Roster: U.S. U-18 men, including 16-year-old, head to Spain

• by Mike Woitalla  @MikeWoitalla, Oct 3, 2017

Southern Californian Julian Araujo, now at Arizona’s Barcelona Academy, at 16 years old, is the youngest player on Coach Omid Namazi’s roster for this U.S. U-18 men’s national team's final camp, Oct. 1-10 in Marbella, Spain. The squad includes six foreign-based players, including Schalke 04 U-19 attacker Nick Taitague.

Besides the 2001-born Araujo, all the other players are 1999-born and move up to U-20 in in 2018. The Spain

“I feel we have a very strong roster going into this camp. We are looking to end the U-18 player cycle, players born in 1999, on a good note,” said Namazi, whose team’s competition in Spain includes games against Belgium and Russia.

• Midfielder Christian Cappis, MVP of the 2017 Development Academy U-17/18 champion Texans SC Houston, recently joined FC Dallas’ academy.

• Six players are making their first U.S. U-18 appearance of 2017: Araujo, Taitague, Nebiyou Perry, Paul Rothrock, Juan Pablo Torres and Sam Vines.

GOALKEEPERS (2): Eric Lopez (LA Galaxy II; Los Angeles, Calif.), Brady Scott (FC Cologne/GER; Petaluma, Calif.).
DEFENDERS (6): Julian Araujo (Barca Academy Arizona; Lompoc, Calif.), Mark McKenzie (Wake Forest; Bear, Delaware), Matthew Real (Bethlem Steel/Philadelphia Union; Drexel Hill, Pa.), Aedan Stanely (Saint Louis FC Academy; Columbia, Ill.), Angel Uribe (Club Tijuana U-20s/MEX; San Diego, Calif.), Carson Vom Steeg (Stanford; Santa Barbara, Calif.)..
MIDFIELDERS (7): Christian Cappis (FC Dallas academy; Katy, Texas) Jose Carranza (North Carolina FC; Masassas, Va.), Paxton Pomykal (FC Dallas; Highland Village, Texas), Paul Rothrock (Notre Dame; Seattle, Wash.), Brandon Servania (Wake Forest; Birmingham, Ala.), Juan Pablo Torres (Sporting Lokoren/BEL; Lilburn, Ga.), Sam Vines (Charlotte Independence; Charlotte, N.C.)..
FORWARDS (5): Shaft Brewer (RB Leipzig U-19/GER; Sacramento, Calif.), Griffin Dorsey (Indiana University; Evergreen, Colo.) Emanuel Perez (NC State; Garner, N.C.), Nebiyou Perry (AIK/SWE; New York, N.Y.), Nick Taitague (Schalke 04 U-19/GER; Midlothian, Va.).