The U.S. men’s Olympic national team will visit Kansas City, Kansas for its final friendly before embarking to Paris, France.
Japan will oppose Marko Mitrovic’s squad on June 11 in the final pre-Olympic friendly for the Americans, U.S. Soccer announced Friday. Sporting KC’s Children’s Mercy Park will serve as the host venue for the match.
“We’ve had a number of productive training camps in preparation for the Olympic Games and we’re excited to play in front of American fans in our last game before we travel to France,” said Mitrović. “It’s important for us to continue building toward the Olympics and we know that Japan will provide a strong test. Kansas City is known for its passionate soccer fans and it will be a great host for our final match in the United States.”
The U.S. men’s Olympic Team is preparing for its first tournament involvement since 2008. Majority of Mitrovic’s roster will be made up of players under the age of 23-years-old, with three roster spots being occupied by players above that age.
Most recently, the United States faced off with France and Guinea during the March international window. Both France and Guinea will be part of the Americans’ group in Paris this summer, as well as New Zealand.
The U.S. will face France on July 24 in both nations’ opening match of the Olympics. New Zealand will take on the Americans on July 27 before the U.S. and Guinea face off on July 30 in the final match of the group stage.
Both the Stade de Marseille and Stade Geoffroy-Guichard will serve as host venues for the Americans group stage matches.
Olympic eligible Jose Gallegos and Sonderjyske have secured promotion back to Danish SuperLiga. Jose had a trial at Bayern while still with San Antonio but ended up with Sonderjyske in Jan ‘21 who then were relegated. Once thought a rising star success has been slow in Denmark. 13g 12a in 2.5 seasons (76 matches). If you don’t know who he is go watch the YouTube highlights of him carving up FC Dallas in a friendly from 2020. Very much like Diego Luna but never had the U20 championships to showcase himself because Covid cancelled 2021 U20 WC. He’s never been in U23 camp so he’d be a long shot for sure to get to Paris.
CB is a position that needs upgrading for sure for the Olympic team, so we can bank on at least one and probably two overage spots used there. ST is the other that needs strengthened, so I could see a Brandon Vazquez used as the overage, with hopefully Pepi released and brought in as an Olympic eligible player as well, that would be an awesome ST tandem for Paris
Pefok, Nico Gioacchini, Chris Durkin my 3 overage players.
Need a CB, even if Neal is ready Tomkinson, Dietz and Jalen is pretty sketch. Nico has hardly played since joining Como, 190 minutes in the 7 months before Olympics might not be enough to be sharp. Pefok I don’t mind, to be fair I liked the idea of Nico last November when he had 10g for STL. Durkin I like better than Edelman but is it worth it with all youthful CBs.
Yeah I think the focus will be on CB for overage players. Neal was already looking good in his first start against Seattle last week. Ton of potential in him. My guess 3 CB’s will he taken and I could seriously see 2 of this CB’s being overage. So that only leaves one spot for a U23 CB. Tomkinson, Dietz, and Neal are the most likely to be the three competing for the last spot. Reynolds can play CB if needed in the tournament.
@JohnnyRazor – Are there any left footed players who didn’t get called in? (March 15 Article reappeared on my feed 1 month later).
Me: Yes; you already named Leo Sepulvda (Cade Cowell’s teammate). Mauricio Isais is the other. Both would fit good @ LCB for the Olympic squad. (De Vries, Kobe Hernandez-Foster aren’t bad players, I put them in the not yet category along with Esmir). Vassilev is interesting because I think he would make a good right midfielder; a lefty like Pomykal in a 4-3-3. Not many lefties are 8s. I like him over Cremanshi or Esmir. @nkh
If you ball out in MLS Next Pro, does not in no way mean you are worthy of playing against 23 year old Olympic athletes. Noel Buck is a stronger player, than Esmir though I believe we need more players between the ages of 21-23 and not teenagers who didn’t compete or stand out at U17 or U20 levels. We don’t need a whole bunch of players who are shape like sticks, either, KP & PA are enough. A person who is left footed doesn’t mean they’re right brained. A person who’s right footed doesn’t mean they’re left brained @nkh, that’s a silly assertion. The brain with exceptions of disease, operates the same no matter the hand/foot dominance. Left footed people are more creative because they’re less of us. Am I the only commenter thats left footed?! Tim Ream is a prime example. Casual fan: ‘He’s the US best one on one defender?!’ Me: No, he’s not, he’s just left footed. Simple. Play-style different. Passes are made with his left. He got burnt by Diego Llanez playing LB in a 4-4-2, pre pandemic for people with amnesia. @nkh If you want quantitative info about US left footed players, then you count the number of left footed passes and you count the number of times a player(s) use their left foot. That will give you a ratio, similar to run/pass ratio that they do in the NFL. (Ex. Buccaneers pass (The ball) 75% of the time; run (The Ball) 15% of the time. Most teams that win SBs have a balanced run/pass ratio. Closer to 50/50 the better).
This gives you the Left/right footed passes/usage. Good luck!!, you have Sarachan’s tenure, Anthony Hudson & BJ Callahan’s matches then GBs matches to watch. This will give you the accumulation of US total passes. 12+5+7+69 = total matches. If you watch all the losses 2x, draws 3x, and the wins 5x, like I did; your brain will notice the left footed deficiency in the passes and play style with the US. Opposing coaches can see this. This isn’t an unsubstantiated claim that hasn’t been checked that should be checked and never is!! It’s not complicated at all. Simple math. All one has to do is watch. Human brain is designed to pick up patterns.
I had a longer post but I’m not seeing it maybe I didn’t submit. Although not cap tied it does appear both Isais and Sepulveda are committed to El Tri. Also Isais doesn’t appear to be playing much this spring season. Vassilev was in the first Olympic camp but not the last two so I think some guys would have to be not released for him to make the roster.
I wonder who the 3 overage players will be. MLS or fringe European players?Also, we could field a heck of a team if that was our only focus. However, some of those U-23 possibilities will be playing for the senior team and some might not be allowed to play by their club.
I could see Walker Zimmerman, Miles Robinson, Mark McKenzie and Auston Trusty fighting for 2 spots at CB, although McKenzie and Trusty might be problematic in terms of getting released for a non FiFa sanctioned event, so veteran MLSers might be the way to go at which I’d be perfectly fine with Zimm and Miles. I wrote this above, so again I think Brandon Vazquez would be a perfect fit for the Olympics, as I’m hearing he won’t miss any Liga MX games during that Olympic window.
I’d lean more MLS, but European players would be just in preseason. MLS will be in Leagues Cup so maybe teams would be ok if they aren’t planning a big cup push.
Walker Zimmerman, Jesus Ferreira, and Timothy Tillman. Walker because he’s experienced and will work well with the youngsters. Ferreira because he can play multiple positions and his runs will cause havoc on defenses. Plus France has several Caribbean territories so he’ll score for sure. Tim because he was in camp with many of the U23 guys in January camp and already has a relationship with them.