US Under 20 National Team coach Thomas Rongen plans to announce his final 20-player roster on Monday for the CONCACAF World Youth Championship Qualifying Tournament set to begin on January 17th in Panama.
Rongen had already cut his roster to 22 players on December 30th, but couldn't decide on a final squad mainly because of the uncertain status of Heerenveen midfielder Michael Bradley.
"We are currently still in negotiations with his club team," Rongen told YA. "We've reached out to them and proposed something that we feel could satisfy both parties, and we are awaiting a final response."
If released, the former MetroStar would start in the middle of a 4-3-3 formation, the set Rongen feels is best for who he has at his disposal.
"This is based on our player pool," he explained. "I feel it is the best way we can play and help us get results."
"Players always ultimately dictate how you want to play and I think it suits this team. We’re an aggressive, tactical, athletic team that has the capabilities of executing out of a balanced system like a 4-3-3."
One player who has impressed Rongen in recent weeks is former US residency midfielder Bryan Arguez.
The Florida native, who turns 18 on January 13th, just signed with Major League Soccer for the 2007 season and is a player the U-20 coach believes has a very bright future.
"Bryan Arguez is a very gifted and technical midfielder that can help us in various ways," said Rongen. "He has the ability to break down defenses in various ways with dribble penetration, through passing, he’s a great link player that can switch the point of attack."
"I think he’s a midfielder that has a tremendous upside and has a bright future."
University of Virginia midfielder Jonathan Villanueva is another player who has come on strong over the last few camps.
"Out of the system we play, (he) is in a back-up role to Freddy Adu in the #10 position," said the coach. "In that position, we need a creator and also someone to score goals."
"I think Villanueva’s strength in this system is to provide our three frontrunners with the appropriate service and use his ability to get in the box and get on the end of things and score goals. He has proven over the last three weeks that he’s very capable of all of those things."
Even though these players have only trained together for a short time, Rongen insists that the strength of this squad is in its familiarity, with many teammates at different levels over the years.
"We have some outstanding players, but at the end of the day, our strength I think will be in how these guys play together as a team," concluded Rongen. "A number of these players have been together in younger national teams, youth clubs or even at the professional level."
"There is a good chemistry there as they are all very familiar with each other, and I think that will definitely help us as we move forward." |
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