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U.S. Under-20s add Kiesewetter to roster, Fox Soccer to air qualifying tournament

Head coach Tab Ramos has added German-born forward Jerome Kiesewetter to the U.S. Under-20 qualifying roster, U.S. Soccer announced on Monday.

Kiesewetter, who turned 20 last Saturday, is currently on the books with German side VfB Stuttgart, and playing with Stuttgart II of The German third division.

Ramos will select a 20th player to the roster before the start of the CONCACAF Under-20 World Cup qualifying tournament, which the United States will begin on Feb. 18th against Haiti. Among the players who won’t be taking up that final spot are Marc Pelosi (who Liverpool has not released for the tournament, in part because the Reds have added Pelosi to their Europa League roster), and Walker Zimmerman, who is still injured.

In other U-20 news, Fox Soccer Channel announced on Monday that it has picked up the rights to the CONCACAF Under-20 World Cup qualifying tournament in Mexico, showing both U.S. and Mexico group stage matches live, as well as the decisive quarterfinal round matches.

What do you think of these developments? Who would you like to see Ramos add with the final roster slot? Will you be watching the Under-20 qualifying tournament?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. What’s the cutoff? Agudelo is a November 92 and Gyau is a September 92. The tournament would be this summer. They’d both be 20 as of the tournament and turn 21 after. But I’m not sure if they do this as of January 1, sometime this summer, or the tournament date. I know club back in the day was some sort of “school year” division which would parallel the European calendar.

    Reply
      • I know U20 means under 20 but the question is, “when?” Per Wikipedia, Miller, Trapp, and Kiesewetter are all 20 already, which means you can be 20 and play on this U20. They are all 20 since January 1, so you may still be right. But presumably there’s a cutoff somewhere because otherwise I’d call in Agudelo and Gyau, both of whom have iffy club situations, plenty of talent, and could use a lift. But if the cutoff is January 1 that wouldn’t work. But at least in US club back in the day, it was “school year” cutoffs which would mean 92s and 93s might both be U20.

      • I believe for tournaments it either August 1 or September 1 of the year before. Meaning you can be 20 is you are born after August 1 or September 1

  2. Awesome that Fox has picked this up. Still wondering how they’ll stay relevant ahead of workd cup 2018 and 2022 after losing the EPL rights.

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    • I don’t think a 1-2 week tournament fixes their lack of TV rights. EPL goes away in the summer to NBC. beIN has Spain and Italy. Univision has Ligue One (in spanish). Other networks have MLS. ESPN and beIN have the US quali rights. Fox doesn’t have World Cup until 2018. What are they going to have left, UEFA CL, CONCACAF CL, college soccer, A-League….?

      Reply
  3. I think the move by Liverpool is shrewd…Pelosi will not likely see his first action in the Europa league. We’re talking about a home and away with Zenit in the knockout phase. I hope I am wrong, but Rodgers probably would rather protect Pelosi from injuries and plant him on the Europa bench. If he goes with the u-20s, chances are he will play and risk injuries that Liverpool will have to deal with financially.

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    • Yes. Shrewd move to put him in a cage like a veal instead of letting him develop against International competition like the other good young players in the world. I think the best move is for them to never play him at all. Maybe they can put him in a plastic sleeve like a new baseball card and he’ll be a collectors item in 40 years. Don’t make it like Pelosi is a $30M dollar transfer. He’s an academy product. The Scousers have very little money wrapped up in him.

      Reply
      • Hahaha….They puttin’ Palosi in the veal cage! Hmmm….Makes him so soft and tender, like a real professional footballer!

      • LOL, did I make him out to be a $30M transfer prospect? You internet geniuses have a knack for putting words in others’ mouths for the sake of an argument. My point was that Pelosi is probably not ready for Europa knockouts.

        You do realize that surgeries and treatment cost the same no matter how much you paid for the knee, right?

    • I would rather have him being Steven Gerrard’s personal assistant than playing in this tournament. He might actually learn something valuable.

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    • I would say that we are interestingly starting to run into the mature soccer nation problem of not being able to get all our pros released, eg, Morales for the U23s. Whereas before we might be able to get most of the players easily from college teams and MLS, we now have enough players spread around where it’s harder to get them all into camp with every team’s approval. So the era of lengthy pre-quali residencies or camps is probably done and we now need the ability to cajole teams player by player into releases.

      It’s interesting because it’s a more serious, professional pool but it may be harder to get results from it.

      Reply

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