The 2024 Paris Olympics are right around the corner and the United States will need several players to step up if it wants to enjoy a deep run in the competition.
Marko Mitrovic’s 18-player roster is mixed with both European and domestic players, all of whom will be eager to deliver on the international stage.
From Tanner Tessmann and Gianluca Busio who enter camp fresh off Serie A promotion to Duncan McGuire who continues to be a goalscoring menace in MLS, there is no shortage of talent for the Americans to rely on.
With only nine days until the U.S. opening group stage match vs. France, here is a closer look at which five players you should keeping a close eye on:
Tanner Tessmann
Tanner Tessmann enjoyed a career-best year for Venezia and now enters Olympic duty on a major confidence boost.
Tessmann was influential in Venezia’s promotion back to Serie A, logging seven goals and three assists in 42 combined appearances for the club. The former FC Dallas homegrown has continued to take key steps forward during his three seasons in Venice and now the goal will be to carry that form over to Team USA.
A versatile midfielder, Tessmann might be the most important player in the squad, based off his role in the heart of the formation.
Gianluca Busio
Tessmann’s club teammate, Gianluca Busio, is also one to watch this summer.
The 22-year-old Busio is also coming off a career-best season for Venezia, making 42 appearances, registering five assists to go along with seven goals. A former Sporting KC homegrown, Busio scored more goals this past season than the prior four campaigns combined.
Busio’s goalscoring and playmaking abilities will make him a tough player to quiet down, especially given the fact he will have chemistry alongside Tessmann in midfield.
Duncan McGuire
Not many players have made a more immediate impact in MLS than Duncan McGuire.
McGuire has scored 20 goals in 48 career MLS appearances since being drafted by Orlando City during the 2023 MLS Draft. A former Mac Hermann award winner, McGuire’s rapid production on the pro stage has led to the reported interest from English clubs Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday over the past year.
The U.S. will need to score goals if they want to advance far in the competition and McGuire certainly can be the one to deliver them this summer.
Jack McGlynn
The 2024 Paris Olympics might feature one of the best left foots in the game today.
21-year-old Jack McGlynn heads into his first Olympics fresh off a strong first half of the season with the Philadelphia Union. His three goals and five assists are both career-highs to date while McGlynn is also on pace to set a new appearance total.
A dangerous creator from set pieces and free kicks, McGlynn surely will be among those seeking to make a difference in the final third.
Djordje Mihailovic
The return to MLS has been exactly the spark that Djordje Mihailovic has needed for his career.
Mihailovic, 25, has been quite the signing for the Colorado Rapids, scoring 10 goals and contributing nine assists in 21 appearances (21 starts) this season. After a quiet ending to his AZ Alkmaar career, the American playmaker has gotten back to his best in Colorado, giving the United States another confident player in their squad this summer.
Mihailovic was part of the U.S.’ failure to reach the 2020 Olympics but now has a golden opportunity to exercise those demons as part of the full squad this time around.
Mihailovic is a waste of a roster spot. We know what he’s capable of and it isn’t going to ever be equal to the A-Team level even as a fringe player, so what is he going to instill in the young players? Nothing. Would have preferred Luna be given the spot, and gone with an overage player at CF. Maybe Pefolk.
Not sure what McGuire brings either. Yes, he did well this past season, but it’s only 1 season. I see him as the newest version of Zardes….decent in MLS but won’t push the needle. He’ll be an MLS lifer but never contribute to the Sr. USMNT.
Tessmann is the one I’m most interested in seeing. We need depth at CDM considering Adams is made of glass. A strong showing in the Olympics should help give him a boost. His size and versatility is another aspect I want to see on display.
Apparently we beat Paraguay in a closed door friendly Sunday. 1-0, one score site said it was McGuire who scored. No mention of it from US Soccer. According to Wikipedia we have a friendly with Spain Friday.
I miss seeing Deigo Luna on this list 😉
5 goals and 10 assists are pretty impressive for a guy who only got offered an alternate spot. There are rumors this leads him open to overtures from Mexico.
Maybe he can wait until they hire the new boss; it may be a while
Inevitably dual nationals have options. Luna going to Mexico would hurt. But in the end this will always be a double edge sword for every country.
Obed Vagas has already switched because let’s face it he has less competition for spots with Mexico at CM.
I don’t want to lose Luna but yet again Luna has a great opportunity to get immediate playing time with Mexico’s senior team. Their attack is a hot mess.
Not saying the US’s isn’t and to be clear I believe RW is open and depth at wing/AM for the US is open. With a new coach in coming I do think there will be some players that will get a look for our attack. Es0ecially if Weah and Reyna continue to ride the pine for their teams.
if you view the purpose of the age groups as providing future senior players then djordje doesn’t make sense. if you view the purpose of the overage players as offering senior A team type talent on an age group team, only miles offers that, Z and djordje don’t. Z is past it and B/C level at this point. wasn’t even that effective in qatar. djordje was a B team bust last year. i don’t see how that either helps U23 win now other than miles, or points to the senior future other than miles.
in terms of the Luna complaints, i kind of feel like this is the Last Berhalter List. the U23 was picked 7/8 and he was fired 7/10. he liked this particular set of keepers and attackers, and maybe even half the defense. so his hands seem still on the U23 wheel even though in some sort of saw movie device the rest of him has been removed.
I’m not sure how true that is given Berhalter started Luna and Mitrovic only called him in once and played him 23 minutes. Others that Berhalter chose for January like Esmir, Kamoungo, and Jackson weren’t used by Mitrovic this spring. (Kamoungo and Jackson not playing very well this season)
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As for Djordje, I think they had it in their minds that they needed an overage attacker. When all there striker requests were rejected (Pepi, Wright, Vazquez, and JMorris) they went to what AM could they get. Ferreira would have been a good fit but can’t stay healthy this year. I think you see Gregg’s input more in the setup than the actual players box to box midfielders instead of creative offensive ones. The rosters were also due July 3 just weren’t released until the 8th when they had all the media events set up.
