The U.S. Under-20 men’s national team will also be in action this month as preparation continues for this year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Noahkai Banks, Keyrol Figueroa, and Diego Kochen headlined Marko Mitrovic’s 21-player roster for upcoming matches against Mexico (March 22) and Japan (March 24). The team will hold their training camp in L’Albir, Spain from March 17-25.
Ben Cremaschi, Niko Tsakiris, and Joshua Wynder were also among the inclusions in the roster.
Six players represented the USMNT at the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia, leading the Americans to the knockout stage of that competitions. Those players are Banks, Matthew Corcoran, Figueroa, Taha Habroune, Aiden Harangi and Pedro Soma.
The USMNT U-20’s qualified for this fall’s U-20 World Cup after finishing second at the 2024 CONCACAF U-20 Championship. They will be joined by fellow CONCACAF nations Mexico, Panama, and Cuba.
Chile has been chosen by FIFA to host the U-20 World Cup, which will run from September 27 through October 19.
Here is the full USMNT U-20 roster for March’s trip to Spain:
GOALKEEPERS: Julian Eyestone (Brentford/ENG; Dallas, Texas), Diego Kochen (FC Barcelona/ESP; Miramar, Fla.).
DEFENDERS: Matai Akinmboni (Bournemouth/ENG; Upper Marlboro, Md.), Noahkai Banks (Augsburg/GER; Dietmannsried, Germany), Noah Cobb (Atlanta United FC; Chattanooga, Tenn.), Aiden Harangi (Eintracht Frankfurt/GER; Reston, Va.), Ethan Kohler (Werder Bremen/GER; Campbell, Calif.), Nolan Norris (FC Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas), Francis Westfield (Philadelphia Union; Philadelphia, Pa.), Joshua Wynder (Benfica/POR; Louisville, Ky.).
MIDFIELDERS: Matthew Corcoran (Nashville SC; Dallas, Texas), Benjamin Cremaschi (Inter Miami CF; Key Biscayne, Fla.), Taha Habroune (Columbus Crew; Columbus, Ohio), Brooklyn Raines (Houston Dynamo FC; Chicago, Ill.), Pedro Soma (FC Barcelona/ESP; Coconut Creek, Fla.), Niko Tsakiris (San Jose Earthquakes; Saratoga, Calif.).
FORWARDS: Luke Brennan (Atlanta United FC; Atlanta, Ga.), Keyrol Figueroa (Liverpool/ENG; Warrington, England), Kristian Fletcher (Nottingham Forest/ENG; Bowie, Md.), Zavier Gozo (Real Salt Lake; Eagle Mountain, Utah), Ruben Ramos Jr. (Los Angeles Galaxy; La Puente, Calif.), Marcos Zambrano (Vitoria Guimaraes/POR; Gladwyne, Pa.).
Unfortunate part is many of these players probably won’t be released for that U20 WC. Akinmboni, Banks, Kochen, Wynder seem the most likely not to get released by their clubs next October. Depending on which MLS sides are in the playoffs you may not see players like Tsakiris, Cobb, and Cremaschi either. So That’s a pretty big depletion of talent come the u20 WC.
if you view the point of the YNT as primarily scouting and identifying age groupers who might make an impact as adults, and you’re satisfied with seeing them some games but not necessarily the age group world cup, then some games like this with fairly full access suffice. it’s not perfect, it’s not the biggest stage, but it’s a place to scout leading prospects in person and compare them with each other.
i personally thought some of the people we had on U23 olympics, while perhaps solid for age group, had already been tried and failed as full MNT players. eg mihailovic. if you view the point as scouting fresh junior prospects who can help the seniors, that’s kind of a waste of time.
on cole campbell it’s a particularly rough time to be hurt. he might be with BD for club world cup when we have gold cup. he will miss a chance for nations league. and even a U20 look would be tape the coaches had to watch and consider.
side point to the people talking crap about cole but even reyna can’t break that same team. and when (a) he was on the provisional roster and (b) poch’s answer is not “he’s not ready” but instead “he’s out injured,” he may be closer than some of you think. it would help if he either broke into BD or left but from pulisic and reyna we should know that’s complicated. that you can be pretty darned good, in a numbers game there, and that particular team will drag out your exit.
IV: Reyna has played in 20 out of 24 matches since returning from injury, not always big minutes but he has 5 starts. That is vastly different from Campbell who has 5 appearances in 19 matches totaling 32 minutes. Campbell was only on the first team because there were so many first team injuries. He has more appearances for Dortmund’s U19s than he does their first team this season. He’s a good young player, who I think will be a regular for the NT sooner than later but let’s not say his situation is the same as Gio. Even your comparisons to teenage Gio and CP are false both jumped in and got regular minutes as soon as they were promoted to the first team at Dortmund. Gio played in 15 of his first 18. CP played in 5 of 7 had a little injury then played in 7 of 10 down the stretch.
if you’re worrying about access and making a big priority of trying to maximize success at these events, then the way to deal with that is broaden the pool for these games where you know who your other choices are. you might even focus on a set of players you think your access odds are better for, and work on chemistry and cohesion within a regular unit.
but to me that underlines a tension between are we trying to win or are we trying to develop the best U20s. i think scouting and developing the better players should be the focus. you do that well then the senior team will be better.
example: the overage olympic players haven’t contributed to the senior team since. the useful ones for the NT were the age appropriate players not already flushed by the MNT who showed well last summer…..schulte, yow, tessmann, mcglynn.
now, if you have the right talent worked up and schedules sync, the U20 2019 team can happen. you can win some games with a well talented unit.
but we have had a couple of our better players skip U20 entirely from U17 so to me i go back to, the purpose of the process is getting the gang together and figuring out which ones can really help us.
