The U.S. U-23 crew has an enormous month forward of it and head coach Jason Kreis made his first large set of choices on Friday when he named his 31-player touring roster that can open pre-qualifying camp in Mexico on Monday. ASN’s Brian Sciaretta breaks it down – together with a shocking lower and a shocking non-release.
BY
Brian Sciaretta
Posted
February 28, 2021
9:30 PM
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ON FRIDAY, U.S. U-23 head coach Jason Kreis introduced the 31-player touring roster that can journey to Guadalajara to arrange for Olympic qualifying. This crew might be narrowed right down to the ultimate 20 player-roster later within the month.
Whereas it’s doable for gamers (most certainly European-based) to be added to this roster throughout camp, the vast majority of the Olympic qualifying crew will come from these names. Gamers like Brenden Aaronson had been all the time unlikely but it surely stays to be seen if Konrad de la Fuente might be added at a later date.
ASN understands that the ultimate cuts will occur on or round March 14. The U.S. will then open its group stage in opposition to Costa Rica on March 18, the Dominican Republic on March 21, and Mexico on March 24.
Right here is the roster and listed here are some ideas
The Roster
GOALKEEPERS (4):Matt Freese (Philadelphia Union; Wayne, Pa.), Jonathan Klinsmann (LA Galaxy; Munich, Germany), JT Marcinkowski (San Jose Earthquakes, Alamo, Calif.), David Ochoa (Actual Salt Lake; Oxnard, Calif.)
DEFENDERS (10): Julian Araujo (LA Galaxy; Lompoc, Calif.), George Bello (Atlanta United FC; Douglasville, Ga.), Marco Farfan (LAFC; Gresham, Ore.), Justen Glad (Actual Salt Lake; Tucson, Ariz.), Aaron Herrera (Actual Salt Lake; Las Cruces, N.M.), Henry Kessler (New England Revolution; New York, N.Y.), Mauricio Pineda (Chicago Hearth FC; Bolingbrook, In poor health.), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United FC; Arlington,Mass.), Austin Trusty (Colorado Rapids; Media, Pa.), Sam Vines (Colorado Rapids; Colorado Springs, Colo.)
MIDFIELDERS (8): Frankie Amaya (FC Cincinnati; Santa Ana, Calif.), Cole Bassett (Colorado Rapids; Littleton, Colo.), Johnny Cardoso (Internacional/BRA; Denville, N.J.), Hassani Dotson (Minnesota United FC; Federal Means, Wash.), Andrés Perea (Orlando Metropolis SC; Medellin, Colombia), Tanner Tessmann (FC Dallas; Hoover, Ala.), Eryk Williamson (Portland Timbers; Alexandria, Va.), Jackson Yueill (San Jose Earthquakes; Bloomington, Minn.)
FORWARDS (9): Jesús Ferreira (FC Dallas; McKinney, Texas), Brooks Lennon (Atlanta United FC; Paradise Valley, Ariz.), Jonathan Lewis (Colorado Rapids; Plantation, Fla.), Ulysses Llanez (Heerenveen/NED; Lynwood, Calif.), Benji Michel (Orlando Metropolis SC; Orlando, Fla.), Djordje Mihailovic (CF Montreal/CAN; Jacksonville, Fla.), Ricardo Pepi (FC Dallas; McKinney, Texas), Sebastian Saucedo (UNAM Pumas/MEX; Park Metropolis, Utah), Sebastian Soto (Norwich Metropolis/ENG; San Diego, Calif.)
Ebobisse the shocking lower
Whereas Jeremy Ebobisse has been among the many extra productive domestic-based forwards from this age group with the Portland Timbers, he has been dropped from this crew already. The 2017 U.S. U-20 World Cup veteran scored 9 targets final season in 1380 minutes and 11 targets in 2019 over 2374 minutes. These 20 targets during the last two seasons wasn’t sufficient to get him even onto the preliminary coaching squad.
In his place, heart forwards Sebastian Soto, Ricardo Pepi, and Jesus Ferreira had been taken in his place.
Different gamers left off like Keaton Parks and James Sands weren’t average surprises. This was by far essentially the most shocking roster choice.
Cardoso secures launch
It was anticipated that that Uly Llanez would have been launched for this crew as his mortgage to Heerenveen has been extraordinarily poor. Sebastian Soto was additionally more likely to be launched given that he’s solely taking part in for Norwich Metropolis’s U-23 crew in the intervening time.
Johnny Cardoso is a powerful launch on condition that following the conclusion of Internacional’s Serie A season on Thursday (the place it heartbreakingly completed in second), native Brazilian tournaments had been set to start. This might need been a possibility for the Denville, NJ native to play extra together with his membership however apparently Internacional felt it was worthwhile to ship Cardoso to this event and assist him safe a spot on the U.S. U-23 crew.
Cardoso may be very younger and is definitely additionally eligible for the U.S. U-23 crew in 2024. However he’s a bodily defensive midfielder who ought to convey the chunk that’s usually wanted in CONCACAF video games.
Nevertheless it does create a little bit of a logjam in defensive midfield. Jackson Yueill, Andres Perea, and Johnny Cardoso are three defensive midfielders who’ve all been capped by the U.S. nationwide crew. Is Kreis going to take three of those gamers on a small 20-player roster with simply 17 subject gamers? It’d make for a really troublesome lower.
Atlanta releases gamers
It was revealed afterward Monday that that Atlanta was not going to launch gamers to the U-23 crew as a result of quarantine protocols which might pressure the gamers to overlook the primary sport of the CONCACAF Champions League. This implies George Bello, Brooks Lennon and Miles Robinson received’t take par.
Robinson, Bello and Lennon will NOT be going to the U23 #USMNT camp. Quarantine course of won’t permit them to be out there for first #SCCL2021 sport on April 6.#ATLUTD #MLS
— Doug Roberson (@DougRobersonAJC) March 1, 2021
Robinson’s loss is big for this crew which is with out Mark McKenzie and Erik Palmer-Brown who each had been on the roster in 2020. Robinson began for the U.S. nationwide crew in January and scored a aim in a 7-0 rout over Trinidad and Tobago.
Central protection is a place of want on the crew. In 2020, the roster included Erik Palmer-Brown and Mark McKenzie so the lack of Robinson (who was not launched then) wasn’t an enormous deal. Now with out Palmer-Brown, McKenzie and others resembling Chris Richards and Cameron Carter-Vickers make Robinson’s loss important.
The lack of Bello and Lennon is marginal because it isn’t clear if both would have been a U-23 starter however Robinson was very important.
Atlanta has the best to do that however the failure to launch gamers for big youth nationwide crew tournaments would possibly make becoming a member of their academy a tricky promote for elite younger gamers. It additionally stays to be seen if this creates a rift with U.S. Soccer – regardless of the soccer choices at Atlanta United being made by Carlos Bocanegra – who is likely one of the hottest U.S. nationwide crew captains in historical past.
