Top Stories

U.S. U-23s name Kreis head coach, Sargent and Weah headline his first squad

1 Shares

U.S. Soccer made a pair of major announcements on Tuesday, naming the head coach and roster for the U-23 Men’s National Team.

Former NYCFC, Orlando City, and Real Salt Lake boss Jason Kreis has been named the new head coach of the U.S. U-23 team. The 46-year-old had been linked to the position after recently been hired as part of Inter Miami CF’s technical staff.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity. It’s an opportunity to be a part of a new system under the leadership of Gregg Berhalter and Earnie Stewart leading the National Team the way that they are,” Kreis said in a statement issued by U.S. Soccer. “I’m a big fan of both of them. It’s an opportunity to work with the country’s brightest young stars. We have some fantastic young players. And it’s an opportunity to represent your country. In my opinion, that’s the highest honor of all.”

Kreis announced his first roster as well on Tuesday with the team beginning preparations to quality for the 2020 Olympics. Timothy Weah, Josh Sargent, Djordje Mihailovic, and Antonee Robinson headlined the 23-player roster after all seeing time previously with the senior squad.

The U.S. U-23 Men’s National Team will take on Egypt on Friday before facing the Netherlands on Sunday in upcoming friendlies. Both matches will take place in Spain.

Here is the entire 23-player roster:

GOALKEEPERS: Jonathan Klinsmann (Hertha BSC/GER; Newport Beach, Calif.), JT Marcinkowski (San Jose Earthquakes; Alamo, Calif.)

DEFENDERS: Julian Araujo (LA Galaxy; Lompac, Calif.), Cameron Carter-Vickers (Swansea City/WAL; Southend-on-Sea, England), Marco Farfan (Portland Timbers; Portland, Ore.), Jack Maher (Indiana; Caseyville, Ill.), Matthew Olosunde (Manchester United/ENG; Trenton, N.J.), Donovan Pines (D.C. United; Clarksville, Md.), Lucas Pos (FC Lausanne-Sport/SUI; Irvine, Calif.), Antonee Robinson (Wigan Athletic/ENG; Milton Keyes, England), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United FC; Arlington, Mass.)

MIDFIELDERS: Derrick Jones (Philadelphia Union; Philadelphia, Penn.), Cameron Lindley (Orlando City SC; Carmel, Ind.), Djordje Mihailovic (Chicago Fire; Lemont, Ill.), Keaton Parks (New York City FC; Plano, Texas), Eryk Williamson (Portland Timbers; Alexandria, Va.), Jackson Yueill (San Jose Earthquakes; St. Paul, Minn.)

FORWARDS: Jeremy Ebobisse (Portland Timbers; Bethesda, Md.), Josh Perez (LAFC; La Habra, Calif.), Emmanuel Sabbi (Hobro IK/DEN; Columbus, Ohio), Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen/GER; O’Fallon, MO), Tim Weah (Celtic FC/SCO; Rosedale, N.Y.), Haji Wright (Schalke/GER; Los Angeles, Calif.)

Comments

  1. I will go out on a limb and predict John Nelson will be on the squad in 2020. His soccer IQ is top notch, he has a good left foot and plays LB. He has finally put on a bit more mass which will help him and at least last weekend Zardes was not able to pull away from him. (Zardes did cut the ball back and lost it rather than try to get to the goal line so it is unclear what the speed difference really is, but it is good company speed-wise.)

    Reply
  2. It’s an interesting roster but I will be curious to see if several of the foreign based forwards and defenders can be released in the fall. The type of player I think this list misses is the Lederman/de la Fuente type, the dual national playing youth ball on the continent.

    Reply
    • de la Fuente is with the U20s and Lederman has never really done much for USYNTs. Hard to tell what he’s doing with Gent’s U21s. They only list the score on their website, and I watched a couple of highlight videos and he doesn’t appear to start. Could be injured hard to tell since there is no information updates.

      Reply
    • Also, I thought this was bs and it wasn’t going to happen until Summer because you can’t just throw together friendlies without months of preparations?

      Reply
  3. Why is none giving Nova a chance he has been in form for country. He can still switch countries I believe too. Also wonder why he did not choose Amon?

    Reply
    • Nova has aged out and Amon was called up to the U20s. If you’re asking why he’s with the U20s and not this team, well, I was also wondering that myself…

      Reply
  4. A good roster, but still believe that some of these guys should have been with the Sr. Team, since their clubs are not going to release them for the Olympic Qualification Tournament. Guys like CCV, Sargent, & Weah have already proven that they are good enough or better than older guys (Omar, Ramirez) who were called into Sr. friendlies. Having them with the U-23 side just takes minutes away from players who will be available for the qualification tournament.
    A couple of names I am surprised weren’t included: EPB, Moore, Scott, Lankford, De La Torre,
    guess their clubs may have not been willing to release them, but still seems odd they weren’t included.

    Reply
    • Oddly NAC Breda announced before Berhalter even talked about the U23 camp that EPB would be attending. Perhaps he has a slight injury.

      Reply
  5. A number of our national team midfielders could qualify for this squad, so it’s a little soft in midfield as a result. but, overall, and excellent roster, it seems to me.

    Reply
  6. Even though the soccer facility in Spain had been tweeting photos of check-in and practice hours ago, we finally get the roster. A couple of names I said who? But overall looks pretty good. It will be interesting to see how it lines up against Egypt. You would think it would play a more traditional formation with limited time and Kreis just coming on board. There is a lot of firepower up top if they can get the ball.

    Reply

Leave a Comment