Marky Delgado called up to USMNT U-20 World Cup roster

Marky Delgado is coming home, for a time before heading all the way to New Zealand.

U.S. Soccer released the roster for the U.S. Men's National Team Under-20 World Cup squad on Thursday, and former Chivas USA Homegrown player Delgado was part of the roster. U.S. U-20 head coach Tab Ramos has one more name he can add to the final roster before the deadline on May 15.

Delgado, along with his U-20 teammates, will head to the U.S. National Team training center in Carson starting May 11, before heading down under, where they will land and train in Australia before taking the short trip to the World Cup, to be held in New Zealand May 30-June 20.

For his part, the former Goat expressed his appreciation at the call-up on Twitter this morning:

Extremely honored to be able to represent my country in New Zealand at the 2015 U20 World Cup! #1N1T

— Marky Delgado (@MarkyDelgado) May 7, 2015

Delgado, now with Toronto FC after Chivas USA's folding in October, made his competitive debut just last night for the Canadian side, a 1-0 loss to the Montreal Impact in the Canadian Championship semifinal first leg. Delgado, reunited with coaches Greg Vanney and Robin Fraser, who were in charge at Chivas when he signed his Homegrown deal in 2012, has somewhat surprisingly not been assigned to TFC's USL team, Toronto FC II, so far this season despite not seeing any playing time with the first team until last night.

It's also a bit of a surprise to see Delgado get the nod for the World Cup because Ramos left him off the CONCACAF qualifying tournament roster earlier this year. Still, he gets a chance to play on the big stage, which is the important thing, really.

One other player with former Chivas USA Academy ties, LA Galaxy attacker Bradford Jamieson IV, was also named to the World Cup roster. A third player, striker Ben Spencer, who played in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament with Jamieson and is ironically now on loan to TFC II, has not been selected to the World Cup roster, although I suppose there's a chance he could be the final call-up.

The U.S. have been drawn into Group A, alongside Ukraine, Myanmar, and hosts New Zealand. The draw is perceived to be far friendlier than the 2013 U-20 World Cup for the Americans, and they'll be expected to get out of the group stage at the very least.

Congratulations to Marky, and best of luck in your World Cup preparations and the tournament itself!

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