Ulysses Llanez, Brenden Aaronson, and Brandon Servania headlines the 22-player U.S. Men’s National Team travel roster for its first friendly of 2020.
USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter announced the roster on Saturday, ahead of the Feb. 1st showdown with Concacaf rivals Costa Rica. The club will train in Carson, Cali this week ahead of the match at Dignity Health Sports Park.
🗞 | Gregg Berhalter has named a 22-player travel roster ahead of next Saturday's clash vs. 🇨🇷 @dignityhealthsp in Carson, CA. #StakeYourClaim | #JanuaryCamp
— U.S. Soccer MNT (@USMNT) January 25, 2020
“It’s been a good few weeks in Florida. The guys have worked hard and have made progress in all aspects of our game model,” Berhalter said. “We’d like to thank Seattle Sounders and San Jose Earthquakes for their collaboration in releasing their players and wish them success at the start of their campaigns. We now turn our focus to preparing for Costa Rica and encouraging the players to take advantage of the opportunity and finish off the month with a positive result.”
San Jose Earthquakes goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski and Seattle Sounders forward Jordan Morris and midfielder Cristian Roldan have been released back to their respective MLS clubs. Morris and Roldan return for beginning preparations for the Sounders’ involvement in the 2020 Concacaf Champions League.
FC Dallas midfielder Paxton Pomykal also left camp earlier this month to continue rehabilitation on offseason groin surgery.
Here’s the entire 22-player roster:
GOALKEEPERS: Sean Johnson (New York City FC), Bill Hamid (D.C. United), Matt Turner (New England Revolution).
DEFENDERS: Julian Araujo (LA Galaxy), Reggie Cannon (FC Dallas), Chase Gasper (Minnesota United FC), Justen Glad (Real Salt Lake), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls), Mark McKenzie (Philadelphia Union), Sam Vines (Colorado Rapids), Walker Zimmerman (LAFC).
MIDFIELDERS: Brenden Aaronson (Philadelphia Union), Christian Cappis (Hobro), Bryang Kayo (Unattached), Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy), Brandon Servania (FC Dallas), Jackson Yueill (San Jose Earthquakes).
FORWARDS: Paul Arriola (D.C. United), Jesus Ferreira (FC Dallas), Jonathan Lewis (Colorado Rapids), Ulysses Llanez (Wolfsburg), Gyasi Zardes (Columbus Crew).
ussoccer.com says this game is being broadcast on ESPNNews (plus Unimas). That says it all.
Hard to get excited about this….
Glad Roldan is not on this roster he will not be missed.
What might be scarier is what if we do miss him? There’s not a lot of experience at his position in this group if they struggle his absence only makes him look stronger.
If the objective is to win (which based on the roster it probably isn’t the #1 objective)
GK: Hamid
CB: Long, Zimmerman
LB: Gasper, RB:Cannon
DM: Yeuill
8: Lletget
10: Aaronson
LW: Arriola. RW: Llanez
CF: Zardes
Meh. A few interesting names I suppose. Still, if many years of watching US soccer have taught me anything, it’s that the Jan/Feb fixtures are consistently among the most unwatchable affairs in all of sport. I will predict a 1-0 US victory, with Gyasi unwittingly scoring the winner off of his eye socket (again)
“Morris and Roldan return for beginning preparations for the Sounders’ involvement in the 2020 Concacaf Champions League.”
I thought Llanez was going back to Germs. I guess now I have something to look forward to next Saturday.
A little shocked that Roldan & Morris returned to their clubs before the friendly. I’d like to be able to read into the situation and say that they were returned because others out performed them, but I have the feeling this was something agreed upon from the start.
Still with there departure the bulk of the remaining 22 players are all age eligible for the U-23 qualification tournament. So we should get a good look at what we could potentially see in March.
I think a lot of people were surprised they were included considering their teams inclusion in the CL. It will no doubt give the Berhalter haters something to whine about if our U23 squad can’t beat the Costa Rica B team.
Last fall Morris was one of the best players on the team — and he would have leniency based on that — so I doubt it was performance. Roldan is also a regular, like it or not. Based on what’s left my guess would be Marcinowski was cut on merit and he decided to send away the two vets because to him they have nothing to prove. FWIW I’d rather see new players right now anyway. I don’t quite get bringing in regulars to send them back out since they would get MLS spring training anyway. But this camp should be trialists anyway.
Since, Marcinowski doesn’t even start for SJ and 4 GKs were called it stands to reason this was purely to train him for Olympic Qualifying and he was never intended to travel.
I do think based on the list at his position Marcinowski was brought in as fodder. However that is more apparent from the people who made the roster at his position than inherent in his age and status. Kayo is an unattached U17 who will dress. There are other U23s who made the team.
A couple things on that, the U23s staying all have pretty solid standings with their clubs. Marchinowski is expected to challenge for the starting role so more important for him to be with SJ especially with the other players at his position. As for Kayo he’s unattached because he’s waiting to turn 18 to sign in Europe there is literally no pressure from a club for him to return to training. Kreis hinted this week that they had been getting trouble from MLS clubs to release players for this camp so perhaps some of the U23s weren’t supposed to stay or even be there but had to be because others were held out.