The United States U-20 national team is currently in Spain for a last-minute scheduled camp to serve as final preparations for the coming World Cup which will open on Sept. 27 in Chile. The United States opened the camp with a convincing 4-1 win over Morocco on Friday and the camp will conclude on Sunday in a rematch between the same teams. 

Initially, Coach Marko Mitrovic was not planning on using the September window and instead opening a pre-World Cup camp shortly after the window. But after discussions with clubs, he realized he would not be able to get most of his players until after the weekend of Sept. 19-21 — with the first full training coming on Sept. 23. So he and U.S. Soccer decided to put together a camp for this window in September. 

Mitrovic will name his World Cup roster on Sept. 18 and the U.S. team begins group play on Sept. 29 against New Caledonia before facing France on Oct. 2 and African U-20 champions South Africa on Oct. 5. 

The roster for this September camp contains most of the same players who have been with the team throughout the cycle. 

Here is the roster along with some thoughts about the camp, the players, and the important issues ahead of the World Cup. 

The U.S. U-20 roster
GOALKEEPERS (3): Adam Beaudry* (Colorado Springs Switchbacks; Castle Pines, Colo.), Duran Ferree* (San Diego FC; San Diego, Calif.), Diego Kochen (FC Barcelona/ESP; Miramar, Fla.).
DEFENDERS (8): Matai Akinmboni (Bournemouth/ENG; Upper Marlboro, Md.), Reed Baker-Whiting (Seattle Sounders; Seattle, Wash.), Luca Bombino* (San Diego FC; Saugus, Calif.), Noah Cobb* (Colorado Rapids; Chattanooga, Tenn.), Ethan Kohler* (SC Verl/GER; Campbell, Calif.), Nolan Norris* (FC Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas), Francis Westfield (Philadelphia Union; Philadelphia, Pa.), Josh Wynder (Benfica; Louisville, Ken.).
MIDFIELDERS (6): Matthew Corcoran (Rhode Island FC; Dallas, Texas), Benjamin Cremaschi (Inter Miami; Key Biscayne, Fla.), Taha Habroune* (Columbus Crew; Columbus, Ohio), Brooklyn Raines* (Houston Dynamo; Chicago, Ill.), Pedro Soma* (San Diego FC; Coconut Creek, Fla.), Niko Tsakiris* (San Jose Earthquakes; Saratoga, Calif.).
FORWARDS (6): Luke Brennan (Atlanta United; Atlanta, Ga.), Cole Campbell (Borussia, Dortmund/GER; Peachtree City, Ga.), Zavier Gozo* (Real Salt Lake; Eagle Mountain, Utah), Serge Ngoma Jr. (New York Red Bulls; North Plainfield, N.J.), David Vazquez* (San Diego FC; Los Angeles, Calif.), Marcos Zambrano* (Real Salt Lake; Gladwyne, Pa.).
*Part of 2024 Concacaf U-20 Championship roster.

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Very encouraging roster

This roster contains most of the core group of players that has been together throughout the cycle, but especially since Mitrovic took over as head coach in October 2024. Since that coaching change, the team has posted impressive victories in the first four camps over Chile, France, South Korea, Mexico, and Colombia along with a draw against Japan. 

On Friday, the U.S. team defeated Morocco in Spain behind goals from Zavier Gozo, Matthew Corcoran, Josh Wynder and Marcos Zambrano. 

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It is a win that kept up the team’s momentum heading into the World Cup.

“This is a really good group of the players,” Mitrovic said this week. “I’ve known this group since I joined the federation. Now this is my fourth year and when I was the U-19 coach, it was ’04-05 generation. I was watching a lot of ’05 players closely while the ’06 players were with coach Gonzalo Segares for the U-17 World Cup. So I’m very familiar with this coaching group and together with the whole staff I would say. … We had only four camps since we started again this project, but it doesn’t feel like it’s only four camps.” 

“I feel that this group is a little bit advanced. We have great character within this group and this team is ready to compete.”

Mitrovic’s squad has always been capable of playing well together but the biggest issue has been whether he would be able to get all of his key players for the U-20 World Cup because, per FIFA rules, clubs are not required to release players to play in the tournament. 

With this roster being treated as a pre-World Cup camp, it would be encouraging news to Mitrovic if he would be able to select his World Cup roster just from this group of players. In total, 15 players return from the most recent June camp while Matai Akinmboni returns from injury and Wynder and Cole Campbell rejoin the team after making the Club World Cup rosters for their respective teams.

Mitrovic believes most of these players will be available to him for the World Cup roster.