U.S. U-20 women head to France for World Cup dress rehearsal

• by Mike Woitalla  @MikeWoitalla, May 28, 2018

Coach Jitka Klimkova  has named a 22-player roster for games against Germany (June 5), Haiti (June 7) and host France (June 10) at the Tournoi Maurice Revello Sud Ladies Cup in Salon-de-Provence, which is about 30 miles north of Marseille.

The USA is preparing for the 2018 U-20 World Cup, which will be held in four venues in the Brittany region of France Aug. 5-24.

• The USA beat Haiti in a penalty-kick shootout after a 1-1 tie in the Concacaf U-20 Championship before failing on PKs to Mexico in the final. Haiti upset Canada in the third-place game to book its first ticket to a women's world championship.

• Germany fell, 2-1, to France in the UEFA European Women’s U-19 Championship semifinals. France lost, 3-2, to Spain in the final.

• Klimkova’s roster is comprised of seven players born in 1998 (the cut-off year for the 2018 U-20 World Cup), 11 1999s and four 2000s.

• Seventeen of the 22 players are collegians and five are youth club players heading to college next fall: defender Naomi Girma (California Thorns/Stanford), midfielders Jaelin Howell (Real Colorado/Florida State), Brianna Pinto (NTH Tophat/UNC) and forwards Sophia Smith (Real Colorado/Stanford) and Penelope Hocking (So Cal Blues/USC).

• Four players play at UCLA (Karina Rodriguez, Ashley Sanchez, Delanie Sheehan and Viviana Villacorta), three at the University of Virginia (Laurel Ivory, Alexa Spaanstra and Taryn Torres) and two at Stanford (Samantha Hiatt and Kiara Pickett) and USC (Tara McKeown and Savannah DeMelo).

U.S. U-20 women's national team
GOALKEEPERS (2): Laurel Ivory (Virginia; Surfside, Fla.), Amanda McGlynn (Virginia Tech; Jacksonville, Fla.).
DEFENDERS (7): Naomi Girma (California Thorns FC; San Jose, Calif.), Samantha Hiatt (Stanford; Newcastle, Wash.), Tara McKeown (USC; Newbury Park, Calif.), Zoe Morse (Virginia; East Lansing, Mich.), Kiara Pickett (Stanford; Santa Barbara, Calif.), Isabel Rodriguez (Ohio State; Canton, Mich.), Karina Rodriguez (UCLA; Torrance, Calif.).
MIDFIELDERS (6): Savannah DeMelo (USC; Bellflower, Calif.), Jaelin Howell (Real Colorado; Windsor, Colo.), Brianna Pinto (NTH Tophat; Durham, N.C.), Delanie Sheehan (UCLA; Brentwood, Calif.), Viviana Villacorta (UCLA; Lawndale, Calif.), Natalie Winters (Iowa; Plymouth, Mich.).
FORWARDS (7): Erin Gilroy (Tennessee; Bellmore, N.Y.), Penelope Hocking (So Cal Blues; Anaheim, Calif.), Abigail Kim (California; Vashon, Wash.), Ashley Sanchez (UCLA; Monrovia, Calif.), Sophia Smith (Real Colorado; Windsor, Colo.), Alexa Spaanstra (Virginia; Brighton, Mich.), Taryn Torres (Virginia; Frisco, Texas).