Two Former Clemson Players are on the United States U23 National Team

Feb. 15, 2007

Clemson, SC – U.S. U-23 and full national team head coach Bob Bradley has called 20 players – including 17 from the Major League Soccer ranks – to The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., for a training camp ahead of the side’s scheduled two-match tour of Japan later this month.

The first U-23 camp under Bradley, the former Chivas USA coach, and his U-23 assistant, former D.C. United boss Peter Nowak, opened over the weekend, bringing together much of the core of the team that will be looking to secure qualification to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“This is a good opportunity to get together with many of our domestic-based players and begin to instill some of the ideas that will be the foundation of our work together,” Bradley said. “This is the beginning of a long process of preparing for Olympic qualifying, and we’re fortunate to get a couple of quality matches in Japan as we get started.”

Included in this group are former Clemson players, Nathan Sturgis of the Los Angeles Galaxy and Stuart Holden of Houston. Sturgis was an All-American at Clemson in 2005. Holden played at Clemson in 2003.

The Americans will depart for Asia on Friday and will take on the Japanese U-23 national team on Feb. 21. Two days later they will face a Japanese club team, after which they will return to the U.S. to rejoin their respective club teams at their MLS preseason camps.