The U.S. under-23 national team finalized its 20-player roster for the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament, which it opens tomorrow against Cuba. Injuries required a couple of changes, but the bulk of the group that coach Caleb Porter invited to Nashville last week remains, including D.C. United’s Bill Hamid and Perry Kitchen. I wrote a little something about the team in the Examiner’s print edition on Sunday.
The team couldn’t be much more intriguing, considering the local storylines of Hamid and Kitchen but also Joe Gyau and Freddy Adu, who were both raised in the area. Adu was named captain, according to a tweet from U.S. senior team coach Juergen Klinsmann, just another step in the fascinating resurrection of his career. Kitchen is vice-captain.
The team won’t have Josh Gatt, who was invited last week but had to return to Molde in Norway due to injuries, or Alfredo Morales, who wasn’t released by Hertha Berlin – the tournament doesn’t fall on the FIFA fixture calendar – after playing in a friendly for the u23s last month against Mexico. A number of other regular senior U.S. players also aren’t involved even though they are age-eligible.
That said, it will be interesting to see who starts and contributes at forward, where Porter has domestic options like Juan Agudelo and Brek Shea, and a prodigious German-born talent in Terrence Boyd, who debuted in a U.S. jersey last month against Italy.
Kickoff on Thursday is at 9 p.m. ET, and the match will be broadcast live on Universal Sports Network, mun2 and streamed live on concacaf.com. The USA faces Canada on March 24 at 6 p.m. CT, and then closes out group play on March 26 against El Salvador.
Other interesting facts from the U.S. Soccer release to announce the roster: 13 players have played in at least one World Cup at the youth level. Four players -Adu, Jared Jeffrey, Brek Shea and Williams – have appeared in both U-17 and U-20 tournaments. It also includes players hailing from 13 different states reaching from coast to coast, with three coming from California and two each from Maryland and Texas.
U.S. U-23 MNT Roster By Position
GOALKEEPERS (2): Bill Hamid (D.C. United; Annandale, Va.), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire; Lilburn, Ga.)
DEFENDERS (6): Perry Kitchen (D.C. United; Indianapolis, Ind.), Ike Opara (San Jose Earthquakes; Durham, N.C.), Kofi Sarkodie (Houston Dynamo; Huber Heights, Ohio), Zarek Valentin (Montreal Impact; Lancaster, Pa.), Jorge Villafaña (Chivas USA; Anaheim, Calif.), Sheanon Williams (Philadelphia Union; Boston, Mass.)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Freddy Adu (Philadelphia Union; Potomac, Md.), Joe Corona (Club Tijuana; Chula Vista, Calif.), Mix Diskerud (Gent; Oslo, Norway), Jared Jeffrey (Mainz; Richardson, Texas), Amobi Okugo (Philadelphia Union; Sacramento, Calif.), Michael Stephens (LA Galaxy; Naperville, Ill.)
FORWARDS (6): Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls; Barnegat, N.J.), Terrence Boyd (Borussia Dortmund; Berlin, Germany), Teal Bunbury (Sporting Kansas City; Prior Lake, Minn.), Joe Gyau (Hoffenheim: Silver Spring, Md.), Brek Shea (FC Dallas; Bryan, Texas), Tony Taylor (Estoril Praia, Jacksonville, Fla.)
