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.
Last camp before the #U20WC in May!@RamosTab has called up 20 players to take on 🇫🇷 and 🇯🇵 later this month.
— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) March 14, 2019
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)