NFF Target Named In United States World Cup Squad; Could Face Flying Eagles May 27

Published: May 10, 2019

The United States Soccer Federation have announced a roster of the 21 players who will represent the country at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, to be held in Poland from May 23 to June 15, with one Nigeria-eligible player making the cut while another missed out.

U-20 Men's National Team handler Tab Ramos surprisingly opted to leave out talented Nigerian winger, FC Nordsjælland's Jonathan Amon but there was a place for Toronto prolific striker, Ayo Akinola, who is on the radar of the Nigeria Football Federation.

This will be a big blow to the youngster who has been in superb form in the Danish SuperLiga in recent weeks, and has scored three goals in 12 starts this season.

Ramos revealed it was not easy picking the team and stated thus,"This is always an extremely tough decision to make as a coach. There were an additional four or five players who also really deserve to go this time."

The selected players will converge and begin camping by Monday 13th and Germany is the proposed site.

Nigeria will face United States on Monday, May 27 during the group stages.

USA World Cup Squad

GOALKEEPERS : CJ Dos Santos (Benfica/POR; Foxchase, Pa.; 2/0), David Ochoa (Real Salt Lake; Oxnard, Calif.; 4/0), Brady Scott (Köln/GER; Petaluma, Calif.; 9/0)

DEFENDERS: Sergino Dest (Ajax/NED; Almere-Stad, Netherlands; 8/1), Chris Gloster (Hannover 96/GER; Montclair, N.J.; 11/0), Aboubacar Keita (Richmond Kickers; Columbus, Ohio; 2/0), Mark McKenzie (Philadelphia Union; Bear, Del.; 10/3), Matthew Real (Philadelphia Union; Drexel Hill, Pa.; 10/0), Chris Richards (Bayern Munich/GER; Birmingham, Ala.; 8/0)

MIDFIELDERS: Edwin Cerrillo (FC Dallas; Frisco, Texas; 0/0), Chris Durkin (D.C. United; Glen Allen, Va.; 2/0), Richard Ledezma (PSV Eindhoven/NED; Phoenix, Ariz.; 4/0), Alex Mendez (Freiburg/GER; Los Angeles, Calif.; 15/8), Paxton Pomykal (FC Dallas; Highland Village, Texas; 9/3), Brandon Servania (FC Dallas; Dallas, Texas; 8/2)

FORWARDS : Ayo Akinola (Toronto FC/CAN; Brampton, Ont.; 12/9), Konrad De La Fuente (Barcelona/ESP; Miami, Fla.; 2/1), Ulysses Llanez (Wolfsburg/GER; Lynwood, Calif.; 11/7), Justin Rennicks (New England Revolution; South Hamilton, Mass.; 13/6), Sebastian Soto (Hannover 96/GER; San Diego, Calif.; 5/2), Tim Weah (Celtic FC/SCO; Rosedale, N.Y.; 0/0)

Emmanuel Chinaza

Photo Credit : ussoccer.com