As always it seemed like the week had an insane amount of news swirling about different administration positions at US Soccer, as well as some big roster drops for the U20 World Cup. Let’s dive in to everything that happened this week in US Soccer!
U20 Roster Announced
The U.S. U-20 soccer team announced their roster for the U-20 World Cup in Argentina, featuring key players such as Gaga Slonina, Cade Cowell, and Kevin Paredes. Notably absent from the roster are Paxten Aaronson and Ricardo Pepi. The U.S. team, which is in Group B, will face Ecuador, Fiji, and Slovakia. I’ll have a full roster breakdown later this weekend, but in the meantime get ready for an incredibly talented roster to make a deep run in this competition.
The tournament will kickoff on May 20th at 2pm ET. If you want to download my US Soccer calendar with all important matches for US Soccer (men’s, women’s, youth teams) make sure to get access here:
Apple: https://www.dropbox.com/s/c0bgotahw87m2oo/US%20Soccer_5cqd6a2iv9mgbkehtha76p9md4%40group.calendar.google.com.ics?dl=0
Google: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=NWNxZDZhMml2OW1nYmtlaHRoYTc2cDltZDRAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ
Transfer rumors starting to develop
Pulisic to Juve or Napoli
One of the biggest transfers of the upcoming summer that we can expect is that of Chelsea attacker Christian Pulisic. On the outs with the London club and looking for consistent playing time for a big club, Pulisic has been linked with Italian giants Juventus and 2023 Serie A winners Napoli. Back in the Premier League Newcastle United have been linked with the American since the January window, but they’ll be looking to develop into a Champions League contender. Attacking wide players may be a position of need for Eddie Howe at Newcastle.
Where will Musah go?
Valencia have had a horrible season and may still be relegated from La Liga. Whether they stay up or not may not have any bearing on where Musah ends up next season. According to multiple reports Yunus Musah is being tracked by Premier League clubs with Arsenal being one of them. Of course Musah developed in Arsenal’s academy before looking elsewhere for senior minutes. Could Musah be on his way back to jolly England?
U17 GK Diego Kochen trained with Barcelona’s first team
USYNT goalkeeper Diego Kochen has made his way through the ranks at Barcelona’s academy and youth sides. Now that Barcelona have captured the La Liga title, Kochen has started to train with their first team. It looks like the US is finally starting to get back to their goalkeeping ways after a lull of development from the Tim Howard generation to now.
Oguchi Onyewu named VP of Sporting
Onyewu has been tapped by US Soccer to join as Vice President of Sporting. What does that mean? We don’t really know yet but he will report directly to newly installed Sporting Director Matt Crocker and assist in the process of hiring the next manager for the USMNT. Onyewu has playing experience and has been a standard guest on CBS’ In Soccer We Trust programming.
Less-covered news of the week
American Joe Enochs is the new head coach of 2. Bundesliga club Jahn Regensberg
Joe Enochs is an American-born former-player who started his career in Germany at FC St. Pauli which coincidentally is also being coached by American-born Fabian Hürzeler. Enochs has been coaching in Germany since 2015 in the third division. He now takes over the 2. Bundesliga side with three matches left in their season trying to avoid relegation. At the moment they sit in the final relegation spot two points away from the relegation playoff.
U20 CONCACAF Women’s Championship
While the U20 World Cup will get most of the attention at the moment, the Women’s side will be taking on CONCACAF rivals at the end of May. The tournament will host eight teams in two groups with two teams from each group advancing to the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-final matches will qualify for the Women’s U20 World Cup. The roster consists of 13 collegiate players and eight players from youth clubs. Five of the youth club players are from California with two from Slammers FC.