- Jason Davis

While most eyes tonight will be on the senior USMNT team as they face Paraguay in Nashville, the US U-20s will be kicking off their CONCACAF championship campaign against Suriname in Guatemala. On the line for Thomas Rongen's team isn't just regional supremacy, but also a berth in the U-20 World Cup in Colombia in July.


The roster:

GOALKEEPERS (2): 1-Zac MacMath (Philadelphia Union; St. Petersburg, Fla.), 18-Cody Cropper (Ipswich Town; Athens, Ga.) 

DEFENDERS (8): 2 - Gale Agbossoumonde (Djurgårdens IF; Syracuse, N.Y.), 13-Greg Garza (G.D. Estoril Praia; Grapevine, Texas), 4 - Moises Hernandez (FC Dallas; Dallas, Texas), 12-Sacir Hot (New York Red Bulls; Fair Lawn, N.J.), 19 - Sebastien Ibeagha (Duke; Missouri City, Texas), 5-Perry Kitchen (D.C. United; Indianapolis, Ind.), 3-Zarek Valentin (Chivas USA; Lancaster, Pa.), 15-Korey Veeder (Columbus Crew; St. Petersburg, Fla.) 

MIDFIELDERS (5): 8-Sebastian Lletget (West Ham United; San Francisco, Calif.), 14-Amobi Okugo (Philadelphia Union; Sacramento, Calif.), 16-Moises Orozco (UANL Tigres; Oxnard, Calif.), 6-Dillon Powers (Notre Dame; Plano, Texas), 10-Kelyn Rowe (UCLA; Newport Beach, Calif.) 

FORWARDS (5): 20-Eder Arreola (UCLA; Chino Hills, Calif.), 9-Conor Doyle (Derby County FC; McKinney, Texas), 7-Joe Gyau (TSG 1899 Hoffenheim; Silver Spring, Md.), 17-Omar Salgado (Vancouver Whitecaps FC; El Paso, Texas), 11-Bobby Wood (TSV 1860 München; Irvine, Calif.)

Tonight's match kicks off at 8 PM ET, and is available on ESPN Deportes and ESPN3. The top two teams in each group move on to the quarterfinals, with the quarterfinal winners qualifying for the U-20 World Cup.


This is a talented American group featuring several players already making contributions to their club sides, as well as college stars like Dillon Powers. Rongen's team is missing a few player he certainly would have liked to have (including Adrian Ruelas of Santos Laguna and Alex Zahavi  of Maccabi Haifa), but there's enough quality that advancing from the group should be little problem.


Of particular interest for fans who may have heard his name but not yet seen him play is Bobby Wood, a forward making a name with 1860 Munich.


The Americans second group match is against Panama on Saturday.


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