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Mendez, Gloster, Amon headline U.S. U-20 MNT roster for March friendlies

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Gregg Berhalter and the U.S. Men’s National Team are not the only ones in action this month.

Thursday saw U.S. U-20 Men’s National Team head coach Tab Ramos announce a 20-player roster for an upcoming camp and pair of friendlies. This month’s camp will be the team’s final camp ahead of this summer’s FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland.

Jonathan Amon, Alex Mendez, and Chris Gloster headlined the roster chosen by Ramos and his staff. The U.S. U-20’s will face fellow World Cup participants France on March 22nd and Japan on March 25th, with both matches happening in Spain.

Several other familiar names have been brought in such as Bayern Munich’s Chris Richards, Hannover’s Sebastian Soto, D.C. United’s Chris Durkin, Ajax’s Sergino Dest.

“I’m looking forward to our last camp before the U-20 World Cup,” Ramos said. “With competition against two quality opponents, it’s one more opportunity for us to build a strong core and one more chance for the players to leave a good impression in order to be considered for the final 21-player roster. Japan always has highly skilled youth teams and France is always a World Cup contender.”

The U.S. kicks off group stage play in Poland on May 24th against Ukraine before facing Nigeria and Qatar on the 27th and 30th respectively.

Here’s the entire 20-player roster chosen by Ramos:

GOALKEEPERS: C.J. Dos Santos (Benfica/POR; 1/0), Trey Muse (Seattle Sounders FC; 0/0)

DEFENDERS: Sergino Dest (Ajax/NED; 6/1), Chris Gloster (Hannover 96/GER; 9/0), Aboubacar Keita (Columbus Crew SC; 0/0), Jaylin Lindsey (Sporting Kansas City; 5/0), Matthew Real (Philadelphia Union; 8/0), Chris Richards (Bayern Munich/GER; 6/0)

MIDFIELDERS: Frankie Amaya (FC Cincinnati; 11/1), Christian Cappis (Hobro/DEN; 2/0); Andrew Carleton (Atlanta United FC; 5/2), Chris Durkin (D.C. United; 0/0), Alex Mendez (Freiburg/GER; 13/8), Juan Pablo Torres (New York City FC; 10/4)

FORWARDS: Ayo Akinola (Toronto FC/CAN;10/9), Jonathan Amon (Nordsjaelland/DEN; 0/0), Konrad de la Fuente (Barcelona/ESP; 0/0), Ulysses Llanez (Unattached; 9/7), Justin Rennicks (New England Revolution; 12/6), Sebastian Soto (Hannover 96/GER; 3/2)

 

Comments

  1. Berhalter didn’t say anything about Weah and Sargent playing in Olympic qualifying. He’s just trying to get them game time. Apparently he doesn’t see them starting with the full team so they’re going to the highest level where they will be starters.

    Reply
    • This is the key point that soccer “journalists” don’t seem to be making a big deal about. Look at who he called in. Zardes, Morris, Arriola, Corey Bair, Jonathan Lewis and Christian Ramirez. Those are the players he rates higher than Sargent and Weah (and other Euro based guys). Are you serious? Sargent isn’t good enough to get playing time competing against those MLSers???? This is a very bad sign. I want to support Berhalter and was somewhat positive after the first couple games, but no longer. If he starts MB Bradley and puts Tyler Adams at Right Back, that will be the final straw for me where I lose all faith.

      Reply
      • Then think of it as a 3-4-3 and relax. Berhalter could send out a 4-5-1 with McKennie and Adams in DM roles and we could shut out most of Concacaf and qualify for the WC and then lose 1-0 to some Euro team and give up 30 shots on goal to 2. Or he can try to change the American system and perhaps have a chance to actually win a game without depending on Steffan to make 22 saves and hope Brooks scores on a corner.
        ————————————————————–
        –Morris—-Zardes—–Arriola
        ——–Pulisic—McKennie—-
        ——-Bradley-Adams———
        –Ream–Brooks–Miazga—-
        —————————————————————-
        People are afraid, they just want sit back and absorb for 90 minutes and hope we can just hit some long ball to spring Weah, Pulisic, or Sargent. When instead we can keep the ball out of our final third, at least balance possession and create chances. The group in January created more chances in 2 games than we’d created practically all last season. If they had been more in form those matches are 4 or 5 nil.
        ——————————————————————–
        I think in at least one match you’ll see Yedlin at RB and Adams in CM with Pulisic wide. All we depend on how quickly the new players pick up the system.

