2026 CONCACAF U20 Championship, July 2026: All Teams & Tournament Thread [R]

It's not arrogance. The missing players weren't released. That's not the same thing.

If we can't force players to be here, then the reality is we have to get a deep enough pool that's high enough quality for it not to matter. The problem is, we're just not nearly deep enough.

Now we've got to sweat through the toughest group of the tournament and at least one knockout stage game. Wonderful...

 

In a weird way, this is evidence that US player development is continuing to improve. I’m guessing that a lot of the missing players are useful to their clubs and thus sticking with them.

 

Booooooo!!!

Yaaaaay!!!

Booooooo!!

 

ASN chimes in on the roster

http://www.americansoccernow.com/ar...es-names-roster-for-u-20-world-cup-qualifying

 

Don't we already qualify for the Olympics as the host? Or does that not happen for Olympic soccer?

 

Yes they’re already qualified as the host.

 

Oh, I forgot; we are also qualifying for the U20 World Cup, which is why we need to get out of the group and then win the QF match; that's right. Whoops.

 

And if you’re a superfan/sicko, the finalist qualify for the 2027 Pan Am games

semifinalists = 2027 U-20 World Cup
finalists = 2027 Pan Am Games
champion = Olympics (if the U.S. wins, it is the runner up)

 

I think you are probably right but I do think there's such thing as organizational culture.

I see a gap in how all US Soccer approaches these things and how other teams seem to; I don't think it would be bad to have the national team apparatus have a standard of taking every competition as seriously as they can.

 

Provided that is true.

If that really is true, there's been a rather large shift in what players are getting released. Which is my other question.

 

I sort of agree with this but part of me (and I’m sure others agree) thinks that if the United States had an Olympic berth on the line like other teams do, we would have seen a few more top players be released.

There is situational awareness with this on both sides. US Soccer would probably fight harder if the Olympics were on the line. Clubs would also probably be more understanding

It is not necessarily a bad thing either. If Shore, Miller, Pierre, Terry, and others use this time to go from being bench players and into being starters with their teams, that is very beneficial to their development.

But this tournament could be pretty dicey for the United States. They have enough talent to qualify, for sure. But it is not as easy as it could be, or has been in recent cycles

On the flip side, I remember Marlo Mitrovic getting 100% of the players he wanted from MLS teams for the 2025 U-20 WC. That was good

 

I only follow the US, and every cycle since I started following the YNTs about 15 years ago, there have been guys who were not released for various tournaments. Do other countries deal with this regularly? Or is it just us? Does FMF have a tighter leash on LigaMX in relation to the YNTs than USSF has on MLS? I recall Honduras being a problem for the U20/U21s a decade ago because they all came from one of three domestic Honduran clubs, something unthinkable for us.

 

There must be more teams qualifying for the PanAm games. In 2023 there was Best Caribbean Team, Best North American Team, Best Central American team, Champions (from CONCACAF). So, we could qualify as "Best North American Team" if we do better than Canada and Mexico wins it all, I think. In 2023 Mexico qualified as "Best North American team" despite losing to Guatemala in the QF...

 

Benny Feilhaber and not even close. Who was absolutely unknown till Zizi (or his son) found him at age of 19. Marvell Wynne was pretty famous, US high school soccer player of the year. Our selections sucked back then even worse than now.

 

I don’t know the players but 5 midfielders seems light.

Is that weird?

 

I think Oyharcabal can play attacking midfield, so that's an additional body if needed.

 

Ramos is also capable of playing attacking mid and Mussenden can play defensive mid.

 

I guess U20 is still a level where players are not necessarily specialized in a position yet -- just a collection of the best all-arounders the fed could find in some respects.

 

With relatively small rosters there will often be a couple players selected for their ability to cover multiple positions.

 

If it was a 26-player roster, I would agree.

On a 21-player roster (3 keepers, 18 field players), five midfielders is within the normal range. Typically, there are always a few tactically flexible players in there.

