Calif.), Boyd Okwuonu (North Carolina; Edmund, Okla.), William Packwood (Birmingham City; Concord, Mass.)
MIDFIELDERS: Benji Joya (Santos Laguna; San Jose, Calif.), Mikey Lopez (North Carolina; Mission, Texas), Victor Pineda (Chicago Fire; Bolingbrook, Ill.), Caleb Stanko (SC Freiburg; Holly, Mich.), Wil Trapp (Akron; Gahanna, Ohio)
STRIKERS: Villyan Bijev (Fortuna Düsseldorf; Fresno, Calif.), Daniel Cuevas (Club Santos Laguna; Sacramento, Calif.), Daniel Garcia (FC Dallas Academy; Dallas, Texas), James Rogers (New Mexico; Salt Lake City, Utah), Omar Salgado (Vancouver Whitecaps FC; El Paso, Texas), Jonathan Top (FC Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas)
