2016 Olympic Qualifying Team

Jalen could have signed as a pro over 2 years ago either MLS or overseas, however declined per his family's commitment to college education. However, now they gonna compromise and correct their misjudgement. Kid is too good.

 

When you say "now" do you mean this summer or after the college season?

 

So we all agree that the Brooks news, while nice, won't really impact Olympic qualify? And if it does, its bad news in that means his stock/standing has fallen pretty dramatically.

It'll also be interesting to see how many Euro-based guys actually travel to Brazil in August 2016, for any country. I'm sure there will be a lot of club discouragement.

 

Agree, or like an Alfredo Morales situation this past January where he's so far down the bench they don't care about him being released.

 

Morales wasn't released for Olympic Qualifying. he was released for a senior team camp that's probably what you're thinking of.

 

yeah I read it too fast and now I look foolish!

 

Yup, that is what I meant, just came out looking ambiguous.

Apologies for not being all the way clear.

The point remains though and we all agree- in all likelihood JAB's not going to be available for Olympic qualifying.

 

Cody Cropper just called up to the full USMNT for their game against Bosnia.

Obviously, the USSF staff didn't want to bring the MLS guys over. He's just an available Euro guy.

Still.......................a great experience for the kid.

 

Packwood is amazingly already back full training with Birmingham.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/lee-clark-talks-return-training-5686622

 

He seems to think quite highly of Packwood, which is nice to see. Seems to be much more than your usual "he works hard" you see from a lot of managers after an injury recovery.

 

Packwood and Brooks would have been a nice CB pairing in Turkey and will make a nice one in Rio.... If the US can somehow qualify without them.

As an aside to that. I'd like to see the USSF really push CONCACAF to move the Olympic qualifying tourney to January. Won't help with the EPL-based players but it would make it easier to get most of the rest of the Euro-based U23 players released. And not just for the US. Surely there are plenty of other CONCACAF teams that have U23 players in Europe that they can't get released for Olympic qualifying.

 

Or if it remains in March, at least do part of it during the typical 2 int'l FIFA dates near the end of the month.

 

Looking at this year's U20 qualifying squads, Costa Rica already has a few Euros in their U23 pool, including 94 at Lille who sounds promising, named John Jairo Ruiz. El Salvador had a Swiss-based defender, and while Honduras didn't reach the final round of qualifying, they at least have Najar (93) in Belgium.

 

GOALKEEPERS:
Cody Cropper (23)-[Southampton]
Jon Kempin (23)-[Sporting Kansas City]
Santiago Castano (21)-[New York Red Bulls]
Kendall McIntosh (22)
Zackary Steffen (21)

DEFENDERS:
Kellyn Acosta (20)-[FC Dallas]
Oscar Sarto (21)-[Los Angeles Galaxy]
Sean Cunningham (23)-[Stabaek]
John Anthony Brooks (23)-[Hertha Berlin]
Will Packwood (23)-[Birmingham City]
Shane O’ Neill (22)-[Colorado Rapids]
Walker Zimmermann (23)-[FC Dallas]
DeAndre Yedlin (22)-[Seattle Sounders]
Caleb Stanko (23)-[SC Freiburg]
Matt Miazga (20)-[New York Red Bulls]
Erik Palmer-Brown (19)-[Sporting Kansas City]
Javan Torre (22)
Eric Miller (23)

Undecided:
Juan Pablo Ocegueda (22)-[CD Guadalajara]
Adam Henley (22)-[Blackburn Rovers]
Jeremy Toljan (21)-[TSG Hoffenheim]
Carlos Salcedo (22)-[Real Salt Lake]

MIDFIELDERS:
Benji Joya (22)-[Santos Laguna]
Luis Gil (22)-[Real Salt Lake]
Marc Pelosi (22)-[Liverpool FC]
Daniel Cuevas (22)-[Santos Laguna]
Jose Villarreal (23)-[Los Angeles Galaxy]
Paul Arriola (21)-[Club Tijuana]
Mikey Lopez (23)-[Sporting Kansas City]
Will Trapp (23)-[Columbus Crew]
Sergio Duarte (23)-[CD Nacional]
Dillon Serna (22)-[Colorado Rapids]
Tyrone McCargo (22)-[FC Nurnberg]
Victor Pineda (23)-[Chicago Fire]
Alejandro Guido (22)-[Club Tijuana]
Junior Flores(21)-[Borussia Dortmund]
Marco Delgado (21)-[CD Chivas]
Danny Garcia (22)-[FC Dallas]
Jimmy McLaughlin (23)-[Philadelphia Union]
Zach Pfeffer (21)-[TSG Hoffenheim]
Collin Martin (21)-[DC United]
Mario Rodriguez (22)-[Kaiserslautern]

