ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop sophomore Daniel DiBiagio and incoming freshman Matt Stinson have each been called up to the Under-20 Canadian National Soccer Team, which is headed to Alicante, Spain in August for the L’Alcudia Tournament.
Canada is one of four national teams participating in the tournament as the team will be traveling from Aug. 9-20.
"We are certainly pleased and happy that both Daniel DiBiagio and Matt Stinson have been selected to the Canadian U-20 Team,” said Winthrop head men’s soccer coach Rich Posipanko. “It is a huge honor to play for your country, and we want what is best for Daniel and Matt. We only wish the timing was better and it did not overlap with our preseason. We hope this will only be a minor setback in developing and putting our team together. We should have plenty of time to get these players in the line-up and develop good team chemistry over the first few games. We expect both of these players to play major roles in our team for many years.”
DiBiagio was a starter and an All-Big South selection as a freshman for Winthrop in 2009. Stinson is expected to see plenty of playing time this coming season for the Eagles.
The tournament has two groups and Canada is in a group with the U-20 teams from Uzbekistan, Guinea and Ecuador. Canada will open up on Friday Aug. 13 against Santos FC (Brazil). The team will also face Valencia FC (Spain) on Aug. 15, Guinea on Aug. 17 and the game on Aug. 20 is still to be announced.