Gale Agbossoumonde will not be going overseas just yet. Two days after USL-1 rival Puerto Rico Islanders advanced in the Champions League, Miami FC has upgraded its squad just before making the trip to face the Islanders.

Miami FC today signed the US U-20 team Central Defender who should fill in a key role as a defender for Thomas Rongen’s side in the upcoming U-20 World Cup. 17 year old Gale, played a major role in the qualifying tournament this spring, even though the final was aborted thanks to the Mexican Swine Flu outbreak.

Miami FC is in desperate need of bolstering its squad and this signing should certainly help, although the club will lose Gale to the U-20 World Cup for about a month. The  Blues currently sit in the final USL-1 playoff spot but is being chased by the Montreal Impact, a team with more experienced players and a much better historical track record of success in this league.

Here is the current USL-1 Table:

Carolina        39

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Charleston    38

Portland        36

Puerto Rico   35

Rochester     29

Vancouver    26

Miami           25

Montreal       23

Minnesota    15

Austin           14

Cleveland     13

Austin was deducted two points for fielding a suspended player

Agbossoumonde, who moved from Benin to Syracuse with his family in 2000 is considered a top prospect for the US program. Here is an outstanding story on the youngster from Goal.com.

Gale scored the loan goal in the US’ U-18  1-0 win against Finland in Lisbon on May 27th.