Undecided:
Kekuta Manneh (21)-[Vancouver Whitecaps]

FORWARDS:
Omar Salgado (22)-[Vancouver Whitecaps]
Alonso Hernandez (22)-[C.F. Monterrey]
Jack McBean (21)-[Los Angeles Galaxy]
Jerome Kiesewetter (23)-[VfB Stuttgart]
Bryan Salazar (21)-[Houston Dynamo]
Jordan Morris (21)-[Seattle Sounders]
Jonathan Top (23)-[FC Dallas]
Armando Moreno (22)-[New York Red Bulls]
Kellen Gulley (22)-[Chicago Fire]
Benji Lopez (21)-[Real Salt Lake]
Caleb Calvert (19)-[CD Chivas]

Undecided:
Shawn Parker (23)-[FSV Mainz]
Villyan Bijev (23)-[Liverpool FC]
Julio Morales (22)-[CD Chivas]
Julian Green (20)-[Bayern Munich]

 

Julian Green should be listed as Undecided.

 

Overage Players I'd Consider for Tournament:
Sean Johnson-GK (27)
Bill Hamid-GK (25)
Amobi Okugo-CB (25)
Andrew Jean-Baptiste-CB (23)
Matt Hedges-CB (26)
Ventura Alvarado-CB (23)
Andrew Farrell-RB/CB (24)
Greg Garza-LB (24)
Chris Klute-LB (26)
Kofi Sarkodie-RB (25)
Sheannon Williams-RB (26)
Chance Myers-RB (28)
Tony Beltran-RB (28)
Zach Loyd-RB/LB (28)
Alfredo Morales-CDM (26)
Perry Kitchen-CDM (24)
Conor O' Brien-CM (27)
Dillon Powers-CM (25)
Sebastian Lletget-CM (23)
Kelyn Rowe-CAM (24)
Luis Silva-CAM (27)
Josh Gatt-RW (24)
Joe Gau-LW (23)
Nick DeLeon-RW (25)
Andrew Wooten-RW (27)
Juan Agudelo-FW (23)
Jack McInerney-FW (23)
Bobby Wood-FW (23)
Gyasi Zardes-FW (24)
Will Bruin-FW (26)
Terrence Boyd-FW (25)


I'd probably go with Sean Johnson, Amobi Okugo, and Chris Klute, and really focus on shoring up the backline.

 

The team I'd start working on right now...

GOALKEEPERS: Cody Cropper, Jon Kempin
DEFENDERS: Will Packwood, Shane O' Neill, Caleb Stanko, Walker Zimmermann, DeAndre Yedlin, and try to call in one of Toljan, Ocegueda, or Henley with Acosta/Sorto as a back-up.
MIDFIELDERS: Luis Gil, Benji Joya, Marc Pelosi (Mario Rodriguez), Mikey Lopez, Will Trapp,
FORWARDS: Jack McBean, Julian Green (Jerome Kiesewetter), Daniel Cuevas, Joe Villarreal, Paul Arriola

*We can probably go ahead and forget about Brooks for the Olympics. Most likely, he won't even go to the tournament. Packwood would probably be unavailable until the Olympics.


-----------------Villarreal--------Green (McBean)--------------
Pelosi/Joya------------------Gil--------------------------Arriola
------------------------------Lopez-------------------------------
Best We Can Get------------------------------------------Yedlin
------------------Zimmermann----O' Neill--------------------
------------------------------Cropper---------------------------

Bench: Kempin, some back-up FB, Stanko, Trapp, Joya (Rodriguez), Cuevas, McBean (Kiesewetter)

 

We could use a few starters from our national team like Mexico and maybe win it.

 

Missing Russell Caouse from the midfield and Manneh is captied to Gambia.