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Reyna, Mendez, Dest, headline American newcomers named in Champions League squads

The 2019-20 UEFA Champions League group stage is right around the corner and all 32 teams have named their respective squads for the opening round of the competition.

Seven American players have been named including the likes of youngsters Giovanni Reyna, Alex Mendez, and Sergino Dest. All three will look to make their Champions League group stage debuts, while also helping their team to the Round of 16 this winter.

Reyna, 17, is currently with Dortmund’s U-19 side. He has made four appearances with the U-19’s, scoring one goal and adding one assist in league play. He will look to become the first American player to feature for Dortmund in the UCL since Christian Pulisic.

Mendez and Dest are both with Dutch giants Ajax, who had to go through two qualifying rounds to reach the group stage. Dest appeared in three of the four ties for Ajax, totaling 197 minutes of action. Mendez, 20, recently joined Ajax this summer from Wolfsburg, and has only featured in two Eerste Divisie matches since.

Also named to their rosters was Christian Pulisic (Chelsea), Timothy Weah (Lille), Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge), and Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig). Pulisic, Weah, and Dest were all paired in Group H while Ethan Horvath has one of the toughest draws with the likes of PSG and Real Madrid in Group A.

RB Leipzig has one of the more favorable draws in Group G, being paired up with Benfica, Lyon, and Zenit St. Petersburg.

The group stage begins on Sept. 17th and 18th. Here’s a full list of the Matchday 1 showdowns for each American player.

Christian Pulisic and Chelsea face Valencia.

Sergino Dest, Alex Mendez and Ajax face Timothy Weah and Lille.

Tyler Adams and RB Leipzig face Benfica.

Giovanni Reyna and Borussia Dortmund face Barcelona.

Ethan Horvath and Club Brugge face Galatasaray.

Comments

  1. Mendez is the bigger surprise for me. We saw Reyna look effective with first team in preseason but I don’t think we’d heard anything about Mendez training with the first team.

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