Sept. 21, 2006
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - United States Women's National Team head coach Greg Ryan announced his 24-player training camp roster Thursday for the squad's Oct. 1 friendly against Chinese Taipei. His roster includes a trio of former Santa Clara soccer standouts, as starting midfielders Leslie Osborne and Aly Wagner will be joined in camp by forward and 2005 SCU graduate Megan Kakadelas.
Kakadelas, a native of Carlsbad, Calif., transferred to the Mission Campus after her freshman season at USC, where she was named the Pac-10's Freshman of the Year. In three seasons at Santa Clara, she scored 18 goals and registered 26 assists while being a crucial part of two College Cup squads (2002 and `04).
The match will kick off at 1 p.m. live on ESPN2 as the conclusion to the first-ever Women's Nike Friendlies taking place at the HDC from Sept. 28-Oct. 1.
The Women's Nike Friendlies will feature 24 club teams, the U-16 Cal-South Girls' ODP Team, the U.S. U-15 and U-16 Girls' National Teams, and the U.S. U-17 Women's National Team, in four days of matches. The Women's Nike Friendlies will be the first event of its kind for youth women's players, and is modeled after the annual tournament for youth men staged in Bradenton, Fla. Each of the U.S. youth national teams will play three games in an environment which stresses quality soccer and player development over wins and losses. Tournament standings are not kept during the competition.
While 2006 Residency Training Camp came to an end in mid-September, the U.S. team will return for the pre-match training camp to the familiar surrounding of The HDC where the USA was encamped from April until a few weeks ago. Twenty of the 24 players named to the training camp roster were in Residency Training Camp at some point this year, but Ryan has given first call-ups three players while veteran defender Kate Markgraf was named to her first roster since the birth of her son on July 18. Ryan will choose 18 players from this roster to face Chinese Taipei.
Markgraf, a veteran of two Women's World Cups and two Olympic teams, trained with the USA for two days prior to its last match against Mexico in Rochester, N.Y., on Sept. 13, but this training camp marks her official return to the squad. She has played 146 times for the USA.
Forward Danesha Adams will come into her first training camp with the Women's National Team after an excellent performance at the 2006 FIFA U-20 Women's World Championship in Russia last month. Adams led the USA in scoring with three goals and won the Bronze Ball as the third most valuable player in the tournament. She also nailed both of her penalty kicks in the USA's shootout losses in the semifinal and third-place match. Adams, a junior at UCLA, has scored three goals in three matches for the Bruins since returning from Russia.
Ryan also called in two players from the U.S. team that won the FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship in Canada back in 2002. Keeley Dowling, an athletic central defender with a remarkable vertical leap who has seen time with the U.S. Under-21s, gets her first-call up to the senior squad. Dowling, who finished her eligibility at Tennessee in 2004, took ill on the morning of the World Championship final in 2002, but nevertheless put in a gutsy performance. She played the full match plus overtime as the Americans dramatically defeated Canada, 1-0, on a golden goal from current Women's National Team forward Lindsay Tarpley. Dowling, a member of the U.S. U-21s that won the 2004 Nordic Cup, played with the Charlotte Lady Eagles of the USL W-League in 2005, but this year has been playing in the Swedish First Division with KIF Orebro.
Ryan also called in forward Megan Kakadelas, a former Santa Clara University star, who crossed the ball that was eventually pounded home by Tarpley to win the inaugural FIFA youth world championship for women. A slithery dribbler, Kakadelas played her first college season at USC where she was the Pac-10 Freshman of the year. Kakadelas finished her eligibility for the Broncos in 2004.
The U.S. squad is led once again by team captain Kristine Lilly and forward Abby Wambach, the team leaders in scoring this year with eight and 10 goals, respectively. Wambach has 59 career goals in just 77 international matches and is just one away from tying Shannon MacMillan for sixth on the all-time U.S. goal scoring list.
In addition to Adams, Ryan called in two players currently involved in collegiate seasons in defender Stephanie Lopez and forward Megan Rapinoe, both from the University of Portland. Both Pilots saw action in the USA's last match, a 3-1 win over Mexico on Sept. 13. Defender Cat Whitehill will miss this training camp and match as she continues to recover from a foot injury.
The USA will play its final domestic match on Oct. 8 against Iceland at the University of Richmond Stadium in Richmond, Va. The match kicks off at 2 p.m. ET live on ESPN2. After playing Iceland, the USA's next games will be in South Korea at the 2006 Peace Queen Cup that will run from Oct. 28-Nov. 4 in six South Korean cities. That major tournament will lead into CONCACAF Women's World Cup qualifying, which will take the form of the 2006 CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup featuring the USA, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica. The tournament will be held at the end of November in the United States with the dates, match-ups and venues to be determined.
*UNITED STATES WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEAM
Training Camp Roster By Position
The Home Depot Center -- Sept. 26-Oct. 1*
*GOALKEEPERS (3): /*Nicole Barnhart, Briana Scurry, Hope Solo;
*DEFENDERS (8):/* Lori Chalupny, Keeley Dowling, Tina Frimpong, Amy
LePeilbet, Stephanie Lopez, Kate Markgraf, Heather Mitts, Christie Rampone;
*MIDFIELDERS (6):/* Angela Hucles, Carli Lloyd, Joanna Lohman, Marci
Miller, Leslie Osborne, Aly Wagner;
*FORWARDS (7):/* Danesha Adams, Natasha Kai, Megan Kakadelas, Kristine
Lilly, Megan Rapinoe, Lindsay Tarpley, Abby Wambach.