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Weah, Novakovich, Palmer-Brown headline young USMNT squad to face Paraguay

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The focus remains on youth as the U.S. Men’s National Team heads towards a friendly with Paraguay.

A total of five newcomers will join the USMNT squad for the upcoming friendly, which takes place on March 27 in Cary. Defenders Shaq Moore, Erik Palmer-Brown and Antonee Robinson, midfielder Tim Weah and forward Andrija Novakovich join the USMNT squad for the first time, headlining a young squad featuring European-based players for the first time since the fall.

This match once again represents an opportunity for some new faces. The roster has an average age under 24, so for the most part this a group of younger players that we feel have a future with the National Team along with some familiar names,” USMNT interim boss Dave Sarachan said. “The timing is right to give these guys international exposure, and they will certainly be tested against a strong and experienced Paraguayan team.”

Leading the familiar faces are several USMNT veterans, including DeAndre Yedlin, Darlington Nagbe, Eric Lichaj and Bobby Wood. Younger options like Matt Miazga, Zack Steffen and Cameron Carter-Vickers also rejoin the national team alongside recent breakthroughs in Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams.

Here’s a closer look at the USMNT squad:

GOALKEEPERS: Alex Bono (Toronto FC/CAN; 0/0), Bill Hamid (Midtjylland/DEN; 5/0), Zack Steffen (Columbus Crew SC; 1/0)

DEFENDERS: Cameron Carter-Vickers (Ipswich Town/ENG; 1/0), Eric Lichaj (Nottingham Forest/ENG; 14/1), Matt Miazga (Vitesse/NED; 4/1), Shaq Moore (Levante/ESP; 0/0), Erik Palmer-Brown (Kortrijk/BEL; 0/0), Antonee Robinson (Bolton Wanderers/ENG; 0/0), Jorge Villafaña (Santos Laguna/MEX; 15/0), DeAndre Yedlin (Newcastle United/ENG; 49/0)

MIDFIELDERS: Tyler Adams (New York Red Bulls; 2/0), Marky Delgado (Toronto FC/CAN; 0/0), Weston McKennie (Schalke/GER; 1/1), Darlington Nagbe (Atlanta United FC; 24/1), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders FC; 2/0), Kenny Saief (Anderlecht/BEL; 1/0), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew SC; 3/0), Tim Weah (Paris Saint-Germain/FRA; 0/0)

FORWARDS: Andrija Novakovich (Telstar/NED; 0/0), Rubio Rubin (Club Tijuana/MEX; 4/0), Bobby Wood (Hamburg/GER; 36/10)

Comments

  1. I’m actually kind of impressed with the selections for call-ups to this camp. While there are some things I’d change (Villafana, Trapp, Roldan, Nagbe, & Wood) and players I’d have liked to see get called (Pulisic, Parks, Green, Brooks, Hyndmann, etc….); overall this is a move in the right direction.

    Just hope that the coaching staff doesn’t screw the young players up by doing something stupid.

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  2. Does anyone have a source on what’s going on with the Tillman brothers? I’ve heard they both just accepted call ups to German youth teams but can’t find anything myself.

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    • It really doesn’t matter what they are doing with the German youth teams anyway. There is no hurry for either as they are not tied until they play in a full national competition or qualifier. That gives him a couple of years to see what his prospects are to play for either Germany or the US. If he turns into Julian Green and isn’t on the German team radar he can switch to the US, but if he is starting for Bayern and in the national team picture stays with them.

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  3. i’m sure that Yevgeniy is probably right, but i feel the same as pjs. i like this young, new roster and i Don’t want to see even one familiar face at this point in the next meaningful game (and i Don’t mean any disrespect)

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    • But is that because you haven’t yet seen them. It was a year ago that people were so excited that Arena was bringing Nagbe back because JK had cast him aside, then we saw him over the last nine months and people complained he was included. Villafana not that long ago was the LB savior until he actually played. Chandler has been gone long people are calling for him, but my guess is an appearance or two and he’d be back on the hate list. The grass isn’t always greener.

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  4. No Kellyn Acosta? Is he hurt? I don’t remember seeing that he is. I’d like to see another attacking option called in, don’t care who in p;articular. Generally it looks like a pretty good young squad.

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      • But too bad for them, and worse for us, we will not have a meaningful game for another year. Yes, we would see all of them on field for a big game now. But, my hope is these games give the youngsters a chance to shine and either force the “tattooed millionaires” to play with heart and passion or be replaced. The good news is that it is taking a pretty blah meaningless game and making it worth watching.

  5. Would have taken Green over Rubin, but with Greuther on a roll, Green might have opted to stay with his club. With Roldan and Trapp its going to depend on the formation. If they try to play either one as a lone CDM in the diamond it will not be good. That does not fit their skill set. Parks has hardly played real minutes 106 over 5 appearances in matches that were for the most part over when he entered, he had gone two months without a first-team appearance before 7 minutes last week.

    Has the US learned its dual national lesson, CCV, Weah, Novakovich, Robinson all shown love this time, not cap tieing but at least its attention?

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  6. average age of 24 actually seems kind of high for this group. that is a surprising number of kids. now’s the time, i guess.

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  7. No Pulisic? He is expected to be the leader of this team going forward. As it is an international break why leave him at hone?

