Porter Names US U-23 Olympic Qualifying Roster
[caption id=”attachment_305" align=”alignright” width=”300" caption=”Picture courtesy of US soccer”]
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Caleb Porter named an initial 19 players to the US U-23 Men’s National Team Roster to report to training camp on March 13th to begin final preparation for CONCACAF Olympic qualifying.
One player has withdrawn due to injury and Porter will make an additional player selection before submitting the final roster on March 20th, which is the due date for all participating teams to submit their final roster to CONCACAF.
Although US Soccer did not release the name of the player injured, it did not go unnoticed that Columbus Crew Midfielder and Olympic hopeful, Dilly Duka received a hamstring injury this weekend in the season opener against Colorado Rapids, “I think he could be out for a while” said head coach Robert Warzycha.
Speaking about the long process of player selection among some of the best talent the United States has to offer head coach Caleb Porter said, “For the past four training camps we have been comprehensively evaluating the most talented personnel available from an extensive player pool comprised of professional players on clubs in this country and abroad. We always keep in mind its most important to find the best mix collectively so that we can build a cohesive team capable of accomplishing our goal. I feel very confident in this collection of players and their ability to execute the playing style we believe will best represent their talents and get us to London.”
Overal, 13 players from MLS are represented along with 6 players that are playing outside of the US. Freddy Adu returns to the Olympic scene while 8 players overall have at least one cap with the senior team. Development of these players has been in cooperation with US MNT head coach Jurgen Klinsmann , the goal being to vertically integrate national team programs.
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Overall, the US Soccer set-up is taking a major step forward and progress continues to be made. However, there is still concern that injuries to any player with a senior cap, especially players who Klinsmann has depended on in more recent times run the definite risk of missing World Cup Qualifying.
More specifically with Brek Shea, who has featured in all 10 matches under Jurgen Klinsmann with the senior side. But also, Juan Agudelo, Teal Bunbury and now Terrence Boyd being included as key performers in a less than productive offense for the USMNT.
Another interesting note, is that within the FIFA Regulations for the Olympic Football Tournaments in London 2012, it is stated that a maximum of 3 players who do not meet the age limit (born on or after 1 January 1989) can be included in the final competition. There is great debate in England over whether or not David Beckham will compete for team Great Britain for the 2012 London Olympics.
We have seen this in the past with US Soccer when the overage spots were utilized in the Olympic squad. “The decision on whether to use overage players belongs to the coach. Certainly, he will strongly consider using all or some of the overage player exemptions based on the needs of the team,” said Michael Kammerman of US Soccer. It will be interesting to see if US Soccer has plans to incorporate any senior members this time around.
Here is a look at the full roster:
GOALKEEPERS (2): Bill Hamid (D.C. United; Annandale, Va.), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire; Lilburn, Ga.)
DEFENDERS (6): Josh Gatt (Molde; Plymouth, Mich.), Perry Kitchen (D.C. United; Indianapolis, Ind.), Ike Opara (San Jose Earthquakes; Durham, N.C.), Kofi Sarkodie (Houston Dynamo; Huber Heights, Ohio), Zarek Valentin (Montreal Impact; Lancaster, Pa.), Jorge Villafaña (Chivas USA; Anaheim, Calif.)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Freddy Adu (Philadelphia Union; Potomac, Md.), Joe Corona (Club Tijuana; Chula Vista, Calif.), Mix Diskerud (Gent; Oslo, Norway), Jared Jeffrey (Mainz; Richardson, Texas), Amobi Okugo (Philadelphia Union; Sacramento, Calif.), Michael Stephens (LA Galaxy; Naperville, Ill.)
FORWARDS (5): Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls; Barnegat, N.J.), Terrence Boyd (Borussia Dortmund; Berlin, Germany), Teal Bunbury (Sporting Kansas City; Prior Lake, Minn.), Joe Gyau (Hoffenheim; Silver Spring, Md.), Brek Shea (FC Dallas; Bryan, Texas)
