Azcona called up to Dominican Republic’s U-23 national team

Inter Miami winger Edison Azcona has been called up to the Dominican Republic’s U-23 men’s national team.

Azcona, a 17-year-old Inter Miami academy product who signed an MLS contract in January, will join the Dominican Republic in Guadalajara, Mexico ahead of the team’s Concacaf Olympic qualifying matches later this month.

He’s the second Inter Miami player who’ll be joining their national team in Mexico, with goalkeeper Drake Callender being called up to the U.S. U-23 men’s national team camp as an injury replacement for LA Galaxy goalkeeper Jonathan Klinsmann on Monday.

Callender was a part of the team’s 48-person preliminary roster before missing the cut for the 31-person squad last week. The U.S.’s final 20-player tournament roster is expected to be announced on Thursday.

Azcona played as a winger for Fort Lauderdale CF, Inter Miami’s USL League One affiliate, in 2020.

He started all 16 of the team’s matches, recording three goals, three assists and a 55.6 percent shooting accuracy rate. Azcona also won a team-high 22 tackles. He was named to the League One All-League second team and was a finalist for the League One Young Player of the Year award.

Azcona was called up to the Dominican Republic’s senior national team in October 2020 and then again in January for a pair of friendlies against Puerto Rico and Serbia in preparation for World Cup and Olympic qualifiers. He started in both matches.

“With DR, when I went to go play with them, it wasn’t a hard transition,” Azcona previously told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “I felt like I got into it quickly and I could play with them. The team got along really easily. We were family right away and it was really fun being with them.”

The Dominican Republic is scheduled to play Mexico (March 20), the U.S. (March 23) and Costa Rica (March 26) in the tournament’s group-stages matches, with the tournament’s semifinals scheduled for March 30 and the final set for April 1.

If he uses a non-commercial flight to return to South Florida, Azcona can take part in individual workouts at the team’s facility in Fort Lauderdale but will be required to return two negative COVID-19 tests on consecutive days before he can rejoin the team for training, per the team’s protocols relating to the coronavirus.

If he takes a commercial flight back to South Florida, he won’t be able to rejoin the team for practice until the ninth day after his return.

Inter Miami started mandatory practices on Monday and will practice in Fort Lauderdale for the next 2 weeks, travel throughout Florida for a week for training and friendlies before ultimately returning to South Florida for the final two weeks of preseason.

Inter Miami’s preseason friendlies

March 20: vs. Miami FC at Inter Miami’s training facility;

March 27 vs. Tampa Bay Rowdies in St. Petersburg;

March 30: vs. Charleston Battery in Bradenton;

April 3 vs. New York Red Bulls in Bradenton;

April 3 vs. Nashville SC in Bradenton;

Weekend of April 10: TBD.