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    • BvB has had a really tight schedule with Europa League and is pushing to stay in Champions League position for next season. Likely with it being just one match and not with the actual manager that either he or Dortmund ask that he have the time off. He also missed the Europa match this week due to illness.

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    • Yeah, I would rather not put him through the additional stress of an international week right now. This is a less than meaningless game, with an interim coach. We will not be establishing any identity this wknd. Give some kids that might not have otherwise had a chance to prove themselves a run out.

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  8. Other than Trapp and Roldan really no complaints. Would have replaced them with attacking midfielders like Green who has been playing kinda that role lately and Emo or Parks. At least an exciting young group to watch. I know Emo isnt getting first team mins yet but there isn’t a lot of options at the position

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      • Well look at the roster. How many attacking central midfielders are on it? I didn’t say he should be chosen over Mckennie or Adams, they are more defensive CMs. Why have Trapp, Roldan and Delgado added to the roster when they are defensive midfielders too, when there is no player called up that plays in an attacking CM role. Emo has played first team mins for Fulham, Rangers, Bournemouth and USMNT yes it has been awhile but who else is there is in this next generation of young players and that’s why I mentioned Green too because he has been playing in a similar role.

      • I might be wrong, but I didn’t think that Emo was attacking. I think he is just as attacking as Adams is

      • Emo played as an AM for Rangers, he ended as a wing for Fulham. I’m not sure where he plays for Bournemouth Reserves.

  9. I agree on Parks – would rather see him than Trapp or Nagbe, who is the most overrated player in MLS, IMO. Would have also liked to see ArJo back in the mix, instead of Bobby Wood, who has been utterly useless for Hamburg this season. Otherwise, this should be fun to watch.

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  10. Only inclusion I would have made is Keaton Parks. Other than that, I absolutely love this young roster. Start slowly handing the kids the keys to the car. Let’s see if they can handle the rigors and pressures of driving the car.

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    • Agree. At the end of the day I wouldn’t COMPLETELY throw out the old guard – there will be guys there who can help us in Qatar ’26, sorry for those who want the a punitive clean sweep – but prior to that we really need to focus on finding the next wave and the wave after that and blooding them.

      I wish we had more direction from US Soccer…I liked the direction Klinsmann was taking us in terms of positivity and proactivity on the field but a lot of people got tired of his proselytizing and went knee-jerk ‘MERICAN back the other way. Whatever, we need to form a national identity and make a real effort towards plug-and-play rather than trying to tweak our system to the perceived strengths of a few “irreplaceable” individuals as instantly happened again under Arena. Sarachan is in no way the guy for that and we need to come to a Meeting of the Minds, and soon.

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      • I don’t know what positivity you are referring to with regards to Klinsmann because by all accounts the locker room was in shambles under JK, we failed to make it to a GC final for the first time under his regime and the NT also lost the first 2 games of qualifying for the first time, one being in Columbus(where we had never lost). Couple that with the fact that the team played no differently than they had under Bob Bradley or Arena(1.0 and 2.0), and you have you reason for his ouster

      • Ronniet, he was referring to Klinsmann’s push for positive play, which honestly had left by 2015. I think Quozzel was actually referencing your locker room issues when talking by growing tired of him. I really wish there was a market for a tell-all book because I’d like to know who were the disgruntled in the locker room?

    • Parks is training with Benficas first team, I imagine that he is staying there for his own good right now. But boy, is he a good young player. Id love to see him and McKennie run the midfield. They’re both international-level in terms of skill and smarts and both could end up stalwarts at great clubs.

      All told, I like the roster. In my opinion I would have rather left Hamid, Roldan, and Trapp at home and brought in other non-MLS competitors. In my opinion MLS needs to start proving itself to get its players in the national team. Steffen is the only guy I would include because hes a freak talent starting to climb and the veteran keepers are thin. I think hes going to be a star keeper when he irons out the inconsistencies of a young keeper.

      Im glad to see Saief, Novakovich, Miazga, Moore, Robinson, and Weah in the team. All of them got there the right way…they earned it on the fiels by breaking in to their teams in one way or another. Thats how this should work.

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      • MLS doesn’t need to start proving itself. It has proved itself to everyone who is rationale and keeps improving. If you start for an MLS team these days, you are a solid player at the very minimum. Needless to say if you are playing for Dortmund,Shalke, Newcastle, you should almost automatically be in. However, of you are in a second division club like Boyd or in a league like Belgium you Shouldn’t be automatically in. Tabla wasn’t starting at Montreal and is now starting for Barcelona 2. Most of people who share your views would laugh at a suggestion that Montreal is even on the same planet as Barcelona 2. Joevin Jones went straight into starting line-up of Darmstadt and scored 3 goals in first 7 games.

      • Or think about Fafa Picault. When he was in the sacred “Europe”, people were calling for his inclusion into USMNT. Now that he is in MLS and not finding it any easier than Bundesliga 2 (or harder?), everyone stopped.

      • Well Hamid is no longer in MLS, and he’s arguably the US’ best keeper at the moment, so he should be in camp!

      • And also, what is it that MLS players need to start doing differently that our european contingent are doing that makes the euro players more deserving?? And please don’t say it’s because they are in europe, because that would be out ignorance and seemingly driven from recency syndrome in my opinion.

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