HC Jita has named the 21 who will wear the colors for the USA Aug. 5-24 in the Brittany region of nortwestern France. There is one local player, Forward Erin Gilroy out of Bellmore playing for Tennessee with 4 games and 2 goals for the team thus far. This decision was reached at the culmination of training camp in Portland and 2 games with Brazil. There are 16 collegiate players and 5 youth club members all entering college this fall. Those 5 were each in the inagural season of the USSDA for the girls. Klimkova stated, "Honestly these were some of the toughest decisions I've had to make in my coaching career. The overall pool was so competitive and we needed every training session and game . We are confident the team we picked is the best team. "
Some NUMBERS:
-6 players who were not part of the qualifying in Trinidad & Tobago.
-3 players return for their 2nd go around with the team.
-10 players were in the 2017 U-17 Cup in Jordan.
-21 career goals at the U-20 level for Sophia Smith, 10 in 15 games this year, 9 game scoring streak, this is a Youth National Team record, tying Michelle Akers from 1991 and #4 on U-20's all time.
-16 nations in 4 groups, the top 2 go to knock out quaterfinals, all 32 games at 4 venues.
-21 players, 6 entering college, 10 sophmores, 5 juniors.
-36 goals in 19 games by Penelope Hocking to lead the USSDA and the So Cal Blues.
-21 players representing 9 states.
Aug. 6, the US plays Japan, next up is Paraguay on Aug. 9, followed by Spain in the last of the group matches on Aug. 13. Every US game is on FS2. "Every camp we've had has been a learning process", stated Kilmkova. "Now it's time for the players to perform with confidence at the highest levels for this group age." Klimkova has this as her first World Cup for the US since she took over in Apr. 2017, but was HC of the New Zealand U-17's in Costa Rica in 2014 and an asst. for them in the U-20's in Canada also in '14.