[USA UNDER-20 MEN] Forward Jerome Kiesewetter, who plays for VfB Stuttgart II in Germany’s 3. Fussball-Liga, wasadded to the U.S. under-20 national team’s roster for the 2013 Concacaf U-20 Championship, which kicks off Feb. 18.
Coach Tab Ramos announcedan initial 18-player roster as the team traveled to Toluca, Mexico, to begin training for the tournament. His roster now stands at 19 players, and he will add a 20th player in the coming days for thetournament.
The 6-foot-3 Kiesewetter, who turned 20 on Saturday and holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Germany, has seven career caps for the U-20s. He joined Stuttgart from HerthaBerlin over the summer.
He is one of three German-based players in the U-20 squad. Caleb Stanko (SC Freiburg) and Mario Rodriguez (Kaiserslautern) are both U.S. youth products.
The U-20s open play in the group stage against Haiti on Feb. 18 and Costa Rica on Feb. 22 at Estadio OlimpicoUniversitario Lobos BUAP in Puebla, Mexico.
The U-20s beat Jamaica, 2-1, on goals by Jose Villarreal and BenjiJoya in a warmup game in Toluca.
U.S. U-20 Roster:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Cody Cropper(Southampton/ENG), Kendall McIntosh (Santa Clara Univ.), Zackary Steffen (FC Delco)
DEFENDERS (5): Eric Miller (Creighton Univ.), Juan Pablo Ocegueda(Guadalajara/MEX), Boyd Okwuonu (Univ. of North Carolina), Shane O’Neill (Colorado Rapids), Javan Torre (UCLA; Santa Monica, Calif.)
MIDFIELDERS (5):Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake), Benji Joya (Santos/MEX), Mikey Lopez (Sporting Kansas City), Caleb Stanko (SC Freiburg/GER), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew)
FORWARDS(6): Brandon Allen (Georgetown Univ.), Daniel Cuevas (Santos/MEX), Daniel Garcia (Univ. of North Carolina), Jerome Kiesewetter (VfB Stuttgart/GER), Mario Rodriguez (Kaiserslautern/GER) JoseVillarreal (LA Galaxy)
I can assure you that Jerome Kiesewetter is not 6’3″. You got him confused with Brooks from Hertha Berlin.