Gregg Berhalter will have a stronger collection of players for the U.S. Men’s National Team’s upcoming friendly against Northern Ireland that originally thought, and he has a player joining the USMNT who had been expected to miss out on the proceedings altogether before changes in Covid quarantine protocols.
Giovanni Reyna, Josh Sargent and Chris Richards are all now set to be available for the friendly against Northern Ireland after initially only being expected to face Jamaica on March 25 in Austria.
In other roster news, U.S. Soccer announced on Monday morning that Nicholas Gioacchini has been given permission to join up with the USMNT ahead of the upcoming friendlies vs. Jamaica and Northern Ireland. The 20-year-old forward had recently been forced to withdraw from the squad due to COVID restrictions, but changes to quarantine protocols in the city where his club is based allowed him to be readmitted.
John Brooks and Reggie Cannon are still currently scheduled to leave the camp after the friendly against Jamaica.
This latest roster development comes after news over the weekend that some players were forced to withdraw, including Tyler Adams and Tim Weah, while others like Jordan Siebatcheu and Christian Cappis were called in. The current roster is at 26 players.
The Americans have already begun gathering in Europe for these looming fixtures. The first is a meeting with Concacaf foe Jamaica this Thursday in Austria before a visit to Northern Ireland on Sunday.
Here is the USMNT’s roster for this week’s training camp:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Ethan Horvath, Chituru Odunze, Zack Steffen
DEFENDERS (10): John Brooks, Reggie Cannon, Sergiño Dest, Aaron Long, Matt Miazga, Erik Palmer-Brown, Tim Ream, Bryan Reynolds, Chris Richards, Antonee Robinson
MIDFIELDERS (7): Brenden Aaronson, Kellyn Acosta, Christian Cappis, Luca de la Torre, Sebastian Lletget, Yunus Musah, Owen Otasowie
FORWARDS (6): Daryl Dike, Nicholas Gioacchini, Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna, Josh Sargent, Jordan Siebatcheu
I think the most important part of these “friendlies” is the opportunity for the coach to see as many people play as possible. As long as they are available for at least one of the matches, I see the objectives as being met. Many of the players being looked at by Berhalter may very well be on the final Olympic Roster for the USA U-23 Team. For those, there will be an added incentive to impress.
Very good for Richards and Brooks to get as much time on the field as they can.
Well I guess Brooks is still leaving after one game so there goes that. Oh well.
i don’t think more brooks minutes really helps resolve anything. i think giving minutes to others gives some sense how they can compare. fwiw it’s standard brooks operating procedure for him to be unavailable half the time.
I like it. Now GB gets to rate our main CF prospects at the same time.
McKennie will be missed.
i think mckennie needs rest in a busy year more than we need to reprove his value. we need to get away from trying to prove and reprove the same half dozen are good. we need 11 starters and 23 rosterees and you don’t sort that right putting all attention on the elite.
I am generally a pessimist in regards as to what will happen with regards to US players being released/cleared to play for the US. This is good news, but I am waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The other shoe will be when we see Gregg’s starting XI for each game. I expect Gregg will go with…
CB – Brooks & Long….Richards will be benched. Ream will start 2nd game
CF – Lletget will start at least 1 game as a false 9.
EPB, Otasowie, Siebatcheu, De La Torre, Cappis & Dike will split a total of 15 minutes across the 2 games.