Union’s Matt Freese makes final United States U-23 roster for Olympic qualifying

We now know the 20 men who will represent our nation during the Concacaf Olympic Qualifying Championship, and it includes the Philadelphia Union’s Matt Freese. Under-23 Men’s National Coach Jason Kreis named the squad from a 28-player training camp roster that began March 1.

The United States Men’s is the following:

GOALKEEPERS (3): Matt Freese (Philadelphia Union), JT Marcinkowski (San Jose Earthquakes), David Ochoa (Real Salt Lake)

DEFENDERS (6): Julian Araujo (LA Galaxy), Justen Glad (Real Salt Lake, Aaron Herrera (Real Salt Lake), Henry Kessler (New England Revolution), Mauricio Pineda (Chicago Fire FC), Sam Vines (Colorado Rapids)

MIDFIELDERS (7): Johnny Cardoso (Internacional/BRA), Hassani Dotson (Minnesota United FC), Ulysses Llanez (Heerenveen/NED), Djordje Mihailovic (CF Montreal/CAN), Andrés Perea(Orlando City SC), Sebastian Saucedo (UNAM Pumas/MEX), Jackson Yueill (San Jose Earthquakes)

FORWARDS (4): Jesús Ferreira (FC Dallas), Jonathan Lewis (Colorado Rapids;), Benji Michel (Orlando City SC), Sebastian Soto (Norwich City/ENG)

The roster includes 11 players who have been appeared on the roster for the senior USMNT. It also features the first time we will see Jesús Ferreira and Andrés Perea represent the stars and stripes. As the two dual-national players selected the US in January 2019 and 2021.

On the upcoming matches head coach Jason Kreis talked about the challenges the team will face. “We know that qualifying will be a challenge, but it’s a challenge that we’re ready for. We’ll need all 20 players on this roster to contribute for us to achieve our ultimate goal of qualifying for the Olympics.”

The tournament, which runs from March 18-30, features eight teams divided into two groups. USA will face Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Mexico in the group stage. The top two teams in each group will face one another. The two winners of the semi-final game will go on to Japan. They will also meet in the final to crown a tournament winner on March 30th.

If the U-23 USMNT does qualify for the olympics, it would be their first one since 2008.

Other Union Mentions for the upcoming Olympic Qualifiers

YSC Academy Grad Tomas Romero has been selected to El Salvador’s roster. The Cherry Hill native is now a member of LAFC after his homegrown rights were traded to the club from the union for $50,000 in general allocation money. The goalkeeper, who made 17 appearances for Bethlehem Steel (Union II), signed a contract with LAFC last month.

Unfortunately it is not all good news, as Union II’s Shanyder Borgelin did not make the roster for Haiti. The forward was on the country’s preliminary roster. Borgelin has made 25 appearances for Union II and has one goal so far. He has also appeared 2 times for Haiti’s U-20 team, those appearances happening in 2018.