The U.S. Men’s National team roster for the upcoming friendly games in Europe against Denmark on March 25 and Switzerland on March 31 were officially announced on Sunday. The team consists of a European heavy squad with 12 of the 23 plying their trade on the continent, while six MLS players were called up as were four from Liga MX, including first timers, Ventura Alvarado and William Yarbrough.

U.S. Men’s National Team Roster for Euro Friendlies Announced

The upcoming international friendlies will present Team USA with a good challenge as they continue preparations for this summer’s Gold Cup and begin their road to Russia 2018 later in the Fall. Denmark will be a formidable test as they currently are on good form, leading their current Euro 2016 qualifying group ahead of Portugal, and boasting a roster who play in Europe’s biggest leagues such as Christian Ericksen (Tottenham, ENG), Nicklas Bendtner (Wolfsburg, GER), and Michael Kronh-Dehli (Celta Vigo, ESP). Their other opponent, Switzerland is ranked 12th in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking and made it to the Round of 16 in the World Cup before losing to Argentina in Brazil last Summer. Switzerland boasts a roster of European stars that includes Gokhan Inler (Napoli, ITA), Xherdan Shaqiri (Inter Milan, ITA), Stephane Lichtsteiner (Juventus, ITA), Ricardo Rodriguez (Wolfsburg, GER) and Josip Drmic (Bayer Leverkusen, GER).

These friendlies over the next week will be an opportunity for Jurgen Klinsmann to see the European based players along with the core veterans and check out some of Mexico’s top U.S. talent.

Below is the U.S. roster as it was announced on USsoccer.com:

U.S. ROSTER BY POSITION

GOALKEEPERS (3): Cody Cropper (Southampton), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake), William Yarbrough (Club Leon)

DEFENDERS (8): Ventura Alvarado (Club America), John Brooks (Hertha Berlin), Timmy Chandler (Eintracht Frankfurt), Greg Garza (Club Tijuana), Michael Orozco (Puebla), Tim Ream (Bolton Wanderers), Brek Shea (Orlando City SC), DeAndre Yedlin (Tottenham Hotspur)

MIDFIELDERS (8): Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Julian Green (Hamburg), Miguel Ibarra (Minnesota United FC), Fabian Johnson (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Alfredo Morales (Ingolstadt), Danny Williams (Reading), Gyasi Zardes (LA Galaxy)

FORWARDS (4): Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Aron Johannsson (AZ Alkmaar), Rubio Rubin (Utrecht)

The biggest surprises are the inclusion of Julian Green and the two debutants from Liga MX, Alvarado and Yarbrough. The Mexican media has had a field day over the past few days when it was learned that Yarbrough would receive his first U.S. call up and why hadn’t Miguel Herrera, Mexican National Team coach, called him up first. Yarbrough was born in Mexico to American parents, thus qualified for both US and Mexican national teams. However, Herrera said earlier that he is not going to call up a player just to keep him away from the U.S. team. He went on to say that Yarbrough is a great goalkeeper but that there are eight or nine others like him in Mexico in terms of quality. I suppose that Mexico’s loss is Jürgen and team USA’s gain. Alvarado’s stock has been on the rise over the past year as he has solidified himself on a championship club team, Club America, in Mexico. That combined with his ability to play right back or center back positions played into his surprise call to the US squad. Alvarado is eligible to play for both the U.S. and Mexico, until he appears in his first game for either team. Green’s selection is the most puzzling as he seems to have lost all confidence at his current club, Hamburg, and resigned to playing with the reserves. He is slated to return to Bayern Munich this summer; however, perhaps a few days with the national team will boost the young player’s confidence back up.

The largest snub is perhaps Mix Diskerud, who Klinsmann has continued to try and work into the line up to play alongside Michael Bradley. The results when the two are on the field at the same time have been mixed and so perhaps this gives the coach an opportunity to see if it is the system, the players or a clash of the two that isn’t providing results. Either way, if Mix and Bradley are part of the U.S. team future, Klinsmann is going to have to figure out a way to play both and allow them time to adjust to each other.

The goal of these two games, per Jurgen Klinsmann’s words to U.S. Soccer are, “We want to see that the players give everything they have in terms of making their own cases for the Gold Cup, because the Gold Cup should obviously should take us to the Confederations Cup 2017 in Russia, so we need to be spot on. This is the way to showcase yourself in these two games. Show us in every training session what you have right now and prove that point in the games as well.” The short term goal is the Gold Cup, however, with an eye on the World Cup in 2018 as the long term goal.