Sporting Kansas City forward Teal Bunbury was named to the United States Under-23 Men’s National Team roster for a training camp to be held from December 15-23 in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, U.S. Soccer announced on Thursday.
Bunbury, 21, is one of six forwards invited to the 28-player training camp in preparation for the 2012 CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament, to be held from March 22nd through April 2nd.
The top two teams from each group will advance to play at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park with the region’s two berths in the 2012 Olympic Games in London to be decided in the semifinal matches on March 31st. The state-of-the-art new stadium, which also hosted the U.S. Men’s National Team in the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup, will then serve as the site of the tournament championship on April 2nd.
Ticket information will be released by CONCACAF later this month and the matches will be broadcast by Universal Sports Network (English) and Telemundo (Spanish).
In his second professional season, Bunbury tied for the team lead with nine goals during the 2011 MLS regular season and scored twice in Sporting Kansas City’s postseason run to the Eastern Conference Championship match last month. Coupled with his five goals and two assists in his rookie season one year ago, Bunbury leads all 2010 MLS SuperDraft selections in both goals and points.
Taken in the first round out of Akron, Bunbury will again be playing for his former college coach Caleb Porter, who was selected to lead the U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team in October. Bunbury, who debuted for the full U.S. Men’s National Team in November 2010 and scored in his second appearance in January 2011, most recently participated in two training camps with the senior squad in the past three months.
Bunbury was also invited to the U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team training camp in Germany last month, but withdrew following the 2011 MLS Cup Playoffs. Fellow teammate and Sporting Kansas City Home Grown goalkeeper Jon Kempin was one of 11 players to participate in the camp who were also age-eligible for the U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team.
