SANDY, Utah – Real Salt Lake has announced that MF Luis Gil has been called up to the U.S. Under-23 National Team pre-Olympic training camp, which will take place from Aug. 3-7 in Nassau, Bahamas. The five-day camp will feature a match against the Bahamas Senior National team on Wednesday, Aug. 6, at the Thompson A. Robinson National Stadium.
The U-23 camp is part of the United States’ continuing effort to focus early on the qualification process for the 2016 Summer Olympics taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In April, the Unites States started this phase in earnest with an Under-21 MNT camp at U.S. Soccer’s National Training Center. U.S. Men’s National Team staff assistant coaches Tab Ramos and Andi Herzog and goalkeeper coach Chris Woods, as well as U.S. Under-18 Men’s National Team head coach Javier Perez, are overseeing the camp.
Gil is not expected to miss any Real Salt Lake games while at the U-23 camp. The 20-year-old Garden Grove, Calif. native will depart following RSL’s Saturday game against Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and will return to the club ahead of its Aug. 9 home match against D.C. United.
An experienced U.S. youth international, Gil has one cap with the senior USMNT, coming on for the final 15 minutes of the U.S.’s friendly win against Korea Republic at StubHub Center on Feb. 1. He was called to the USMNT in March for its international friendly against Mexico on April 2, training with Jurgen Klinsmann’s squad in Phoenix and making the bench for the U.S.’s 2-2 draw. The California native, was called the U-21 pre-Olympic training camp this past April but did not go due to injury. Gil was a major part of the U.S.’s 2013 FIFA Under-20 World Cup squad, starting all three games for the Stars-and-Stripes at last year’s tournament in Turkey.
Roster by Position:
GOALKEEPERS (2): Cody Cropper (Southampton; Maple Grove, Minn.), Zack Steffen (Maryland; Downington, Pa.)
DEFENDERS (6): AJ Cochran (Houston Dynamo; St. Louis, Mo.), Christian Dean (Vancouver Whitecaps FC; East Palo Alto, Calif.), Ramon Martin del Campo (San Jose Earthquakes; Chula Vista, Calif.), Bryan Gallego (Arizona United; Kinnelon, N.J.), Juan Pablo Ocegueda (Alebrijes de Oaxaca; Riverside, Calif.), William Packwood (Birmingham City; Concord, Mass.), Oscar Sorto (LA Galaxy; Los Angeles, Calif.)
MIDFIELDERS (4): Dennis Flores (León; Pasadena, Calif.), Luis Gil(Real Salt Lake; Garden Grove, Calif.), Marlon Hairston (Colorado Rapids; Jackson, Miss.), Benji Joya (Chicago Fire; San Jose, Calif.)
FORWARDS (5): Daniel Cuevas (CF Lobos BUAP; Sacramento, Calif.), Alfred Koroma Shams (Internacional; Southlake, Texas), Jordan Morris (Stanford; Mercer Island, Wash.), Victor Pineda (Indy Eleven; Bolingbrook, Ill.), Omar Salgado (Vancouver Whitecaps FC; El Paso, Texas)