  2. This explains Amon being left off and that’s about it. The reality is you aren’t going to get most first team players released at this point in the European season, or for the ones on loan. You might get MLS kids on the theory the season is young and it’s an international date anyway, since the home league seems more flexible. U20 worlds are in May-June. Far as I am concerned if we had a brain and wanted to burn Weah and Sargent on a youth team instead of GC this year, then send them to the worlds and not to a U23 camp when they will never play in Olympic qualifying.

    Reply
    • Berhalter doesn’t care about the Olympics he cares about developing players. Trying to determine now who will be available for the U23 would be next to impossible. MLS players are just beginning the season, international players are unlikely to even be on the same teams by October, and the U20 players that will likely fill 1/3 to 1/2 the spots are in the final camp before the WC. Berhalter sees this as a chance for Weah and Sargent to shine and impose their skill on other teams and play 150-180 minutes next week. Whereas if they come to the full USMNT camp they’ll likely play 20 to 30 minutes.

      Reply
      • Oh, I buy that GB wouldn’t plan on playing them more than x minutes if that is what he said. There is no reason to potentially irk a player by saying something like that unless you mean it. But when you watch who he starts — for a full international date — and brings off the bench against the March opposition, tell me Weah and Sargent shouldn’t be (1) starting or (2) with them. They have international goals against A teams. He is implying they should sit behind Zardes or the like. Maybe he sees the rawness in their games, or their intermittent use in club. But that doesn’t make the MLS guys he is calling instead magically any good.

      • Zardes does have 6 international goals and knows the system and is very good at it. It will be interesting to see who starts on the wing. Both Weah and Sargent can play there, but it is not their best position. Morris has 5 international goals. I would guess Arriola is the other starter and he provides a little more 2 way play than Tim or Josh. Lewis was highly rated by Viera and I would think will likely be used as a sub, not a starter. Weah and Sargent have loads more potential than anyone in the forward pool, but on the field today it is not as cut and dried if they can do what Berhalter requires. Ariyibi has been as effective in Scotland over the last month as Weah.

    • And then my thing is there are literally no male U23 games scheduled for now. If you have players who need some field time, a theory of using them for 90 for U23 instead of 30 for USMNT could hold water. But they strictly speaking don’t have a camp or games announced. In which case either U20 or here. U23 is basically blowing the press off. “I see them as U23 types right now.” Yeah but U23 isn’t playing next week. 30 minutes for us is better than gathering dust for an international break.

      Reply
      • Berhalter has said several times this week they will play for the U23s this window. I understand there hasn’t been an official announcement, but as I told you yesterday the games won’t be on tv, there won’t be big crowds so there is no need to promote it ahead of time. My guess is we’ll hear on Monday who is in the camp and who they will play.

      • And here we are: https://twitter.com/RamosTab/status/1106300676689268738
        US U23s vs Egypt U23s on March 22
        US U23s vs Holland U23s on March 24
        These matches are part of the Pinatar Arena Football Festival, the match on the 22nd is immediately following the U20 match. There are multiple U20 teams and the three U23 squads so there may be some chances for training with other teams as well. It was also reported in the Athletic (so the title told me, I don’t subscribe) that Jason Kreis will be the U23 manager for this cycle

      • RonnieT where did you find the information that the U23s would be Spain, I’ve tried to confirm it and couldn’t find it anywhere?

      • Why would you have players young enough to be on U20 — who are in the world championship in May/June — instead camped with U23s when there is no way in heck they are being released in October for U23 regional qualifying. If they are just going to camp with a team but miss the regional event in the fall, then why not camp them with the seniors for the GC, when they can be secured?

    • He’s been playing for Benfica’s U19s, it is really hard to find out anything other than the final score and who scored the goals. Once in a while there might be a save video on the Benfica Youth Twitter account. I’m not even sure how much he plays because they don’t publish gameday rosters.

      Reply

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