Beneath the Crust: Soto joins U-20s in Florida and 2018 College Cup brackets

2018 Concacaf U-20 Championship

Sebastian Soto trained with Bobby Wood and the Hannover first team on the 6th before flying to Florida after being named to the US U20 squad for the qualification stage of the 2018 Concacaf U20 Champsionship at IMG in Bradenton. He joins David Ochoa as the the US squad prepares to face Costa Rica on Friday at 3:30 MDT and Honduras on the following Monday at 4:00 MDT. Should the US finish first in this three team group they are ensured a berth in next years FIFA U20 World Cup in Poland and a chance to defend their 2017 Concacaf Championship title against the winner of a group which includes Panama, Mexico and El Salvador. These matches can be streamed live at concacafgo.com as part of the free trial offered by the service until December 2nd.

2018 NCAA College Cup

The brackets for the 2018 College Cup were announced earlier today and several former academy players will have the chance to follow in the footsteps of Corey Baird who helped lead his Stanford Cardinal to the 2018 College Cup before signing with RSL as a homegrown player.

Senior Tate Schmitt was instrumental playing in the midfield as his Louisville Cardinals made a fantastic run to take the ACC tournament championship defeating nationally ranked Notre Dame, Wake Forest and North Carolina in the process. Given the 4th overall seed in the 2018 brackets Louisville will have a first round bye before facing the winner of the Michigan State and University of Illinois - Chicago on the 17th at home in Louisville.

Another senior, Amar Sejdic, played 1600 minutes in midfield for the Maryland Terrapins who were another of the nine ACC teams to receive bids for the 2018 College Cup. Seeded 11th overall, Maryland was also given a first round bye before playing the winner of NC State and Campbell on Saturday the 17th.

Regular starters Erik Holt, a senior central defender, and Eric Iloski, a sophomore defender, will be likely to appear for UCLA as they travel north for a first round matchup with Portland at Merlo Field on Thursday at 5 PM MST. Junior Alex Knox, who transferred from Wake Forest after his freshman season, and forward Milan Iloski, another sophomore who has been receiving additional minutes as the season progressed may also appear.

Finally, freshman Sam Tojaga, a regular starter with Akron who won the MAC tournament championship, will also be in action on Thursday as the Darts face Rider at home in FirstEnergy Stadium - Cub Cadet Field at 5 PM MST.

USSDA Real Salt Lake U17 / U19 matches

Both academy squads also have home matches at the Zions Bank facility this Saturday against a couple of tough Vancouver Whitecaps squads that are near the top of the standings in the Northwest USSDA table. The U17s play first at 11 AM and the U19s take over at 1:30 PM in what will be their final home matches until March of 2019.