By Jim Reece

jreece@ledger-dispatch.com

Lodi's Patrick Ianni and his Houston Dynamo teammate Stuart Holden will be joining the U.S. men's Olympic soccer team today to fly to Beijing, with Ianni taking a local tie to Amador County as a way of representing his country and the area.

Ianni said he and his teammates take pride in the United States and will represent their high schools and colleges. He will represent Amador County, where he spent a lot of time visiting his great-grandparents and where his parents co-own ACES Waste Services Inc.

"I spent a lot of time up there at my grandparents," Ianni said by phone Tuesday from Washington, D.C., where his Dynamo squad later that night would play its last game of the season. "I will be representing the hard-working people in Amador County that I grew up around."

He will also represent Lodi High School and UCLA, where he played three years before being drafted. He's now a third-year Major League Soccer player, with various youth national squad experience. His U.S. team may be a wild card in the Beijing Olympics, he said, but the squad came from a rich pool.

"I think we have a very good team for those who enjoy watching soccer," Ianni said. "The coaches have had the most amount of players in the talent pool to choose from.

"This team takes a lot of pride in representing America and placing American soccer on the map," he said. "Not single-handedly."

Ianni is a defender, one of five on the 18-member U.S. Olympic squad. Holden is one of seven midfielders. The two were to be released from the Dynamo Tuesday after their game against D.C. United, and heading into the midseason MLS All-Star break.

Ianni will be wearing No. 13 at the Olympic games, which open Aug. 7 with round-robin pool play. The U.S. men's soccer team is in a four-team pool with Japan, the Netherlands and Nigeria. Ianni said the favorites were probably Brazil and Argentina.

In the pool play, the teams get three points for a win, one point for a tie and zero points for a loss. After playing each team in their pool, the top two teams in each pool advance. The first round of pool play is 16 teams, then the second round is eight teams which play single-elimination matches.

Ianni said he and Holden would fly in to join the team Wednesday and the team flies out to Hong Kong today.

The 2008 U.S. men's team includes two goalkeepers Brad Guzan of Chivas USA and Chris Seitz of Real Salt Lake. The five defenders include Ianni of the Houston Dynamo, Michael Orozco of San Luis, Michael Parkhurst of the New England Revolution, Nathan Sturgis of Real Salt Lake and Marvell Wynne of Toronto FC.

Seven midfielders on the U.S. roster are Freddy Adu of SL Benfica, Michael Bradley of SC Heerenveen, Maurice Edu of Toronto FC, Benny Feilhaber of Derby County, Holden of the Houston Dynamo, Sacha Kljestan of Chivas USA and Danny Szetela of Brescia Calcio.

The team has four forwards, Jozy Altidore of Villarreal, Charlie Davies of Hammarby IF, Brian McBride (out of contract) and Robbie Rogers of Columbus Crew.

"It was quite an awesome feeling," Ianni said of making the Olympic soccer roster, calling it an honor and a privilege. The roster list came out after workouts and tournaments in Tampa, Fla. and Nashville. The coaches also watched MLS play and tapes to make their roster selection.

Ianni turned 23 in June. His great-grandparents are Maria and Ralphie Ianni and his parents, Coleen and Richard Ianni co-own the Amador County company ACES Waste Services Inc. The other co-owners of the company are Peggy and Joe Assereto, David and Kari Ianni, Paul and Chris Molinelli, Paul Molinelli Jr.

Coleen Ianni plans to attend the men's soccer games in Beijing with Ianni's older brother, a former MLS and UCLA soccer player, Tayt Ianni, who inspired the soccer dreams of his younger brother, Patrick. Coleen will go to the games with Tayt, his son Tapio and Patrick's fiance, Christine Marrihew.

Patrick Ianni has been playing organized soccer since age 6 and watched his older brother, Tayt's (14 years his senior) as a youth.

"I grew up watching him play and trying to follow in his footsteps," Ianni said. His parents were loyal supporters of his career and made frequent trips to Los Angeles to watch Tayt play at UCLA.

Ianni said Tayt's career kind of "spring boarded" him and inspired him to the same goal.

He said the U.S. Olympic team will feature a lot of players who played together on youth national teams or against each other in the MLS.

2008 Team USA

Ussoccer.com said Tuesday that of the 18 players on the Olympic team roster, 12 were already in Palo Alto for a six-day domestic training camp before departing for the ING Cup in Hong Kong on Friday, July 25.

Most of the European-based contingent and a handful of Major League Soccer representatives had arrived at the team hotel and had already begun training at Stanford University. The remaining players would be trickling in throughout the next two days after fulfilling club team obligations.

The team will travel to Hong Kong on Friday, July 25 for the ING Cup and their final two games before the start of the Olympic games. The United States will face the Ivory Coast on July 30 and Cameroon on August 3 in their final two matches before the start of the Olympic games.

The site said the U.S. team "has been drawn into a difficult Group B of the games and will open against Japan on Aug. 7 before facing the Netherlands on Aug. 10, with both games taking place at the Olympic Sports Center Stadium in Tianjin. The team will then travel to Worker's Stadium in Beijing to conclude group play against 1996 gold medalist and 2005 Under-20 World Cup champion Nigeria on August 13."

The Web site said that NBC Universal will launch a channel exclusively dedicated to full coverage of men's and women's soccer at the 2008 Olympic Games. A total of 32 men's and 26 women's soccer games will be shown in their entirety on the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel, in addition to coverage on USA Network, MSNBC and live streaming on www.NBCOlympics.com.

The seven NBC Networks - NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, Telemundo and Universal HD - will provide 3,600 hours of coverage, all in high definition. Www.NBCOlympics.com will also provide over 3,000 hours of on-demand access to full event replays and extensive highlights. The NBC Olympic Soccer Channel are available on most major cable, satellite and telephone companies and distributors.