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Just as Graham Zusi and Matt Besler return from the United States National Team, more players might be leaving for national team duties later this month.
Erik Palmer-Brown has been invited to the United States U-20 team that will compete in the 2014 NTC Invitational in Los Angeles. According to Palmer-Brown, he is not sure whether he will accept the invite yet as he is waiting to see what the Sporting Kansas City roster situation is like before he leaves. He also said the decision is more up to Peter Vermes.
Should he accept the invite, he will join the team later this week with their first match coming up against Chile on July 14th. The tournament goes through the 18th, so Palmer-Brown could theoretically miss up to three MLS matches in that span.
Palmer-Brown has had some international experience already this year, playing in a tournament with the U-18 team in an international tournament in Spain. He's played six matches so far with the U-18s, although he did miss a camp and a few friendlies in April.
The next possible call-up is Lawrence Olum, whose native Kenya will be playing a home-and-home playoff against Lesotho in the second round of the 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifiers. They are away to Lesotho on July 20th, then they will host the second leg between August 1st and August 3rd.
Olum said that it is not confirmed that he will be called up, but he did say that the plan is for him to join the Kenyan team for this qualifier. He recently made his debut for Kenya in May when they defeated Comoros in the first round of the qualifiers. He started both matches.
If he were to be called up, he would miss at least four games for Sporting Kansas City. These include three MLS matches and the friendly with Manchester City. It would also be likely that he would miss the July 16th match with Columbus, bringing his total up to four missed MLS matches.
These call-ups will likely be announced in the next couple of weeks, should they happen. In Palmer-Brown's case, I bet a lot hinders on whether Matt Besler is sold to a team abroad or not. If Besler is sold, Palmer-Brown is the only backup centerback on the team behind Collin and Ellis. Olum is available to play centerback but right now he is starting as the holding midfielder and is likely headed to Kenya soon. It'll be interesting to see how everything plays out in the next couple of weeks.