Just one month before October’s Olympic qualifying, the U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team will undergo some final preparations with a pair of friendlies in England.
U.S. Soccer announced Wednesday that the Olympic team will convene in England in September for matches against the England U-23s and Qatar U-23s on Sept. 3 and 8, respectively.
“We are absolutely excited about this invitation to compete with these teams,” said head coach Andi Herzog. “We have emphasized the need for this group to be together as much as possible, and to get another chance to train and play against England and Qatar will be a great opportunity to evaluate players as we look to finalize our roster for Olympic Qualifying.”
The U.S. is just one week removed from a 3-0 victory over Mexico in the team’s third game of 2015. Previously, the team topped Bosnia, 5-2, before falling to Denmark, 1-0, in a pair of March friendlies
The team will reconvene next month for the Toulon Tournament in France, where they will face France on May 27, the Netherlands on May 29, Costa Rica on May 31 and Qatar on June 2. The championship and third place games will be held on June 7.
Qualifying for the 2016 Olympics is set to begin in October, as the 2015 CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualifying Championship will be held in the U.S. from Oct. 1-13.
What do you think of the upcoming trip to England? What do you expect from the U-23s in the coming months? Which players are you most looking forward to watching?
Share your thoughts below.
The Toulon Tournament (May 27th – June 2nd)….BPL Week 38 concludes 5/24, Bundesliga Week 34 concludes 5/23. The Sr. Teams June Friendlies are on 6/5 & 6/10 so there shouldn’t be any conflicts other than with MLS so Herzog should have his choice of whomever he wants for this summers tournament.
Players like Brooks, Yedlin, Green, Packwood, Pelosi, Cropper, Rodriguez, Stanko, Zelalem, etc…should all be available. Yedlin & Brooks can then switch over to the Sr. Friendlies before starting the Gold Cup Camp.
What I wonder is if the club teams which have starting players who are on this U-23 team will release their players for the tournament. I’m thinking specifically about Brooks. Sometimes the Bundesliga teams seem rather uncooperative about this type of thing. Anyone know if there is a FIFA rule about this?
Those are FIFA dates I think so I’d imagine they’d be released.
Sorry I didn’t realize you meant the qualifying tournament. Oct 5-13 are also FIFA dates though.
If it is on a FIFA International Window date, then the clubs have to release the players, no matter the age group…Problem can be that, is tournaments, or even friendlies for Youth Teams are not on FIFA dates and then not released for the tournament
Interestingly, Brian sciartta answered this question and says teams don’t have to release players for youth tournaments. For what that’s worth.
Hmm, unless he knows something we don’t, I have to assume that Brian Sciaretta is wrong. Here are the rules for release of players.
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/ps_792_en-annex_ii_74.pdf
Notice that it doesn’t specify anything about youth or senior level competition. All it says is that it has to be on a Fifa date.
Brian/Slow, the first two games of the group stage are not Fifa Dates, but the third game of the group stage, and the rest of the tournament (Semi-finals, Third-place game, and Final) are on Fifa-dates. So chances are we could/will see the players you mentioned during the qualifying tournament, just not for all the games.
I think teams will be allowed to make new call-ups starting in the third group stage game, but this is the only part I am not sure of. I could be wrong on that part.
Meant to say Gary Page not Brian.