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Gil, Trapp and O’Neill headline squad called in for U.S. Under-21 camp

Luis Gil

By IVES GALARCEP

Former U.S. Under-20 national team standouts Luis Gil, Wil Trapp and Shane O’Neill headline a 21-player squad made up almost exclusively of professional players that have called into a U.S. Under-21 training camp taking place next week in Carson, California.

“We’re excited to bring some of our best young players together for this initial U-21 camp,” said current U.S. Under-20 head coach Tab Ramos, who will oversee the five-day camp. “We’re hoping that we can have another two or three camps between now and the end of the year. This camp is purely to have the team together so that we begin moving in the right direction.

“When the time is right, we can put a group that has kept playing together and is familiar with each other in front of the permanent coach.”

The group consists of the players expected to make up the nucleus of the next U.S. Olympic qualifying team ahead of the 2016 Olympics. With two years to go before Olympic qualifying, U.S. Soccer is already putting actions in motion to help ensure that the next U.S. Olympic qualifying team succeeds in its mission to qualify, unlike the previous U.S. Olympic qualifying squad.

The squad called in for next week’s camp is obviously missing some keys players from the pool who have club commitments. European-based standouts like Marc Pelosi, Will Packwood and Seattle Sounders fullback DeAndre Yedlin are just some of the players expected to play key roles in the next Olympic qualifying cycle.

Here is the roster for the training camp:

U.S. UNDER-21 TRAINING CAMP ROSTER

GOALKEEPERS-: Jonathan Kempin (Oklahoma City Energy; Leawood, Kan.), Kendall McIntosh (Santa Clara; Santa Rosa, Calif.)

DEFENDERS – Christian Dean (Vancouver Whitecaps FC; East Palo Alto, Calif.), Juan Pablo Ocegueda (Tigres UANL; Riverside, Calif.), Shane O’Neill (Colorado Rapids; Boulder, Colo.), Dillon Serna (Colorado Rapids; Brighton, Colo.), Oscar Sorto (LA Galaxy; Los Angeles, Calif.)

MIDFIELDERS– Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake; Garden Grove, Calif.), Alejandro Guido (Club Tijuana; Chula Vista, Calif.), Marlon Hairston (Colorado Rapids; Jackson, Miss.), Benji Joya (Chicago Fire; San Jose, Calif.), Collin Martin (D.C. United; Chevy Chase, Md.), Esteban Rodriguez (Club Tijuana; Bell Gardens, Calif.), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew; Gahanna, Ohio)

FORWARDS– Daniel Cuevas (CF Lobos BUAP; Sacramento, Calif.), Danny Garcia (FC Dallas; Dallas, Texas), Jack McBean (LA Galaxy; Newport Beach, Calif.), Jordan Morris (Stanford; Mercer Island, Wash.), Sean Okoli (Seattle Sounders FC; Federal Way, Wash.), Victor Pineda (Chicago Fire; Bolingbrook, Ill.), Jose Villarreal (Cruz Azul; Inglewood, Calif.)

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The group will convene at Stub Hub Center from April 20th to April 24th.

What do you think of this group? Who are you excited to see be  part of the squad? Who are you disappointed to see not called in?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Almost 2 years to go before qualifying starts. I expect that there will be major shake-ups to whatever roster anyone has in mind as some players grow, mature and improve rapidly while others stagnate. If you know how to predict which player will do which, all of professional soccer wants your insight.

    For example Marc Pelosi who is age eligible for the next Olympics, signed with Liverpool and has a bright future. He suffered a double break in his leg in Feb. 2013 and last heard, in December 2013 or so, he was still recovering. You just can’t predict that kind of stuff. Anyone know how he is doing now?

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    • I have doubts that he will play much below the senior national team anymore. Maybe the Olympics but thats about it.

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  2. Does anyone have insight into why the east coast is so underrepresented on these teams? Should I assume that the player selection process is fair and that therefore the player development is lagging behind? If so, what’s the cause?

    I mean, I’m not surprised that so many players come from California due to their large soccer-playing population, but I would expect a couple from the northeast and it seems like that’s rarely the case.

