US Soccer Announces Roster for Upcoming Friendlies

United States Men's National Team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann announced the 23-man roster for upcoming friendlies against Chile and Panama. The team will travel to Estadio El Teniente to take on Chile Januray 28th.

The USMNT's January camp, known as "Camp Cupcake" featured a handful of surprise call ups as Klinsmann beings to focus on preparing a squad for Olympic qualifiers. Players like Christian Dean, Tesho Akindele and the yet to be drafted (at the time) goalkeeper Alex Bono. Those three players along with Liverpool midfielder Marc Pelosi, were unsurprisingly cut from the roster ahead of the friendlies.

The squad consists almost entirely of MLS players, with Bobby Wood, Miguel Ibarra and DeAndre Yedlin as the only non-MLS players to make the cut. The usual suspects such as Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore made the team, while Gyasi Zardes and Dillon Serna will make their first senior appearances for the United States. It is also interesting to note that defensive midfielders Jermaine Jones and Perry Kitchen have been listed as defenders in the official announcement.

Speaking of defensive midfielders playing as defenders, Philadelphia Union fans will notice that Maurice Edu was not invited to camp days after stating he had not spoken to Klinsmann in "a while". Edu, who made the preliminary roster for the 2014 World Cup, has yet to receive an international call up since being cut ahead of the team's journey to Brazil. Klinsmann instead opted for a younger option in defensive midfield in the form of Columbus Crew SC's Wil Trapp.

Edu will have plenty of time to show Klinsmann he can still be of use to the national team with the MLS regular season getting ready to kick off on March 7th. The USMNT has friendlies in March and June and Edu will likely be looking for a call up this time around.

The complete 23-man roster can be found here.