ASN: Andreas Herzog Proclaims U-23 Crew to Face Mexico

The person who hopes to guide the USA to Olympic glory in Rio de Janeiro subsequent summer season named 20 gamers to face Mexico’s U-23 staff Wednesday evening on the StubHub Heart. 

BY

Brooke Tunstall

Posted
April 20, 2015
1:50 PM

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ODDS ARE THAT the Mexico under-23 staff is aware of to maintain a detailed eye on Jordan Morris.

United States U-23 and Olympic coach Andreas Herzog has included Morris, a Stanford sophomore who final week scored for the U.S. senior staff in opposition to Mexico, within the 20-player roster he introduced at this time for Wednesday’s pleasant in opposition to its Mexican counterparts on the StubHub heart in Carson, Calif.

Morris, who famously turned down a homegrown contract from Seattle final winter to proceed his schooling however burst onto the nationwide soccer conscience along with his well-struck game-winner final week, is a part of an eclectic roster that features 10 gamers from MLS rosters (certainly one of whom is on mortgage to the second division San Antonio Scorpions); 4 gamers based mostly in Mexico; two from European golf equipment; and a teenager who can be beginning his collegiate profession within the fall. This is the total squad:

GOALKEEPERS

Cody Cropper (Southampton; Maple Grove, Minn.), Jon Kempin (San Antonio Scorpions; Leawood, Kan.)

DEFENDERS

Christian Dean (Vancouver Whitecaps; East Palo Alto, Calif.), Juan Pablo Ocegueda (Alebrijes de Oaxaca; Riverside, Calif.), Boyd Okwuonu (Actual Salt Lake; Edmund, Okla.), Shane O’Neill (Colorado Rapids; Boulder, Colo.), Dillon Serna (Colorado Rapids; Brighton, Colo.), Oscar Sorto (LA Galaxy; Los Angeles, Calif), Sam Robust (UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, Calif.), Walker Zimmerman (FC Dallas; Lawrenceville, Ga.)

MIDFIELDERS

Fatai Alashe (San Jose Earthquakes; Northville, Mich.), Luis Gil (Actual Salt Lake; Backyard Grove, Calif.), Alejandro Guido (Membership Tijuana; Chula Vista, Calif.), Benji Joya (Santos Laguna; San Jose, Calif.), Daniel Metzger (New York Pink Bulls II; Holmdel, N.J.)

FORWARDS

Alonso Hernandez (C.F. Monterrey; El Paso, Texas), Alfred Koroma Shams (Unattached; Southlake Carol, Texas), Jordan Morris (Stanford; Mercer Island, Wash.), Mario Rodriguez (Borussia Mönchengladbach; North Hollywood, Calif.), Jose Villarreal (LA Galaxy; Inglewood, Calif.)

The roster could be very reliant on the 2013 U.S. U-20 World Cup staff, with 9 gamers from that staff participating. Luis Gil is the doubtless chief of the staff because the closely skilled Actual Salt Lake midfielder has been a stalwart of U.S. youth nationwide groups courting again to the 2009 U-17 staff. Gil and Morris are the one gamers on this roster who’ve been capped by the senior U.S. nationwide staff.

The Colorado Rapids’ duo of Shane O’Neill and Dillon Serna, who scored MLS’ purpose of the week 9 days in the past, and the Los Angeles Galaxy’s Jose Villareal, who started the season with a purpose and two assists, are among the many U-20 World Cup veterans on this squad.

Because the recreation isn’t on a FIFA worldwide date, many age-eligible gamers in Europe weren’t obtainable for the sport. Such gamers embrace John Brooks and DeAndre Yedlin. Additionally, with the U.S. U-20 staff presently assembled in Austria, the most effective gamers from that squad have been additionally not obtainable.

Males’s soccer is a U-23 occasion on the Olympics and the U.S. will look to qualify for subsequent 12 months’s video games in Rio di Janeiro on this fall’s CONCACAF U-23 match, the semi-finals and finals of which can be performed in October at Actual Salt Lake’s Rio Tinto Stadium. This would be the second camp for the USA U-23 staff since Herzog was named coach. Final month in Europe he led his troops to a 5-2 win over Bosnia however the staff fell to Denmark 1-0.

Sam Robust qualifies as probably the most curious inclusion on this roster by advantage of the truth that he’ll begin his school soccer at close by U.C. Santa Barbara this fall. A six-foot-one heart again, Robust was born in 1996 and is age-eligible for the present U.S. U-20 nationwide staff however has by no means been referred to as in to any camp by U-20 coach Tab Ramos.

Robust was chosen over defender Brandon Vincent, Morris’ teammate at Stanford and a first-team All-American final 12 months for the Cardinal.

One other curious inclusion: Ahead Alfred Koroma, a former youth star from Texas who was just lately with the third division Austin Aztez however is presently and not using a membership after reaching, in line with the USL, a “mutual termination agreement.” Koroma got here by U.S. soccer’s youth residency program in Bradenton, Fla. and performed two seasons of lackluster school soccer, first at Akron then at Southern Methodist, beginning a mixed 14 video games (out of 31 complete) and scoring simply seven targets.

Koroma tried turning professional in 2014 however after failing to catch on with groups in Brazil he signed with Austin and had but to play for the staff earlier than parting methods Saturday.  

Dan Metzger, the previous Maryland star whom New York Pink Bull declined to supply a homegrown contract this winter, additionally acquired a name. The midfielder was the final participant taken within the second spherical of January’s MLS draft, by D.C. United, however was launched in preseason and has now signed with Pink Bulls’ USL staff. Regardless of being handed over by a number of MLS groups, Metzger continues to be summoned by Herzog.

Against this, left again Mikey Ambrose, a teammate of Metzger’s at Maryland who handed on an FC Dallas homegrown supply and signed with Austin after his junior 12 months, has began 4 video games for Austin and performed 90 minutes in every. Born in 1993, he’s age-eligible for this Olympic pool however was not invited regardless of showing to have higher credentials on paper.

A number of gamers have earned callups based mostly on sturdy MLS showings this winter after being ignored as collegians. San Jose rookie midfielder Fatai Alashe had by no means been referred to as right into a youth nationwide staff camp whereas at Michigan State. However he had a powerful senior 12 months, serving to the Spartans to the NCAA quarterfinals and regardless of lacking this winter’s scouting mix with an harm, was chosen fourth general by the Earthquakes and has turn into a daily within the beginning lineup.

Boyd Okwuonu had a stellar profession at North Carolina however FC Dallas opted to not supply him a homegrown contract and he was taken twenty seventh general this winter by Actual Salt Lake. A former youth nationwide staff star who was dropped after a poor exhibiting on the U-20 staff’s World Cup qualifying match in 2013 in Mexico, Okwuonu earned a contract with RSL with a powerful preseason that has apparently jump-started his youth nationwide staff standing.