Thomas Rongen Names U.S. U-20 MNT Roster for CONCACAF U-20 Championship

Cody Cropper is one of two U.S. soccer goalkeepers called up for CONCACAF U-20 World Cup qualifiers.

U.S. Soccer announced yesterday the U.S. U-20 MNT roster that will play in the CONCACAF U-20 Championship starting March 29th. The team will train in Dallas, TX., the week of March 20th before traveling to Guatemala City, Guatemala, for the tournament.

Two of the 12 teams in the tournament will advance to the FIFA U-20 World Cup, set for July 29-Aug. 20 across eight cities in Colombia. The U.S. will be attempting to qualify for an eighth-consecutive time, having qualified for 13 U-20 World Cups since the tournament began in 1977.

On paper the U.S. appears to field its strongest team ever with many of the players named already playing abroad in Europe or on MLS teams in the U.S.

“As a staff, we’ve done our due diligence during the last year and a half,” said head coach Thomas Rongen. “I can’t speak enough about all the players that we’ve looked at who have put in a tremendous amount of work and energy in each and every camp. That made this selection probably tougher than any other cycle and that’s a good thing. It means we’ve gotten deeper in every position and that we’ve got a great talent pool.”

“We try to look at players who can fit into the way we play, out of a 4-3-3, so there are specific technical, tactical, mental and physical attributes that are required at every position. We spent a lot of time looking at which players fit our system best. We feel good about our selection that will go forward and represent us in Guatemala against Panama and Suriname.”

Rongen spoke specifically about Cropper who is expected to back up Zac MacMath who was drafted in the first round of the MLS SuperDraft by the Philadelphia Union. MacMath is older than Cropper who just turned 18 last month.

“Cody Cropper has already made some appearances for the reserve team in Ipswich,” said Rongen in a U.S. Soccer podcast released yesterday. “He’s the other goalkeeper. Expect great things from him. He’s a ’93 which is very important because he will play two consecutive U-20 World Cups. In the past we’ve tried to include the best players but if you take a ’93 who belongs, which Cody does, and groom him to be a leader for your next group it’s so important.”

Rongen also stated that through the Development Academy and MLS expansion, young players are seeing significant improvements. “With MLS expansion there are more places for younger players now. That trend will continue. There are a couple of home grown players who have gone through our Development Academy, and it’s been great to see our pro clubs working with Academies now and giving players the opportunity to play alongside the professionals. We’ve seen differences in those players over the last four to five months, getting more frequency and quality to their training. It’s a great extension and it’s the evolution of soccer in our country.”

“We’ve also noticed that a lot of our players are getting noticed by good teams abroad. We’ve got players now in the first division in Sweden, guys in England and Portugal. We have players who play as far away as Croatia and Israel. They’re at big clubs. We also still have the exceptional college players who, for their own reasons, choose to stay in college and that’s the great thing about our country. You have choices: going abroad, going into MLS or continuing your education at very good schools who continue to produce great players who go on to great careers.

U.S. Under-20 MNT Roster By Position (Detailed Roster):

GOALKEEPERS (2): Zac MacMath (Philadelphia Union; St. Petersburg, Fla.), Cody Cropper (Ipswich Town; Athens, Ga.)
DEFENDERS (8): Gale Agbossoumonde (Djurgårdens IF; Syracuse, N.Y.), Greg Garza (G.D. Estoril Praia; Grapevine, Texas), Moises Hernandez (FC Dallas; Dallas, Texas), Sacir Hot (New York Red Bulls; Fair Lawn, N.J.), Sebastien Ibeagha (Duke; Missouri City, Texas), Perry Kitchen (D.C. United; Indianapolis, Ind.), Zarek Valentin (Chivas USA; Lancaster, Pa.), Korey Veeder (Columbus Crew; St. Petersburg, Fla.)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Sebastian Lletget (West Ham United; San Francisco, Calif.), Amobi Okugo (Philadelphia Union; Sacramento, Calif.), Moises Orozco (UANL Tigres; Oxnard, Calif.), Dillon Powers (Notre Dame; Plano, Texas), Kelyn Rowe (UCLA; Newport Beach, Calif.)
FORWARDS (5): Eder Arreola (UCLA; Chino Hills, Calif.), Conor Doyle (Derby County FC; McKinney, Texas), Joe Gyau (TSG 1899 Hoffenheim; Silver Spring, Md.), Omar Salgado (Vancouver Whitecaps FC; El Paso, Texas),
Bobby Wood (TSV 1860 München; Irvine, Calif.)