Jurgen Klinsmann Announces 22-Man Roster For USMNT Friendly Against Czech Republic

United States Men’s National Team head coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, announced the 22-man roster which have been called into camp to prepare for the country’s first friendly of the 2018 World Cup cycle. The USMNT is set to travel to Prague and face Czech Republic on September 3rd at 2:15 PM ET with the game shown on NBC Sports Network and UNIMas as well as tweets from the US Soccer twitter account @ussoccer.

“We look at this as the start of our project towards Russia in 2018, and in this first step we get to look at many of our talented young players based in Europe,” said Klinsmann earlier today while announcing the 22 players who will travel to Czech Republic. Klinsmann stated that the reason for so many young players on the roster is to get a better idea of the USMNT’s future, “When you start a new cycle, you want to see as many new players and young players breaking in as possible.”

The new roster comes with some big changes as only 10 of the players listed traveled to Brazil with the United States National team, 15 of the total 22 are 24 years old or younger and six players will be making their international debut. Of the six newcomers, Southampton’s Cody Cropper received his first call-up and will accompany Brad Guzan and Nick Rimando as the third goalkeeper. Rubio Rubin is another player earning his first appearance, the FC Utrecht forward is a product of the Portland Timbers youth academy.

Klinsmann also spoke about their upcoming game by saying: “Czech Republic is a good benchmark. It’s a good team with players who are playing all over Europe, so it’s going to be a challenge.” As well as acknowledging their success in Brazil, “At the same time, we’re coming in from a strong World Cup and teams are looking at us differently now in Europe than maybe a couple of years ago.”

The United States finished second in Group G behind Germany but eventually lost 2-1 in overtime to Belgium in the Round of 16.

GOALKEEPERS (3) : Cody Cropper (Southampton), Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (7) : John Brooks (Hertha Berlin), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Timmy Chandler (Eintracht Frankfurt), Greg Garza (Club Tijuana), Fabian Johnson (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Michael Orozco (Puebla), Tim Ream (Bolton)
MIDFIELDERS (7) : Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes), Joe Corona (Club Tijuana), Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg), Julian Green (Bayern Munich), Emerson Hyndman (Fulham), Alfredo Morales (Ingolstadt), Brek Shea (Stoke City)
FORWARDS (5) : Jozy Altidore (Sunderland), Joe Gyau (Borussia Dortmund II), Jordan Morris (Stanford), Rubio Rubin (Utrecht), Bobby Wood (1860 Munich)