USA U-20 World Cup roster announced

Tab Ramos, about to coach in his fourth U-20 World Cup, has named his final roster for the upcoming tournament in Poland.

Virtually every star player that has featured throughout the cycle has been named to the roster. FIFA doesn’t require teams to release players for this tournament and sometimes the U.S. doesn’t always get the players they want. But this time it appears to be basically a full-strength roster.

The big question about this roster would be whether or not players on the fringe or entrenched with the senior national team (Tyler Adams, Josh Sargent, Timothy Weah) would play in this tournament or in this summer’s Gold Cup. It appears that the federation has decided that Tim Weah is surplus to needs for the USMNT, while Josh Sargent and Tyler Adams (duh) are needed for the big squad.

The United States kicks off the World Cup on May 24 against Ukraine. They’ll follow that up with matches against Nigeria on May 27 and Qatar on May 30. This team is the reigning Concacaf champions and extremely talented. They’ll need that talent and an understanding of Ramos’ tactics if they are to make it out of this tough group. In 2017, the U.S. won their group and made it to the quarterfinals before falling to eventual runner-ups Venezuela.

Full USA U-20 World Cup Roster

GOALKEEPERS (3): CJ Dos Santos (Benfica), David Ochoa (Real Salt Lake), Brady Scott (Köln)

DEFENDERS (6): Sergino Dest (Ajax), Chris Gloster (Hannover 96), Aboubacar Keita (Richmond Kickers), Mark McKenzie (Philadelphia Union), Matthew Real (Philadelphia Union), Chris Richards (Bayern Munich)

MIDFIELDERS (6): Edwin Cerrillo (FC Dallas), Chris Durkin (D.C. United), Richard Ledezma (PSV Eindhoven), Alex Mendez (Freiburg), Paxton Pomykal (FC Dallas), Brandon Servania (FC Dallas)

FORWARDS (6): Ayo Akinola (Toronto FC), Konrad De La Fuente (Barcelona), Ulysses Llanez (Wolfsburg), Justin Rennicks (New England Revolution), Sebastian Soto (Hannover 96), Tim Weah (Celtic FC)