As we reported in the most recent Knights Who Say NISA podcast, three players who took part in the NISA fall season were called up to their respective national teams.

Chattanooga FC’s Darwin Lom was called up to the Guatemalan national team for two international friendlies following the fall tournament. Lom’s first cap was a friendly against Panama on March 4 where he came on as a substitute in the 89th minute. But, he was unable to join the team for a September 30 friendly at Mexico as Chattanooga was playing in a NISA fall tournament semifinal that same day. Guatemala lost those two matches 0-2 and 0-3 respectively.

The 23-year-old midfielder came on as a second-half substitute again in another friendly for Guatemala at Nicaragua. That match ended in a 0-0 draw. Lom made an impact in his third match for the national team. This past Saturday, Lom received his first start as Guatemala played a friendly against Honduras. Sitting in the striker position, he scored the first goal of the match, and the first of his national team career, in the 24th minute by taking a rebound off the post and slotting the ball in the back of the net. Lom would put Guatemala up 2-0 when he scored a penalty kick in the 66th minute of the match. A few minutes later Honduras would make the score 2-1, but Guatemala would hold on for the victory.

Lom was named to the NISA 2020 Fall All-Tournament team and has helped his stock even more by such a good showing for the national team. Guatemala begins first-round World Cup qualifying in March and there’s a good chance Lom will be in the mix. Before joining Chattanooga this summer, he appeared in five games and scored one goal for his home town C.D. Guastatoya at the end of the shortened Clausura of the 2019-20 Liga Nacional de Guatemala season. That league has four weeks left in the Apertura of its 2020-21 season.

In early October, Tatenda Mkuruva, NISA 2020 Fall All-Tournament goalkeeper from Michigan Stars, and Tendai Jirira, defender/midfield from Detroit City FC, were both called up to the Zimbabwe national team. With that country’s national team in flux, it was an excellent chance for the two NISA players to see action in Zimbabwe’s friendly against Malawi on October 11. The match was a tune-up for the team’s 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Algeria held on November 12 and 16. But, neither player made the final roster of the friendly nor the two AFCON qualifiers played this past week. Still in contention to qualify for the final tournament, Zimbabwe plays its final two qualifiers at the end of March.

- Dan Creel