United States under-20 national team coach Thomas Rongen called up 21 players to participate in the teamÆs final training camp before the 2007 CONCACAF qualifying tournament Jan. 17-21 in Panama City, Panama.

The players and staff arrived in Bradenton, Fla., on Saturday and will train through Jan. 6 at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
 
Missing from the camp are Michael Bradley of Dutch club Heerenveen and Johann Smith of England's Bolton Wanderers. Bradley's availability for qualifying has not yet been confirmed, which forced Rongen to delay the announcement of his final camp roster and to bring 21 players into camp. (He will take 20 players to Panama). Smith will be released by Bolton for the qualifying tournament and will join the team when it regroups on Jan. 10 in Fort Lauderdale.

ôWith more and more of our youth national team players abroad, we are entering into an area that is similar to what our senior national team encounters on a frequent basis, and that is the challenge of getting players released,ö said Rongen. ôWhile Heerenveen has been cooperative in releasing Robbie Rogers, right now we are still in discussions with the club to try and obtain Michael Bradley for the tournament. With the unknown of MichaelÆs availability, we wanted to bring in one or two extra players in the event he is not available, which would force us to make some changes. At the end of this camp we will narrow it down to the 20 players that will represent us in Panama.ö

Of the 26 players that participated in the U-20s' last camp in the middle of December, 19 were invited back for this final camp. Dax McCarty of FC Dallas was the only pro dropped. Along with Rogers, forward Preston Zimmerman, who plays for Hamburg in Germany, is the only other player on the roster that was not in the prior camp in Bradenton.

The U.S. will play Guatemala, Haiti and host Panama in CONCACAF Group A. The top two teams in the group will qualify for the U-20 World Cup in Canada, which will take place from June 30-July 22 across six cities — Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, Burnaby and Victoria. The U.S. will be attempting to qualify for the sixth straight time.

U.S. U-20 ROSTER:

GOALKEEPERS (2): Brian Perk (UCLA), Chris Seitz (University of Maryland).

DEFENDERS (9): Kyle Davies (Ballistic United), Amaechi Igwe (Santa Clara University), Quavas Kirk (L.A. Galaxy), Ofori Sarkodi (Indiana University), Nathan Sturgis (L.A. Galaxy), Julian Valentin (Wake Forest University), Blake Wagner (FC Dallas), Anthony Wallace (University of South Florida), Tim Ward (Columbus Crew).

MIDFIELDERS (5): Freddy Adu (D.C. United), Bryan Arguez (West Kendall Optimists), Jeremy Hall (University of Maryland), Danny Szetela (Columbus Crew), Jonathan Villanueva (University of Virginia).

FORWARD (5): Andre Akpan (Harvard University), Josmer Altidore (N.Y. Red Bulls), Robbie Rogers (Heerenveen/Netherlands), Preston Zimmerman (Hamburg/Germany), Sal Zizzo (UCLA).