Late Tuesday night it was announced that right back Sheanon Williams of the Philadelphia Union would be the 20th player called into US camp ahead of Thursday's first Olympic Qualifying match. Even though the US Federation did not officially send in their roster to CONCACAF until Tuesday the US team, minus Williams, was already known as training before qualifying group play was already underway in Nashville.
Williams is serving as a late replacement to speedy wing-back Josh Gatt who had to return to Norway after his club team recalled him from the US Olympic Qualifying camp. Gatt's club, Molde, recently suffered an unsuspected string of injuries forcing Gatt to leave Caleb Porter's US squad.
Williams is an experienced member of the US youth ranks participating in both the U-17 and U-20 World Cup cycles. Meanwhile, the biggest veteran on the team would have to be Freddy Adu who was a member of the US Olympic squad that traveled to Beijing for the 2008 summer Olympics. Due to his experience US U-23 manager Caleb Porter named Adu team captain yesterday with DC United defender Perry Kitchen serving as vice-captain.
Here is the official US roster for Olympic qualifying--
GOALKEEPERS (2): Bill Hamid (D.C. United; Annandale, Va.), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire; Lilburn, Ga.)
DEFENDERS (6): Perry Kitchen (D.C. United; Indianapolis, Ind.), Ike Opara (San Jose Earthquakes; Durham, N.C.), Kofi Sarkodie (Houston Dynamo; Huber Heights, Ohio), Zarek Valentin (Montreal Impact; Lancaster, Pa.), Jorge Villafana (Chivas USA; Anaheim, Calif.), Sheanon Williams (Philadelphia Union; Boston, Mass.)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Freddy Adu (Philadelphia Union; Potomac, Md.), Joe Corona (Club Tijuana; Chula Vista, Calif.), Mix Diskerud (Gent; Oslo, Norway), Jared Jeffrey (Mainz; Richardson, Texas), Amobi Okugo (Philadelphia Union; Sacramento, Calif.), Michael Stephens (LA Galaxy; Naperville, Ill.)
FORWARDS (6): Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls; Barnegat, N.J.), Terrence Boyd (Borussia Dortmund; Berlin, Germany), Teal Bunbury (Sporting Kansas City; Prior Lake, Minn.), Joe Gyau (Hoffenheim: Silver Spring, Md.), Brek Shea (FC Dallas; Bryan, Texas), Tony Taylor (Estoril Praia, Jacksonville, Fla.)
And here is the U-23s Qualifying Schedule:
US vs. Cuba- March 22nd @ 9pm EST (LP Field in Nashville).. can be seen on Universal Sports Network, mun2, and streamed live on concacaf.com
US vs. Canada- March 24th @ 7pm EST (LP Field in Nashville)
US vs. El Salvador- March 26th @ 9pm EST (LP Field in Nashville)
US vs. semi-final opponent (if applicable) - March 31st at Livestrong Sporting Park
US vs. final opponent (if applicable) - April 2nd at Livestrong Sporting Park
Also here is another Studio 90 U-23 preview which features San Jose Earthquakes defender Ike Opara:
Get more great soccer stuff over at US Futblog.