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Shea, Adu, Agudelo headline U.S. Olympic Qualifying squad

U23LineupMexico (ISI)

U.S. men's national team veterans Brek Shea, Juan Agudelo and Freddy Adu headline a strong 19-man roster for the U.S. Men's Olympic Qualifying squad.

U.S. Under-23 head coach Caleb Porter announced the team on Monday and the only real surprise was the omission of Hertha Berlin midfielder/defender Alfredo Morales, whose release was not mandatory for the tournament.

Here is the squad:

U.S. OLYMPIC QUALIFYING ROSTER

GK- Bill Hamid, Sean Johnson

D- Josh Gatt, Perry Kitchen, Ike Opara, Zarek Valentin, Kofie Sarkodie, Jorge Villafana

M- Freddy Adu, Joe Corona, Mix Diskerud, Michael Stephens, Amobi Okugo, Jared Jeffrey

F- Terrence Boyd, Brek Shea, Juan Agudelo, Joe Gyau, Teal Bunbury

Another notable omission from the roster is midfielder Dilly Duka, but he suffered an injury in the early moments of the Columbus Crew's season-opening loss to the Colorado Rapids.

According to a U.S. Soccer press release, one player, presumably Duka, withdrew from consideration on Monday afternoon after sustaining an injury. Porter is expected to find a replacement once he secures a release from that player's club. The two favorites to round out the roster before the March 20 deadline are Morales and West Ham United midfielder Sebastian Lletget.

Boyd, who made his debut with the full U.S. team last month, will report to camp on March 21.

"Obviously, our mission is to qualify for the 2012 summer Olympics and this roster is a culmination of a long process to select what we feel is the best team this country has to offer in the U-23 age group," said Porter in the press release. "For the past four training camps we have been comprehensively evaluating the most talented personnel available from an extensive player pool comprised of professional players on clubs in this country and abroad.

"We always keep in mind its important to find the best mix collectively so that we can build a cohesive team capable of accomplishing our goal. I feel very confident in this collection of players and their ability to execute the playing style we believe will best represent their talents and get us to London."

The United States will kick off its Olympic qualifying campaign on March 22 in Nashville, Tenn against Cuba. The Americans follow that up with a game against Canada two days later, and they finish group play versus El Salvador on March 26.

Should the U.S. team advance out of Group A, the decisive match to determine if it qualifies for the Olympics would be on March 31 at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for these young players to get valuable experience in international competition and ultimately qualify for the 2012 Olympics," U.S. men's national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann said in the press release. "Playing the Olympic Games is a once in a lifetime chance, and we are fully supporting their efforts to qualify.

"Some of these players will continue their international careers on the senior team in the future, and these situations allow them the chance to grow individually and experience the ups and downs national teams go through, which is so important for their development."

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What do you think of this team? Who are you disappointed to see missing from the squad? Who are you excited to see play in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. What about Luis Gil as a possible call up? I know he is only 18 but he has been doing really well in mid-field for an extremely deep and talented RSL team. As an RSL fan, I would hate to lose him for parts of the season but I am surprised that he has not even been mentioned.

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  2. I just hope Caleb don’t do the same that Thomas did with Subotic and we ended up loosing another player cause he was not call in. Wooten for Teal, and Any other player for Stephen sorry he is just not ready yet.

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  3. i think Morales will end up getting called in. but i think the reason him, Wooten and Lletget didn’t get the call was because they are close to breaking into the first team with their clubs. like others have said, it hurts the US team in the short term, but in the long term it’s going to be great. this team is still very strong.

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  4. He’s legitimately bad. If we’re going to call up a crappy American who can’t finish then might I suggest another Galaxy favorite, Chad Barrett.

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  5. This was discussed in a prior thread, but I wanted to follow up on it.

    In july of 2008, a fifa appointed single judge ruled clubs were obligated to release any under 23s for the tournament: http://tinyurl.com/726wyu4 (courtesy of northzax).

    Then in august of 2008, a court of arbitration for sport threw out the single judge’s ruling and declared clubs were not obligated to release _any_ players since the olympics didn’t fall on a recognized fifa international date: http://tinyurl.com/8xburfn.

    The ruling led to this grant wahl piece in august of 2008: http://tinyurl.com/8yh5qxp.

    Does anyone know if fifa took any action in the past four years to address the issue? This summer’s games are once again conspicuously absent from the fifa international calendar.

    I’m not a lawyer and i’ve never even played one on tv or film, so I have no idea.

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  6. Luke,

    Posting before the first cup of coffee is dangerous,according to the surgeon general… here’s a cut and paste from US Soccer site for the first game, for example:

    March 22, 2012 @ 8 p.m. CT

    Universal Sports Network, Telemundo

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  7. Really like the Olympic line-up as well. As my subs I would take Johsnon, Kitchen (CB/DM), Valentin (anywhere on the backline), Gatt (RB/RW), Diskerud (6/8/10), Agudelo (F/W), and Boyd (F). With those subs, you have a ton of versatility and the ability to fill in at almost every position.

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  8. Gatt plays both positions for Molde and stated that he is comfortable there.

    Also, it seems the Akron 4-3-3 could always use a speedy attacking right back and Gatt making runs from deep can be pretty frightening.

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  9. I agree that Wooten’s more of an asset than Bunbury, but Teal is 3rd in line for CF. Probably won’t see much playing time.

    It’s better for the USMNT in the long run if Wooten breaks into the Kaiserslautern 18, or even the XI. If they stave off relegation, he (and the US) could reap the benefits of having a forward get regular time in the Bundesliga.

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  10. Lletget has been knocking on the door of the first team for West Ham maybe it’s them not wanting to release him a la Spector? But as many has stated Lletget does look better then Stephan though.

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  11. Think it might have something more to do with not taking 3 player from the Union then simply rating Sarkodie higher then Williams.

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  12. It could be his club situation. He is breaking into the starting 11 at his club and is a fairly regular sub off the bench. It might have been a conscious decision not to call him to improve his chances to become a regular starter for his club. Timing is everything.

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  13. Adu played well on the right wing against Mexico and did really well. Agudelo can also play on the wing. Gatt’s best asset is his speed, but other attacking players that will play on the wing are more technical and Porter values their ability to maintain possession over raw speed. But Porter is a very smart coach and he will not hesitate to put Gatt on the wing if he believes that Gatt is his best option there. Being listed at a particular position does not mean a whole lot – as I mentioned earlier Adu played as the right forward in 4-3-3 formation against Mexico, but is listed as a midfielder here.

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  14. JW, I agree with your point, but I just couldn’t resist and had to mention England that gets an automatic qualification as the host.

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  15. Well 97% of this team I like but please Stephen pls. I’m a galaxy fan but he is not that good pls find another player how about one of farfan from the phylly union. Or maybe another euro player. But so far I see a strong team and I hope this teamis hungry for a medal and to really the desire to go to the Olympic and not under estimate the opponents like the U20 did a year ago.

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