PORTLAND, Ore. – Well, there certainly could be worse places to go for national team camp. Timbers defender Bryan Gallego re-joined the Portland Timbers from the U.S. U-23 Men's National Team camp in the Bahamas on Friday.
No stranger to the youth national team system at the U-18 and U-20 levels, Gallego participated in his first camp with the U.S. U-23s and earned his first cap with the team under the direction and eye of U.S. senior national team coaches.
“It was a great experience,” said Gallego. “Getting called into the national team is always a great honor, and the camp was really good. I got to see a lot of old faces that I grew up playing at the youth levels with. The training sessions went really well. We had the first-team staff with Tab [Ramos] and [Andi Herzog], so it was a great experience to train in front of them.”
The five-day camp concluded with a friendly against the senior Bahamas National Team on Wednesday at Thompson A. Robinson National Stadium in Nassau, Bahamas. Gallego came off the bench in the second half to help the U.S. U-23s to a 5-1 victory.
Gallego has spent a majority of the 2014 season – his first as a professional – out on loan, and has played in six matches with Arizona United SC of USL PRO, logging more than 500 minutes and one assist.
