The U.S. U-20 National Team kicks off the CONCACAF U-20 Championship on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. MT (streamed live at www.facebook.com/concacafcom/) and Real Salt Lake is prominently featured in the team selected by Tab Ramos. With four current Real Salt Lake players and a fifth product of the RSL Academy, Martin Vasquez has his fingerprints all over the U.S. squad as it faces Panama, Haiti and Saint Kitts & Nevis in the tournament’s Group Stage, which also serves as qualifying for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in May and June in South Korea.
Danny Acosta, Justen Glad, Brooks Lennon and Sebastian Saucedo all will don the Stars and Stripes while representing the Claret-and-Cobalt, while Aaron Herrera, now a sophomore at the University of New Mexico, played with those players at the RSL Academy in Casa Grande, Arizona.
Ramos was asked about that connection in a conference call with reporters this week.
“That’s a great point because this is where you have to give a lot of credit to Martin Vasquez because these are all the players that played for Martin for RSL in Arizona,” Ramos said. “This is just the beginning of the connection between RSL and what they did in Arizona so Martin has done a tremendous job with these players.”
During their time at the Academy, Lennon, Glad and Saucedo all started for the 2013 U-16 champions under the guidance of current RSL Assistant Coach Freddy Juarez. Lennon, coming on loan from Liverpool for the 2017 season as RSL’s latest Homegrown Player, finished the championship match with one goal and two assists and drew the penalty for the fourth goal in a 4-2 win over Solar Chelsea. Glad had the late game-winner in that match, as well.
Many of those same players also reached the tournament final in 2014 and 2015, falling to the LA Galaxy and Chicago Fire, respectively. That championship experience at the youth level didn’t go unnoticed by Ramos.
“Most of these players were the champions in the development academy or made it to the finals, but they were definitely the best team there. So a lot of credit to Martin Vasquez and what he did and a credit to RSL for putting together such a great program in Arizona,” Ramos said.
In a matter of months the academy will shift from Arizona to the new training complex in Herriman, Utah, where RSL Owner Dell Loy Hansen invested $50 million in building the new facility to house Real Salt Lake, the USL’s Real Monarchs and RSL’s youth development.
But in the meantime, focus shifts to Costa Rica, where one quarter of the team Ramos brought for the CONCACAF tournament has RSL ties. The U.S. opens with a tough opponent in Panama, who reached the tournament final in 2015 only to be drawn in a difficult group at the World Cup and went winless in three matches.
Ramos is keenly aware of the tough task ahead as the U.S. looks to get off to a fast start on Saturday.
“We have a tough one to start. This is going to be a very tough team to start the tournament with,” he said. “We’re approaching this game as the only game we’re worrying about at this point and then once we get past this one, we’ll worry about whoever the next opponent is. Our only concern is Panama.”
