Enlarge By Schalk van Zuydam, AP Midfielder Mikkel Diskerud was born in Norway but has American roots through his Arizona-born mother. CARSON, Calif.  The U.S. men's soccer team preparing for its first game of the year Saturday night against Chile includes four players who represent a trend. Midfielder Mikkel Diskerud and forwards Juan Agudelo, Teal Bunbury and Eugene Starikov symbolize a talented young vanguard that is eligible to play for the USA despite being born or raised outside the country. Some, such as Bunbury and Diskerud, played for other nation's youth teams. But if they were born in the USA, have an American parent or hold an American passport and have not chosen to represent another country at the senior level in an official competitive match, they remain eligible. "I'm dedicated to the U.S.," says the Canadian-born Bunbury, 20, a rookie last year with Major League Soccer's Kansas City Wizards. "I'm glad with the decision I made." Agudelo, a native of Colombia, and the Norwegian-born Diskerud already made an impact. Agudelo, 18, converted the 20-year-old Diskerud's pass for the only goal in the USA's 1-0 victory over South Africa on Nov. 17. "It's important in soccer these days to be very aware of your radar screen," U.S. coach Bob Bradley says. Monitoring that screen involves making contacts with overseas clubs, receiving inquires from players and agents and researching the Internet as well as printed sources. "It's a little bit harder for somebody to fall through the cracks," U.S. assistant coach Mike Sorber says. Trying to ensure that nobody does is Thomas Rongen, coach of the USA's under-20 men's team who was an assistant at the 1998 World Cup and a head coach in MLS. "I spend probably about half my time for about eight months really, really digging these people up," Rongen says. "We're up to 425 names of players as young as 13 and 14 playing abroad. I didn't think we were aware of most of them. Of the 425, I had over 200 in my particular age group." Among those 200 are Houston-born midfielder Fabian Huerzeler, 17, who grew up in Germany and plays for Bayern Munich's reserve team. Huerzeler, the captain for Germany's U-16 and U-17 squads, just finished his first U-20 camp with the USA. Another is El Paso's Omar Salgado, the first overall pick in last week's MLS draft. Salgado, 17, played with Mexico's U-20 team before choosing to wear the USA's uniform. "There's no sales pressure," Rongen says. "It's important that they really, firmly believe it's an honor to represent their country. That's important because players and coaches will know. "The guys I've dealt with are very proud of representing this country, without a doubt." Some connections are easy: Bunbury, a resident in the USA since he was 10, led the NCAA with 17 goals for Akron in 2007. Some take more planning: Rongen talked to Bayern coach Louis van Gaal, a fellow Dutchman, before inviting Huerzeler to his camp. Others happen spontaneously. While in Mexico for a tournament last January, Rongen arranged a game between his U-20s and a similar squad from a Norwegian club, Stabaek. "The head coach comes over to me at halftime to talk shop and says, 'I think my number 10 is an American,'" Rongen recalls. "So I walk up and introduce myself." That player was Diskerud, whose mother comes from Arizona. "I go, 'OK, Mikkel, would you have any interest in coming to one of our training camps?'" Rongen continues. "He says, 'Yeah, I would love to.'" Starikov, born in 1988 in the former Soviet Union, plays in Russia but owns an American passport. When Russian authorities delayed renewing Starikov's visa, Bradley invited him to this month's camp. As Rongen says, "it's pretty amazing how all this works." We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more