Grande Sports Academy home of Real Salt Lake Arizona Academy will be three players short this weekend as Sebastian “Bofo” Saucedo, Justen Glad and Brooks Lennon have all been called up to the U17 MNT to participate in the 2013 Caspian Cup in Azerbaijan.
Glad was in the Residency Program for US Soccer earlier this year and was on the U17 team that was unfortunately eliminated from the U17 World Cup when they lost, 3-1, to Honduras in the quarterfinals of the 2013 CONCACAF U-17 Championship.
Bofo and Lennon were called into a U17 camp in March and clearly caught the eye of the coaches with their performances. In two exhibition games vs U15 MNT and Real So Cal, Lennon scored 2 goals and had 2 assists. Bofo scored 1 goal and drew rave reviews.
The Caspian Cup features 12 countries divided up into 4 groups of three teams.
Participating countries:
Group A: Azerbaijan, USA, Kyrgyzstan
Group B: Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Georgia
Group C: Turkey, Uzbekistan, Jordan
Group D: Uruguay, Japan, Tajikistan
The Cup will begin on May 29th and the U17 MNT will play the following day vs Kyrgyzstan. Two days later on April 1st, U17 MNT will play their final group game vs hosts Azerbaijan.
Only 1 team from each group can advance to the winners bracket that will be played on June 3rd. If USA wins their group they will play the winner of Group B. The winners in this round will then meet in the Championship game on June 5th.
The teams that finish in second and third place in their group will still be guaranteed 2 more games that will be played on June 2nd and 4th.
USA Group Game Schedule – (ALL TIMES ARE ARIZONA) Azerbaijan is also 12 hours ahead of Arizona.
Thursday, May 30th
U17 MNT vs Kyrgyzstan – Dalgha Arena at 5:00am
Saturday, June 1st
U17 MNT vs Azerbaijan – Bayil Stadium at 8:00am