http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_at_the_2015_Pan_American_Games It looks like the US will participate. This would be a great event for the U22s. We did not even try to play in the 2011 event.
Interesting, the Pan Am Games have always been discussed as an unfulfilled opportunity for Olympic prep. I think there are a few outstanding questions, though: 1) That Wikipedia link is unsourced and there's nothing on the Pan Am Games regarding a list of participants for soccer as far as I can tell. 2) What sort of squad would we be able to muster for a competition from July 10-26? The MLS World Cup scheduling slowdown will be over by then and European clubs will be in preseason camp. Meanwhile, the U-20 World Cup is from May 30 - June 20 and the USSF will use a lot of their political capital extracting players from MLS clubs and clubs abroad. It will be difficult to go back to that well for a lesser competition, except perhaps for the second-tier players who aren't playing for their clubs (MLS) or aren't particularly valued in their organizations (abroad).
Using Wikipedia for anything is a problem, I understand that, but I found it interesting none the less. I agree that the scheduling always makes this problematic. I that is why the US opted out last go around. That being said, Mexico did not, won the 2011 version and we saw how their 2012 Olympic team did. I wish the Olympic qualifiers were spread out World Cup ones not thrown all together. How about players from MLS Reserve Teams playing in this?
This definitely strikes me as a MLS reserve tournament. Hypothetical lineup Could see kids like Joya, Villareal, Mcbean, Lopez, Zimmerman etc getting to play. Maybe we even grab guys like Gil and Trapp for a few weeks since they won't be at the World Cup.
I'm a little confused by this line. This is a 2015 tournament, right? In any case, I can't imagine there would be any trouble lining up an interesting set of players for this event. The more experience playing against South American national teams, the better.
IIRC, we (and Canada) weren't even eligible to qualify for the last Pan Am Games. The 4 CONCACAF teams at the 2011 Pan Am Games were: Mexico (host), Costa Rica, T&T, and Cuba. They used the 2011 CONCACAF U20 results:
Last PanAm Games ran in mid-October so young players would only have to compete with MLS playoffs. I need a predicted XI ASAP.
July 10 - 26, 2015 next year. It would be interesting to see what type of team you could put together of U22 players.
Too many variables right now (assuming we're playing). There's the Gold Cup and U20 WC just before it, and it's not on the FIFA calendar, so some Euro clubs would probably resist releasing a player regardless if they're in the preseason. For fun, could come up with a starting XI of 93's and 94's in MLS/LigaMX.
If we are saying U22s, then I assume with 2015, the birthyear deadline is 1993, same as the U23 olympics squad. As of now a domestic (Mexico included) squad could be -----McBean Joya--Gil---Villareal ----Lopez-Trapp Ocegueda-Zimmerman-O'Neill-Yedlin ------------? If MLS isn't on board then drop Gil, Trapp, O'Neill and Yedlin since they are starters. Slot in any number of random variable players. Pineda, Salgado, Miller Would still be an interesting group.
Oops thank you. Jon Kempin (SKC), Cody Cropper (Southampton), Tomas Gomez (Georgetown), Tyler Miller (Northwestern) would be my lead gk nominees, I would think.
This would be a nice opportunity to use the new U-21 team, although it would probably only MLS/Mexico players. Big concern there is the timeline--- nearly entirely concurrent with the Gold Cup (July 7-26 vs July 9-24 for Pan Am). That would start to stretch MLS rosters.
Given that nobody fields a first-choice team at the Pan Am games, it doesn't seem like too much of a concern that some of our guys might be unavailable due to MLS, Gold Cup, or other club commitments. I would hope that some of our Euros could come in, though. In particular, Cropper, Stanko, and Pelosi might do well with some added experience.
I mean it might be a bit of an issue to talk teams into it. If there already 15 US MLS guys at the Gold Cup (plus Jamaicans, Canadians, Hondurans, Costa Ricans, etc.) there could be some teams sapped for depth.