If Luna was smart he’d bide his time, it’s not like he’s been totally ignored seeing as though he just played in a U-20 WC and has been a part of the U-23 set up until just before the Olympic camps. I think he made a mistake not taking the alternate spot, it makes him look uncommitted and as if he’s holding a grievance for not being a fully rostered player. He can go the Mexico route if he wants, but there have been several players that chose Mexico that are probably wishing they hadn’t atm
I get the alternate thing if you’re an MLS player though. You’ve got actual games to play and RSL is near top of the league. Throw in RSL sold Barajas and missing a month could really hurt their team even if it’ll mostly be Leagues Cup.
This team isnt getting far. Lack of talent,
Lack of talent? Don’t agree with that. Two future USMNT GK. Two potential future LB’s, Paredes a potential Wing/WB, Two CM’s in Busio and Tessman who are bith being tied to bigger Serie A clubs. And two potential talented attacking midfielders in Pax and Booth. This team has more talent than you think.
miles has been A team level but is he over the injuries.
but we already know that. i have been suggesting dietz, tessmann, cremaschi, paredes, mcguire, and yow.
Z is past it. wiley and tolkin did not blow my doors off as backs. djordje at senior level is like C team. ditto busio. keepers take a while to shake out but neither struck me as a currently ready A level guy — even though we could badly use some keeper competition.
i think they could have done better with the overage but that’s not meant to be future NT so much as current ringers. i think we have a few guys like aaronson, reyna, and weston who are out of favor at current clubs and might have been interesting olympians.
the general vibe, to me, is we spread around the talent across the senior and age groups, senior team was a low energy xerox, missed out on some release refusals, and didn’t really go “all in” on anything. few fresh senior faces even after the jamaica struggle and pretourney friendly results. no U23 rushed up to senior. no U20 rushed up to olympic.
and so IMO we will get out of this summer nothing much — maybe U20 qualifies and a lot of meh beyond that. i thought we’d already learned the 2016 copa lesson that showing up with a faltering senior team of routine calls isn’t a success recipe or our best chance to win but we keep learning this over and over.
and if we weren’t going to take risks for copa why not push the kids back down to olympics. i know we’d have gotten some turndowns and generally seem to believe in “graduation” but the way to compete better this olympics is send as many of esmir, cowell, scally, lund, musah, reyna, johnny, malik, pepi, aaronson, balogun to paris as their teams would allow.
ironically if GB calls experiments for copa then who cares what the results are, olympics turns out better, and the man probably still has a job. many of you support him in his reflex, misguided rosters, and the fact he treated it like an A team event, took his best, and lost — well, you and he got him fired. so well played.
Why would these teams allow them to go to the Olympics?
“esmir, cowell, scally, lund, musah, reyna, johnny, malik, pepi, aaronson, balogun”
Scally, Lund, Johnny, Malik, and Balo are regular starters for their clubs. Pepi was not released. Reyna, Aaronson, and Musah have new managers, who probably want to see their players. Cowell is in season. Esmir was not chosen, and appears to be switching to Bosnia. In 23 man roster maybe Esmir makes it but 3g in MLS vs Paredes 3g in Bundesliga, Yow 7g in Belgium, Booth 5g in Netherlands (17 apps due to injury). It’s easy to say we should have got this guy or that guy, but reality is most clubs aren’t going to release because it goes right through training camps. Honestly I’m shocked Tessmann and Busio got released (thank you American ownership).
it’s easy to be dismissive but it’s about taking some risks and pushing more chips in on one or the other of these tournaments. we went safe. the coach got fired and we will get very little out of the summer. but you’re happy because we tried to get fewer players so we got told no less. wow, great roster, sure we win the olympics this way, hip hip hooray.
you do get if 80% of the reaches say no that’s 20% yeses to better this meh roster or keep guys in our pool and not some other one.
it’s weird how you end up very similar to what these mediocre coaches try, which, well, they’re all getting fired.
i also think you’re neglecting that a chunk of these players are in weird club situations. ordinarily they would be off piste. but if you ask for someone dortmund or juventus kind of wants gone, maybe you get them this particular time. it gets them out of camp moping around. it showcases them someplace else. it in a weird way adds value especially if they have a good game or two.
I disagree completely, and really the only area that I foresee being a problem is no depth at ST behind McGuire. In saying that, I don’t think Mitrovic could get any of the overage ST’s released, which is a pity, because that’s the one position that could impede a deep run whereas every other position has the talent that can match the better countries that made the Olympics in soccer(obviously France is unquestionably deeper, but we did tie them)
Fabrizio Romano saying Tessman may not be loaned back to Venezia. Ipswich and Feynoord other possible loan spots from Inter.
Is the deal done? Hearing Everton loan too. Also hearing Everton is interested in Mckennie.
Sounds like Inter wants to get the transfer done this week, not sure the loan destination will be that soon though.
I’m kind of worried about McKennie tbh. He looked out of shape at Copa America, and apparently he has priced himself out of a transfer to one or more teams in EPL. He seems to be more concerned about his absolute bottom line when it comes to his pay check, which I would never begrudge him or any player for, but he needs to find a club that will not only fit his skillset but also one that will continue to push and make him a better player
Supposedly, if this Inter thing happens and they want to loan him, Tessman wants to go to Torino where Vanoli, the manager who got Venezia promoted now has a new job.
Makes sense that Tessman wants to go with a manager who knows and trusts him.
absolutely