November 28, 2001 – Toronto, ON – Budding Toronto Lynx superstar Adrian Serioux has been named to the USL Select squad which will tour Portugal in December. The talented defender is the lone Canadian selected for the tour, which will run from December 10 until December 20 under the guidance of Rochester Raging Rhinos coach Pat Ercoli.
The team will be based at the Rio Maior Training Centre, a two-year old live-in facility used by Portugal’s national team and major domestic clubs. A series of five exhibition matches will be played, likely against reserve squads from Benfica and Sporting Lisbon and with three second division clubs. The Select squad will also train alongside and scrimmage with the Portuguese U20 national team with whom they will be sharing the Rio Maior training facility.
"The purpose of the tour is to highlight some of USL’s top prospects who are primarily in the early stages of their careers," said USL President Francisco Marcos. "We wanted some players who may not be All-Stars at this point in their careers, but have an enormous amount of potential. In addition to age, we also wanted to include players from various ethnic backgrounds for international transfer reasons."
Serioux is thrilled to be chosen for the tour and to represent the Toronto Lynx and Canada, saying "It will be a great experience to travel and experience European soccer first hand. We’ll be going with a great bunch of guys and I am looking forward to showing everybody how good Canadian soccer players are."
USL Select Tour Roster
Goalkeepers
Scott Vallow Rochester Raging Rhinos, 24, USA
Justin Papadakis, Atlanta Silverbacks Jrs./Benfica U17, 16, USA
Defenders
Chris Gores, Minnesota Thunder, 23, USA
Destin Makumbu, Milwaukee Rampage, 19, England
Mark Schulte, Minnesota Thunder, 24, USA
Adrian Serioux, Toronto Lynx, 22, Canada
Billy Sleeth, Seattle Sounders Select, 22, USA
Midfielders
Steve Armas, Minnesota Thunder, 24, USA
Steve Bernal, Milwaukee Rampage, 23, USA
Sean-Michael Callahan, Atlanta Silverbacks, 23, USA
Ishmael Mintah, Sioux Falls SpitFire, 22, Ghana
Leonardo Peirano, Indiana Invaders, 25, Uruguay
Bato Radoncic, Milwaukee Rampage, 21, Yugoslavia
Ze Roberto, Hershey Wildcats, 23, Brazil
Forwards
Steve Butcher, Rochester Raging Rhinos, 24, USA
Teofilo Cubillas, Wilmington Hammerheads, 23, USA/Peru
Fabio Eidelwein, Sioux Falls SpitFire, 25, Brazil
Johnny Menyongar, Minnesota Thunder, 22, Liberia
John Wolyniec, Milwaukee Rampage, 24, USA
