GOALKEEPERS (3): Charlie Horton (Leeds; Cleveland Ohio), Ethan Horvath (Molde; Highlands Ranch, Colo.), Zack Steffen (Freiburg; Downington, Pa.).
Steffen impressed the hell out of me at the U-20 WC...supposedly Horvath has been even more impressive.
DEFENDERS (5): Cameron Carter-Vickers (Tottenham Hotspur; Westcliff on Sea,England), Matt Miazga (New York Red Bulls; Clifton, N.J.), Eric Miller (Montreal Impact; Woodbury, Minn.), William Packwood (Unattached; Concord, Mass.), Dillon Serna (Colorado Rapids; Brighton, Colo.)
Carter-Vickers and Miazga are the straws that stir this drink. Both have shown flashes they are the future of the USMNT backline.
MIDFIELDERS (8): Fatai Alashe (San Jose Earthquakes; Northville, Mich.), Gboly Ariyibi (Chesterfield; Arlington, Va.), Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake; Garden Grove, Calif.), Emerson Hyndman (Fulham; Dallas, Texas), Marc Pelosi (San Jose Earthquakes; Sunnyvale, Calif.), Matt Polster (Chicago Fire; Milwaukee, Wis.), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew SC; Gahanna, Ohio), Gedion Zelalem (Rangers; Bethesda, Md.).
This is a very young and inexperienced MF...Ariyibi, Hyndman and Zelalem are the most gifted...but outside of Hyndman, the other two are sorely lacking in international competition experience.
FORWARDS (4): Alonso Hernandez (C.D. Juarez; El Paso, Texas), Jerome Kiesewetter (VfB Stuttgart; Berlin, Germany), Jordan Morris (Stanford; Mercer Island, Wash.), Maki Tall (FC Sion; Washington, D.C.)
Maki Tall was a force at the U-20 till he got hurt. And Jordan Morris I think could make a case to start in a 4-4-2 on the USMNT. I have a feeling 2016 in Rio will be his coming out party for the big club. I am interested to see if Kiesewetter actually has skills, or if he's another Klinsmann project because he's a German national...much like Julian Green appeared to be. And speaking of...that he did not make this squad is a huge indictment of his talent, and really underscores the question, why was he on the 2014 WC squad? I mean, yeah, the Bundesliga is big cheese, but he's on basically their equivalent of Single-A baseball (4th division).
