You're just a wee bit late to this party! The U23 team which will attempt to qualify for the Athens Olympics is coached by Glenn "Mooch" Myernick, the former Rapids head coach and current assistant to Bruce Arena with the senior team. Mooch has been looking at players since the start of 2002. He has a core of about 30 players, including some that are still in Thomas Rongen's U20 pool. (Rongen is also Mooch's assistant with the U23 team.) Almost all of the players are already professional. They have played several friendlies, including a win in Mexico in May and had a good showing in a tour of Portugal in February. The main round of qualifying is an eight-team, four group tournament that will be held in Mexico Feb. 2-12 2004. The top two teams qualify for the Olympics. To qualify for the tournament in Mexico, the US has to win a semi-final home-and-away test played between the winner of St. Kitts & Nevis and Dominica. That series will be in November. St. Kitts won the away leg of their series with Dominica 1-0 last month and the second leg is October 11. In terms of Arena's involvement, I'm sure he'll have some input in player selection and where and how they are used but I have heard nothing that indicates he'll have any direct involvement with the team. If you surf around on this board, you'll find myriad threads on the U23 team, its potential players and how they are doing with their pro and college teams.
Thanks Sandon! Sorry if this was a repetitive thread in one way or another. If a mod wants to merge it with another thread, I'm cool with it. Yes, I'm definitely late to this party, as I've been slowly recovering from AduMania. As far as the hosts for the final qualifying round, it sure looks like Black Jack Warner is trying to build some political bridges and curry some favor with the Tricolores by helping Mexico out as much as possible.