USA announces team for Copa TV
Azteca
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado,
September 19, 2006.-
The U.S. Women’s National Team
will compete in the Azteca Cup
held Sept. 24-29 at Monterrey,
Mexico. The event was a late
addition to Team USA’s schedule.
The Azteca Cup, in its first
year of existence, is an
eight-team tournament broken
into two pools advancing to the
classification round. The U.S.
is grouped in Pool B with
Canada, Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Pool A consists of host Mexico,
Costa Rica, Dominican Republic
and Peru.
The Team USA roster for the
Azteca Cup will be a mixture of
players from the senior and
junior national teams, along
with a couple players who
competed and trained with the
national team earlier this year.
Elisabeth Bachman, Sarah Drury,
Jane Collymore, Sam Tortorello
and Katie Olsovsky represent the
women’s national training team.
Jennifer Doris, Zoe Garrett and
Juliann Faucette earned gold
medals at the NORCECA
Continental Women’s Junior
Championship (U-20) while
competing on the U.S. Women’s
Junior National team in August
at Monterrey, Mexico. Erin
Virtue and Jamie Dekiewiet, who
competed on the USA Tour of
Italy and against Poland this
past spring, round out the U.S.
roster for the Azteca Cup.
Tom Hogan will serve as the head
coach for Team USA at the Azteca
Cup, while Tom Pingel will have
double-duty as assistant coach
and team manager. “Jenny” Lang
Ping, the U.S. women’s national
team coach, will remain in
Colorado Springs to train the
remainder of the U.S. squad not
on the Azteca Cup roster.
Bachman, Drury, Collymore and
Tortorello all competed at the
Pan American Cup, which the U.S.
used to qualify for the 2007
World Grand Prix. Collymore was
inserted on the 2006 World Grand
Prix roster after the first week
of preliminary matches to
replace an injured Ogonna
Nnamani. Collymore will be the
only U.S. player to have
competed in the Pan American
Cup, World Grand Prix and the
Azteca Cup.
“It is important for the players
competing at the Azteca Cup to
gain game experience,” Lang Ping
said. “How well the national
team players do in this
tournament will help make
decisions for the final
12-player World Championship
roster. In addition, the high
school players on the roster
will also have a chance to gain
international experience.” |