 

It's certainly been a big problem for Canada in the past decade-plus. Someone up thread asked why Canada has failed so much in U20 qualifying in the past 20 years and not having our top players in qualifying has played a role. But that plays into other factors... a lack of depth (which is maybe just a nice way of saying a lack of talent), poor preparations, poor coaching and perhaps questionable squad choices. That said, when some of the first names on the sheet are unavailable, the margins get smaller.

Canada's squad finally came out:

Goalkeepers
Nathaniel Abraham (07) University of Louisville/NCAA
Jonathan Ransom (08) Atlanta United/USA
Izan Server (07) Celta de Vigo/ESP

Defenders
Right Back
Aleksandr Guboglo (07) CF Montréal
Zayne Bruno (07) Forge FC
Left Back
Max Vogele (07) IFK Stocksund/SWE
Central Defender
Richard Chukwu (08) Toronto FC
Moise Clovis-Archange (08) Orlando City/USA
Sergei Kozlovskiy (08) Atlético Ottawa
Felix Samson (07) FC Cincinnati/USA
Anyole Peter (07) Vancouver Whitecaps

Midfield
Dylan Judelson (08) Orlando City/USA
Emrick Fotsing (07) Vancouver FC
Liam Mackenzie (07) Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Tim Fortier (08) Stanford/NCAA (Toronto FC)
Jesse Saputo (07) Bologna FC/ITA
Antone Bossenberry (07) Toronto FC

Wingers
Marius Aiyenero (08) Los Angeles FC/USA
Shola Jimoh (08) Inter Toronto
Lucas Lima (07) GD Chaves/POR

Forward
Owen Graham-Roache (08) CF Montréal

I am curious how many players weren’t released versus how many were decisions. CB Elijah Roche is getting lots of first-team pre-season minutes at Sturm Graz and Antoni Klukowski (RW/FW) has gotten first team pro minutes in Poland the past three seasons, so I assume they both weren’t released. Van Parker and Josh-Duc Nteziryayo are both hurt.

I would think Andre Ali-Gayapersad would have been released if we asked and Kevin Khan at the Feyenord academy didn’t go to Toulon either, so I assume those are both squad choices, which is puzzling. Evan Brown, a fast winger in Germany seemed to be a favourite, so I am guessing he might not have been released. Same with Aidan Evans at Fulham. Neither of which makes a lot of sense, but we’re light in attacking areas IMO, so leaving Evans (6 goals in 7 U20 caps) and Brown behind is puzzling. Similarly Killian Michelbach has been a regular starter in the centre of defence for the 07s and there are a lot of good 08 defenders, but surely he’s ahead of Anyole Peter. Carson Rassack was the Rising Star of the Month in MLS Next Pro in June, but I didn’t expect him to crack this squad.

Klukowski, Brown and Ali-Gayapersad’s skill and pace on the wings has been how this group has typically created chances. Not having any of them leaves me thinking we’re going to be very punchless. And Graham-Roache is the type of 9 who needs service to score.

Having said all of that it could have been much worse. Server is training with Celta’s first team, Guboglo looks like he’s about to move to France, but he’s still in the squad. Chukwu and Graham-Roache were both on the bench in the Montreal-Toronto MLS match last night. Judelson’s made the match day squad in Orlando plenty this year. Fotsing, Kozlovskiy and Jimoh are all regulars for their Canadian Premier League teams. Plenty of clubs could have not let their players take part.

At no point did I think this generation of players had a shot at a single Olympic qualifying spot, but this squad also doesn’t feel likely to get us back into the U20 World Cup either. Which is too bad because I think the 07s and 08s are good enough to qualify, just not this group of 21.

 

Pinter wasn’t released from what I was told.

 

That's an interesting one. Has the day come when MLS clubs don't release players because they're needed by their MLSNP teams?

Maybe Steffen's shoulder injury caused them to keep Campagnolo around.
They've got Nico Hansen and recalled Adam Beaudry. But then who's playing for Rapids 2?
They signed a goalkeeper today from Cincinnati 2. For them to do that, there must be something going on with their GK depth.

Colorado Rapids 2 acquire goalkeeper Bryan Dowd from FC Cincinnati 2 | Rapids 2

 

Rest? Betrayal?