Unique Opportunity: Heat’s Felix Garcia Named to United States Under-20 Men’s National Team

On Tuesday, January 15th, U.S. Under – 20 Men’s National Team head coach Thomas Rongen named 16 players to his initial roster for the Copa Chivas tournament in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Among the players named by Coach Rongen was Laredo’s very own Felix Garcia.

Felix is currently a student at LBJ High School and this past summer played with the Laredo Heat Soccer Club. Felix was an integral part of the Laredo Heat and it was Felix that hit the game winning penalty kick that gave the Heat the 2007 United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League Championship.

“After winning the PDL Championship, I started making some calls to our contacts with the U.S. Soccer Federation to put Felix on their radar”, said Heat Owner and CEO Shashi Vaswani. “When I heard the recent news on Felix, I literally got goose bumps. To be given an opportunity to play on a United States National Team is just a tremendous honor”, added Vaswani.

Vaswani also mentioned, “We have always said that our goal is to use the sport of soccer as a vehicle to create opportunities to further education and if possible, create soccer careers for our youth and right now with Felix, I do not think there is a better example of this”. Vaswani also said, “We will continue to strive towards creating more opportunities for our youth by putting our teams, the City of Laredo and our players on national and international soccer scenes”.

Vaswani concluded, “At this point, it’s really up to Felix to show his skill and determination and if he has a great showing at this event, who knows, he might well be on his way to represent the United States in Egypt in 2009 when the U-20 National Team plays in the Under-20 FIFA World Cup”.

Felix will be heading to Bradenton, Florida from January 20th to January 24th where he will train with the Under-20 National Team before Coach Rongen leads the team to Guadalajara and Copa Chivas on January 24th. While in Bradenton, Felix will be under the watchful eyes of both Coach Rongen and U.S. Under – 18 Head Coach Bob Jenkins, who will be holding a 72 player mega camp, and since both camps will be going on at the same location, both coaches will have a chance to look at nearly 100 eligible players for the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt. Before leaving to Mexico to compete in the tournament, Rongen will select a handful of players in the U-18 camp to round out the U-20 roster.

The U.S. will play five games in five days in group play, meaning Rongen will use a number of different lineups to give his players enough rest. The U.S. will kick off the tournament against America (Mexico) on Saturday, January 26th and then play Tecos (Mexico), Locomotiv de Moscu (Russia), Estudiantes de la Plata (Argentina) and Santos (Mexico). If the U.S. advances, they could move on to the quarterfinals (January 31st), the semifinals (February 1st) or even the final (February 2nd).

For additional information on the Laredo Heat Soccer Club, please visit our website at www.laredoheatsc.com or call the Heat office at 723 – 4700 and for additional information on the U.S. Under – 20 Men’s National Team, please see the links below:

http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_4685834.html

http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_4554757.html