Junior Burgos To Train With El Salvador National Team
Courtesy: San Jose State Athletics
Junior Burgos in action for San Jose State inside Spartan Stadium against Stanford on August 31, 2008. (Photo by Damon Tarver)
Los Angeles, Calif. - San Jose State University’s Efrain Burgos, Jr., has been invited to a three-day training camp of the El Salvador men’s soccer national team in Los Angeles, Calif.
El Salvador will be going through its preparations for an international friendly with Peru, to be held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Friday, February 6, beginning at 8:00 p.m.
Burgos will fly down to Los Angeles on Monday, February 2, to join the squad, and then train with the national side Tuesday through Thursday, February 3-5, in advance of the Peru contest. He will be attempting to earn, at minimum, a spot on the bench for Friday night’s warm-up match. Should he find his way onto the field, it would mark his first full international cap for El Salvador. El Salvador opens the final qualifying round for the 2010 FIFA World Cup just five short days later, at home against Trinidad and Tobago on February 11.
“This would be one of the top experiences of my lifetime, to be able to play for the country I was born in,” said Burgos. “I have been getting ready for this opportunity. Now that I have the chance, I just want to work as hard as I can and show them that I deserve to be there. I’m very grateful for the opportunity.”
El Salvador lost to host Honduras, 2-0, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Monday, January 26, but still advanced to the semifinals of the Central American Nations Cup this Friday, January 30, against Costa Rica, and clinched a sixth trip to the CONCACAF Gold Cup despite the result.
Burgos concluded his sophomore campaign at San Jose State in November of 2008. He lists San Bruno, Calif., as his hometown, and is a 2006 graduate of Westmoor High School in Daly City, Calif., but was born in Santa Ana, El Salvador, and spent his early childhood there while playing for El Salvador at the U-9 through U-12 levels before moving to the United States. His father, Efrain Burgos, is a former member of the El Salvador national team.
As an attacking central midfielder, Burgos started 11 of 13 games played this past season, and was second on the team with 13 total points from five goals and three assists. One of his goals was an incredible strike of over 50 yards from just inside his own half, to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead in the second half of a 1-1 draw at top rival Santa Clara University on September 24. The score helped earn him MPSF Player of the Week recognition on September 29. Burgos led the entire Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with 77 shots, 30 of them on goal.