Steffen hurt, will miss out on Nations League games
CHICAGO » Goalkeeper Zack Steffen is hurt and will miss the United States’ Nations League games this month against Canada and Cuba. The U.S. Soccer Federation said Thursday it did not have specifics of the injury to the Fortuna Duesseldorf starter and Downingtown native.
Nine Europe-based players were added to the training camp roster, including Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic and Ajax defender Sergiño Dest, who could make his senior national team competitive debut. Pulisic was listed as a forward by coach Gregg Berhalter rather than a midfielder.
Also added were defenders John Brooks, Tim Ream and DeAndre Yedlin; midfielders Weston McKennie and Alfredo Morales; and forwards
U.S. ROSTER
Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Atlanta), Sean Johnson (New York City), Matt Turner (New England).
Defenders: John Brooks (Wolfsburg, Germany), Reggie Cannon (Dallas), Sergiño Dest (Ajax, Netherlands), Chase Gasper (Minnesota), Nick Lima (San Jose), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls), Daniel Lovitz (Montreal), Tim Ream (Fulham, England), DeAndre Yedlin (Newcastle, England), Walker Zimmerman (Los Angeles). Midfielders: Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy), Weston McKennie (Schalke, Germany), Alfredo Morales (Fortuna Duesseldorf, Germany), Wil Trapp (Columbus), Jackson Yueill (San Jose). Forwards: Paul Arriola (D.C.), Corey Baird (Salt Lake), Tyler Boyd (Besiktas, Turkey), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea, England), Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen, Germany), Gyasi Zardes (Columbus).
Tyler Boyd and Josh Sargent.
Defender Mark McKenzie; midfielders Brenden Aaronson and Djordje Mihailovic; and forwards Jeremy Ebobisse
and Jonathan Lewis will leave the training camp in Orlando this week and report to the under-23 team.
Union prepared to strike if deal can’t be reached with MLS
The head of the Major League Soccer Players Association said players are prepared to strike if they can’t negotiate an acceptable collective bargaining agreement with the league.
“We’ve been talking about and preparing for a work stoppage for two and a half years now at this point, and talking about the details of what that would look like and how it would proceed, and how we would all work together,” MLSPA Executive Director Bob Foose said.
Foose spoke on a conference call as the league prepared for the MLS Cup championship game Sunday.
Seven members of the Philadelphia Union will be capping their 2019 seasons with international call-ups.
American Under-23s Brenden Aaronson, Matt Freese and Mark McKenzie received calls, the team announced Thursday, joining Andre Blake (Jamaica), Jamiro Monteiro (Cape Verde), Warren Creavalle (Guyana) and Olivier Mbaizo (Cameroon Under-23).
The spotlight is brightest on the U-23s, who are working toward qualification for next summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. That effort will continue at the United International Football Festival in Spain, which includes Brazil, Argentina and Chile and offers Jason Kreis’ team two games. CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying is next spring.
Aaronson and McKenzie had been training with the U.S. senior team, among those displaced when nine European-based players came into Gregg Berhalter’s camp Wednesday ahead of their CONCACAF Nations League matches. All three players got the start in the