Three Georgia United players called up to El Salvador youth national teams

Eric Garcia, Junior Pineda, and Carlos Pineda have been called up to the El Salvador youth national teams. All three players feature for Georgia United; Junior Pineda plays for the U18's while Carlos Pineda and Eric Garcia play for the U16's.

The Pinedas became well known as products of the Atlanta Eagles program, which is part of the Georgia United Soccer Alliance of clubs.

Junior played forward for the Georgia United U18's this past season, playing in 18 matches and scoring five goals. Carlos, a forward as well, played for the U16's, featuring in 29 games and scoring four goals. Eric played primarily for the U16's, but did see action for the U18's twice last season. He played 33 games in total for Georgia United last season, scoring three times.

Here's a goal from Carlos in a US Soccer Developmental Academy match against the Capital Area Railhawks on April 24.

They were discovered by El Salvador at a recent player identification camp held May 4 in Norcross.

Organizing the camp was Eduardo Lara, who joined the Salvadoran federation. Lara recently coached the Colombian U20 squad that reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup in 2011. During his time in Colombia, he was part of the development of many of the current national team's stars.

Lara is now organizing the youth national teams in El Salvador and scouting for players in the United States is a part of that effort.

Eric and Junior left for El Salvador on June 7 for a training camp to determine the El Salvador U20 team for the upcoming UNCAF tournament that serves as a U20 World Cup qualifier. Carlos will likely travel to El Salvador in a few weeks for another training camp with the U20's.