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    • Ramos has 11 from east of the Mississippi on the Dallas Cup roster. I noticed when Perez names rosters they are much more West Coast based. Perhaps Ramos is simply looking at players who have been able to train outdoors in the last few months, that does not include much of the east coast outside of FL, even GA has been tough this winter. It would make sense not to bring players in who probably would not show as well as they might due to lack of recent playing. Better to give them a fair chance later on. (Sure, indoor facilities help, but there is a difference.)

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  3. very good group here, would have liked to see them throw a friendly in here but no biggie. Really bright future with players of this quality coming through. The 2014 roster for the most part really picks itself, however looking at the 2018 world cup, how difficult will picking this team be? Not many players from this group will age out of it (beasley, dempsey, donovan and maybe goodson and jones) while you have some great players coming in such as shea, gil, gatt, boyd, agudelo, Mcinerney corona, trapp, oneil, brooks, packwood, morales, holmes, okugo, klute, sarkodie, yedlin, garza, as well as green. Also by that time both nagbe and fagundez could be eligible for the USMNT. Finally we might even have some bright younger guys ready to go such as flores, pelosi, sonora, rubin, arriola, among others. No matter what happens this summer, the future is extremely bright.

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  4. Good to see Alejandro Guido getting back into the fold. He is captain of Tijuana U21 team and has recently been getting first team minutes.

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    • Someone else probably knows more about this than I do, but I think for the Olympics the age cutoff for over 23 would be those born in 1992. Thus, even though he’d be (just) turning 23, he’s still eligible. I think.

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    • Wrong. Any player who TURNS 23 during the calendar year 2016 is eligible, and obviously anyone younger. Yedlin turns 23 in July 2016. Basically anybody that played on the last Under-20 World Cup team is eligible for the next Olympic team.

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  5. man, that is a pretty solid U-21 roster given there are still multiple players not included. i’m glad to see USSF getting these guys going two years out so we can avoid what happened last time. a lot of talent and potential in this group and once players like Arriola, Yedlin, Green, and Packwood are added, look out!

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    • Hopefully Green gets a chance to play with these guys. It would be really interesting to see how he stacks up against the rest of the US youth prospects (even if he’s a few years younger than some)

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    • My thoughts too. And don’t forget Julian Green. Can’t imagine the US has ever had so many youth players in first division soccer before. We could be ready to challenge some European powers in the next Olympics.

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    • i doubt it. during the Mexico friendly Klinsmann basically confirmed that Gil and Yedlin will be a part of the provisional world cup roster. i doubt either make it into the 23, but this comment says it all:

      “We observe them now week in and week out, and we’ll put the puzzle together, obviously what is best for us going into Brazil. We still have the camp coming up as well, which will be more than 23 players obviously to see a little bit more of them. Anything is possible in a short period of time in this sport.”

      the “them” was in reference to Gil and Yedlin.

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      • I think this points to Yedlin being considered a part of the national team (not necessarily the world cup roster though I think he goes).

  6. I imagine a lot of players that play more at higher club levels could not go.

    Great expierence tho for a lot of players that are at a critical age in US Soccer development.

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  7. What do you think Junior Flores’s chances of making it onto the 2016 Olympic squad are? I know he’s still getting his feet under him at Dortmund and he’ll only be 20, but it’d be nice seeing him in the national teams again, especially with El Salvador offering him chances to play with their first team.

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      • was just about to ask that. my guess is since he is part of TJ’s first team more often than not he was left off so he could stay with TJ.

      • He was sent back from the Dallas tournament so this seems to be mostly MLS guys and various reserve team players abroad. This isn’t half of our would-be Olympic qualifying team.

      • Arriola is currently with the U-20’s at the Dallas cup. It appears that all of the players on that roster were left off of this U-21 roster. The U-20’s will have plenty of time to play together working towards the U-20 World Cup. Will they mix to the two age groups at all prior to the U-20 World Cup, or wait until the U-20’s finish their more imediate goal, and then integrate the two cycles that will make up the Olympic squad? That might become more clear if a U-21 camp is scheduled at a point without a U-20 camp right before or after it.

    • Unless he get loaned out, he will be a tough one to judge versus older guys who are getting first team minutes. Arriola is still only 18 or 19, I think.

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