New faces on U.S. under-20 national team roster

[FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL ESPOIRS] U.S. under-20 national team coach Tab Ramos named 22 players for the Festival International Espoirs May28-June 8 in France. The roster includes 13 holdovers from the Concacaf Under-20 Championship. It also includes Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders Academy) andMarlon Hairston (Louisville) whom Ramos saw for the first time at the recent U-20 camp, and Texan Alonso Hernandez, whodebuted for Mexican powerhouse Monterrey this spring.

Alfred Koroma (Akron) and Victor Pineda (ChicagoFire) rejoin the U-20s after injuries kept out of the team earlier in the year.

The notable absentees will be Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake), Jose Villarreal (Los Angeles) and DeAndre Yedlin (Seattle), who are starting for their MLS clubs but will in all likelihood join the USA for theUnder-20 World Cup in Turkey. Mario Rodriguez is playing for Kaiserslautern’s U-19 team that will face FC Cologne June 1 in the Germany’s DFB-Junioren Pokal. All but Yedlin, who didnot go to Puebla, started for the USA in qualifying.

The squad is otherwise basically the team Ramos will take to Turkey. Broken legs ruled out English-based Will Packwood (Birmingham City) and Marc Pelosi (Liverpool). Ramos could not get a commitment from Hertha Berlin’s John Anthony Brooks, who can choose between Germany and USA, in time to include in the USA’s preliminary roster.

“Obviously we’re excited for the tournament andto have this last chance to evaluate our team heading into the U-20 World Cup,” Ramos said in a statement. “We’ll have a couple players who have not been with us before and someothers who we want to look at a little more as we finalize our 21-player roster. All of the players are being considered for Turkey.”

U.S. U-20Roster:
GOALKEEPERS (2): Cody Cropper (Southampton/ENG), Kendall McIntosh (Santa Clara Univ.)
DEFENDERS (7):Eric Miller (Creighton Univ.), Juan Pablo Ocegueda (Guadalajara/MEX), Shane O’Neill (Colorado Rapids), Jeffrey Payeras (Municipal/GUA), Caleb Stanko (Freiburg/GER), Oscar Sorto (LAGalaxy; Los Angeles, Calif.), Javan Torre (UCLA)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Kellyn Acosta (FC Dallas), Marlon Hairston (Univ. of Louisville), Benji Joya(Santos/MEX), Mikey Lopez (Sporting KC), Collin Martin (Wake Forest Univ.), Dillon Serna (Colorado Rapids), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew)
FORWARDS (6): DanielCuevas (Santos/MEX), Daniel Garcia (Univ. of North Carolina), Alonso Hernandez (Monterrey/MEX), Alfred Koroma (Univ. of Akron), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders Academy), Victor Pineda (ChicagoFire).