Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie will highlight the United States Men’s National Team roster for a trio of upcoming World Cup qualifiers and the pair had better remember to pack their heavy coats on their trip back from Europe.
Pulisic, who plays for Chelsea in England, and McKennie, on the roster at Juventus in Italy, will be two of 15 Europe-based players called in for camp with the USMNT team, along with 13 who play in MLS.
The squad is set for a qualifier Thursday against El Salvador at Columbus, Ohio, Jan. 30 at Hamilton, Ontario, and Feb. 2 against Honduras at St. Paul, Minn.
The USMNT is 4-1-3 with 15 points midway through the CONCACAF qualifying schedule and in second place behind Canada (16 points). The top three teams automatically qualify for this year’s World Cup at Qatar. The fourth-place team advances to a playoff to earn a spot.
According to the Weather Channel, the projected temperature for Thursday’s game in Columbus is a high of 30 degrees, while the game in Canada has a projected high temperature of 28 degrees. The early forecast for the game in Minnesota is a high of 20 degrees.
Four goalkeepers were invited to camp including Matt Turner (New England Revolution), Zack Steffen (Manchester City in England), Sean Johnson (New York City FC) and Gabriel Slonina (Chicago Fire).
Defenders: Reggie Cannon (Boavista in Portugal), Sergino Dest (Barcelona), Brooks Lennon (Atlanta United), Mark McKenzie (KRC Genk in Belgium), Chris Richards (Hoffenheim in Germany), Antonee Robinson (Fulham in England), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United), DeAndre Yedlin (Galatasaray in Turkey) and Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC).
Midfielders: Kellyn Acosta (LAFC), Tyler Adams (RB Lepzig in Germany), Luca de la Torre (Heracles in the Netherlands), Sebastian Lletget (Revolution), McKennie, Yunus Musah (Valencia in Spain) and Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders).
Forwards: Brenden Aaronson (RB Salzburg in Austria), Paul Arriola (D.C. United), Jesus Ferreira (FC Dallas), Jordan Morris (Sounders), Ricardo Pepi (Augsburg in Germany), Pulisic, Tim Weah (Lille in France) and Gyasi Zardes (Columbus Crew).
–Field Level Media
