Philadelphia Union trio tapped for international duty

The first United States Men’s National Team roster since their devastating World Cup exit will feature Philadelphia Union stars Alejandro Bedoya and CJ Sapong.

Sapong and Bedoya were among the 21 players named by acting USMNT head coach Dave Sarachan for the November 14 friendly in Leiria, Portugal.

“The one word that I would use in reference to all of this is opportunity,” Sarachan said in a news release. “It’s an opportunity for many players who haven’t been in the picture that we feel have a bright future with the National Team to get to measure themselves in a game against a quality opponent. It’s an opportunity for our National Team to finish out 2017 in a positive way. It’s also just an opportunity to move on. As much as we’re still gutted from how things turned out with qualifying, we have to look ahead and finish out the year the right way.”

Sapong is seeking his first U.S. cap since January 2012 when he made his only two career international appearances in friendlies against Venezuela and Panama. He’s coming off a career year with a personal and franchise best 16 goals in 2017.

Bedoya is looking to add to his 65 international caps after he was an unused substitute in the loss to Trinidad & Tobago that eliminated the U.S. from qualification for the 2018 World Cup.

The full roster is below.

Creavalle, meanwhile, will be with Guyana on November 14 when they take on Trinidad & Tobago in a friendly. The midfielder has three caps for Guyana, his latest coming on March 28 against Martinique. He made 13 appearances for the Union this season, his third with the club.

U.S. ROSTER BY POSITION (Club; Caps/Goals)

GOALKEEPERS (3): Jesse Gonzalez (FC Dallas; 0/0), Bill Hamid (Midtjylland/DEN; 3/0), Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge/BEL; 1/0)

DEFENDERS (7): John Brooks (Wolfsburg/GER; 32/3), Cameron Carter-Vickers (Sheffield United/ENG; 0/0), Eric Lichaj (Nottingham Forest/ENG; 13/1), Matt Miazga (Vitesse/NED; 3/1), Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG; 26/1), Jorge Villafaña (Santos Laguna/MEX; 14/0), DeAndre Yedlin (Newcastle United/ENG; 48/0)

MIDFIELDERS (7): Kellyn Acosta (FC Dallas; 16/1), Tyler Adams (New York Red Bulls; 0/0), Alejandro Bedoya (Philadelphia Union; 65/2), Lynden Gooch (Sunderland/ENG; 2/0), Weston McKennie (Schalke/GER; 0/0), Kelyn Rowe (New England Revolution; 3/1), Danny Williams (Huddersfield Town/ENG; 22/2)

FORWARDS (4): Juan Agudelo (New England Revolution; 26/3), Dom Dwyer (Orlando City SC; 3/2), C.J. Sapong (Philadelphia Union; 2/0), Josh Sargent (St. Louis Scott Gallagher; 0/0)