Yeah agreed. I just find the dates for this u20 WC weird. Seems to me you would try for a July time frame. After CWC.
2t: your post made me think, it’s usually been like U20 in mid may to mid june followed by euros/gold cup from june going into july. the last few U20 worlds all started mid may. i assumed they shoved the tourney to september to clear club world cup’s path but it’s not a schedule conflict. it might be a tussle for players people would want for U20 but you’re not actually gonna get more players by moving it away from club world cup — the teams will turn the first team player requests down for ordinary league play instead.
i don’t get it.
and if they shift to september permanently then you’ll see a half cooked U20s in general. we might even have problems getting college kids as fallbacks because fall’s NCAA regular season time.
IV
“a tension between are we trying to win or are we trying to develop the best U20s. i think scouting and developing the better players should be the focus. you do that well then the senior team will be better.”
What tension? Nonsense.
Trying to win a game is a TACTICAL decision i.e. one you make to address a short term need, like winning a particular game or games.
Developing young players to eventually graduate to the senior team, that is a STRATEGIC decision. and it is of course the main purpose of the youth international system.
You ignore the fact that managers at that level always have to balance winning vs. development. That is because there is no better teacher than failure and good managers are good teachers. Like ambiguity it is a part of the deal.
Winning is always a good thing but in a youth international situation, the MAIN reason to emphasize it is because the more you win, the more games you get to play. And that is important.
But the youth international system itself is only part of a player’s development journey.
The reason we are seeing more USMNT prospects than ever is because of what it is happening with the clubs. And much of that is separate from what is going on with the Youth international system.
“example: the overage olympic players haven’t contributed to the senior team since. the useful ones for the NT were the age appropriate players not already flushed by the MNT who showed well last summer…..schulte, yow, tessmann, mcglynn.now, if you have the right talent worked up and schedules sync, the U20 2019 team can happen. you can win some games with a well talented unit…….but we have had a couple of our better players skip U20 entirely from U17 so to me i go back to, the purpose of the process is getting the gang together and figuring out which ones can really help us.”
The Olympic overage guys are a tactical short term decision, one designed to give an Olympic team a better chance to win a given game.
They were not really supposed to contribute to the senior team. In the past they have talked about using Brian McBride and Landon as Olympic overage guys when those two were basically retired. Brazil used Neymar in 2016 but that was a special case because they had been humiliated in 2014 at home and in 2016 the Olympics were also in Brazil. They HAD to win that tournament.
The youth international system is useful but it is not perfect. Players develop at their own rates. Some guys are “ready” at 19 while others are ready at a later age.
Akinmboni has been making the bench for Bournmuth Senior men’s side. Made bench march 9th.
Bournemouth
yeah, i am much more interested in this batch of CBs coming up (dettoni at bayern, this kid, banks, norris looked good to me) than neal and the classes ahead of them. we need richards to play more consistently, ditto CCV or trusty, and then some of these kids to send the crappy arena CB era of ream and zimmerman and co. on their merry way.
people keep pimping mckenzie but a lot of what i’ve seen is like he has some natural knack for the position but he jogs slowly back and is still facing his own net when attacks start to materialize. which makes it harder to defend and creates shape issues.
I agree TIV, I am keeping eyes too on the CB pool. I am ready for them to take Ream spot, who has been playing LB for Charlotte, but CB for national team.
Striker, Ream played over 300 games in England as a CB including almost 100 in the EPL. It’s not deficiency as a CB that has him sliding out, it’s what he brings to their offense that brought about the move. Charlotte wants Ream wider so he has time and space to spray balls into the final third. He’s going to stay at home, Poch has not left his LB home so playing at LB wouldn’t be wise. Those young CBs have to lock down spots for their clubs and/or lockdown U20 offenses before they push any vet out.
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Taha Habroune a MF for Columbus and was a star for the U20s in qualifying. The other night trying to complete the 3-0 comeback against LAFC, one time he doesn’t step to the ball LAFC step in front and score on the counter putting the aggregate out of reach. Those are the mistakes that young players make, youthful mistakes have gotten Banks and Chase benched of late. If they’re good enough they’ll get there but they have to earn it.
IV and Striker,
IV has had a hard on for getting rid of Ream for years.
Given his age and his limitations it is a good idea to search for a successor for the World Cup team but so far the USMNT has found no one better. Timmy will eventually be gone but it might not be until after the World Cup.
That is why Ream is still in the picture.
You guys know all of the mistakes Timmy has ever made in is entire career but Pochettino seems interested only in what Ream can do going forward. His positives are :
1. His calm, on field leadership under fire on the field.
2. His passing out of the back
He’s a warm and fuzzy kind of guy but I see no evidence that Pochettino won’t immediately unload Ream as soon as someone who can at least do those things for the USMNT at least as good or better shows up.
Can you guys tell me who is the realistic Ream replacement is that Pochettino is ignoring?
When the new American version of VVD shows up I have no doubt that Pochettino will slide him in there. Do you?