Defender Brittany Taylor of Campbell Hall, N.Y. was among 26 players called into an extended 20-day training camp for the U.S. Women's National Team at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. from Jan. 17 through Feb. 4. Taylor is a graduate of ENY ODP.

The camp will give U.S. coach Pia Sundhage a final look at the core of her current player pool before selecting an 18-player roster for the annual Algarve Cup in Portugal.

The United States is grouped with Iceland, Norway and Sweden in the tournament that will run from Feb. 24 through March 3, a week earlier than it is traditionally staged. Germany, Finland, China and Denmark also will participate. The Algarve Cup will be the first international games of the year for the U.S. women, who went 7-0-1 in 2009 and sit atop the FIFA women’s world rankings. Sundhage used 29 players during the eight matches last year.

The Americans will get an opportunity to scrimmage the Korea Republic Women’s National Team twice during the camp, on Thursday, Jan. 21 at 5 p.m. and on Sunday, Jan. 24 at 3 p.m. The Koreans are training in Southern California for three weeks and also will play two games against the U.S. Under-23 Women’s National Team, which is in camp at The Home Depot Center from Jan. 13-20. Like the USA, the Koreans also started a women’s professional soccer league last year

The roster:

Goalkeepers (4): Nicole Barnhart (FC Gold Pride), Jillian Loyden (St. Louis Athletica), Alyssa Naeher (Penn State), Hope Solo (St. Louis Athletica)

Defenders (8): Lori Chalupny (St. Louis Athletica), Stephanie Cox (Los Angeles Sol), Amy LePeilbet (Boston Breakers), Heather Mitts (Philadelphia Independence), Meghan Schnur (Sky Blue FC), Brittany Taylor (University of Connecticut), Cat Whitehill (Washington Freedom)

Midfielders (7): Yael Averbuch (Sky Blue FC), Shannon Boxx (Los Angeles Sol), Tobin Heath (UNC), Lori Lindsey (Philadelphia Independence), Carli Lloyd (Sky Blue FC), Heather O’Reilly (Sky Blue FC), Megan Rapinoe (Chicago Red Stars)

Forwards (7): Lauren Cheney (UCLA), Ella Masar (Chicago Red Stars), Alex Morgan (California), Casey Nogueira (UNC), Kelley O’Hara (Stanford), Amy Rodriguez (Philadelphia Independence), Abby Wambach (Washington Freedom)