Wisconsin Soccer Central

David Caban (Kenosha Tremper/UW), who earned his first cap in a friendly against the United States in May, will rejoin the Puerto Rico national team for its upcoming 2017 Caribbean Cup qualifying matches.

The 23-year-old Caban is in his first professional season, as he's started all 12 matches and logged all but 22 minutes for Swedish fourth-division side Ånge IF since signing with the Division 2 Norrland club in July.

Puerto Rico, which has lost just once through the first two rounds of qualifying, plays at Antigua and Barbuda on Saturday, then plays host to Curaçao next Tuesday in Bayamón in Group 3 action.

The four group winners earn spots in the Caribbean Cup and the CONCACAF Gold Cup, both of which will be held next summer in the U.S. The top three second-place finishers advance to a playoff, with the winner moving on to a Gold Cup qualifying match.

On Twitter: @david_caban

• UW sophomore center back Sam Brotherton scored his first career goal to give the Badgers a 1-0 victory over Rutgers in Big Ten Conference match Saturday night at the McClimon Complex, then headed to Nashville, Tenn., to join up with the New Zealand national team ahead of two friendlies. The All Whites will face Mexico on Saturday in Nashville (5 p.m., Univision) and take on the U.S. next Tuesday in Washington, D.C. (7 p.m., ESPN). Brotherton, who has six caps for New Zealand, has logged all but 26 possible minutes for UW (5-2-1) this season – he's started all 25 games for which he's been available during his career with the Badgers, missing two matches last fall because of international duty. He will miss three UW games due to this call-up: Wednesday at Marquette, Sunday at Michigan State and Tuesday's home match against UW-Green Bay. New Zealand, which will play in the FIFA Confederations Cup next summer in Russia, opens the third round of Oceania Football Confederation World Cup qualifying at home against New Caledonia on Nov. 12 in Auckland. On Twitter: @SamBrotherton96
• Toronto FC forward Tosaint Ricketts (UW-Green Bay) is in Africa for a training camp and a pair of friendlies with the Canadian national team in Marrakech, Morocco. Canada, under the direction of interim coach Michael Findlay after Benito Floro's departure last month, will play Mauritania on Friday and then face host Morocco on Tuesday. The 29-year-old Ricketts has two goals in nine appearances (four starts) since signing with TFC in late July and recently returned to action after being sidelined because of a groin injury. He's tied for 12th in Canadian national team history with 12 goals in his 52 caps. On Twitter: @TosaintRicketts
• Wauwatosa's Aryssa Mahrt is one of 26 players called into a week-long U.S. Under-14 girls national team training camp that started Saturday in Carson, Calif. Mahrt, a striker who plays for the FC Wisconsin Under-16 team in the Elite Clubs National League, was part of two Under-14 camps earlier this year under coach April Kater.