Dempsey, Altidore lead USA squad for Gold Cup

Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley headline United States’ squad for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Jurgen Klinsmann named his 23-man squad on Tuesday, with the experienced trio set to lead USA in their bid for back-to-back Gold Cup titles.

Dempsey and Altidore did not feature in recent friendly victories over world champions Germany and Netherlands. Those games earlier in June featured heroics from the likes of Bobby Wood and Danny Williams, neither of whom is on the Gold Cup list.

All but six of the players called in for the Gold Cup were in the squad for last year’s World Cup. The key absences from that team are goalkeeper Tim Howard, who is taking a year off from national team duty, injured midfielder Jermaine Jones and defender Matt Besler.

The Gold Cup – a 12-team tournament among CONCACAF members – gets underway in July, with defending champions USA in Group A alongside Honduras, Haiti and Panama.

USA kick-off their campaign against Honduras in Frisco on July 7.
 

Squad in full:

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake), William Yarbrough (Club Leon)

Defenders: Ventura Alvarado (Club America), John Brooks (Hertha Berlin), Timmy Chandler (Eintracht Frankfurt), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders FC), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Fabian Johnson (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Tim Ream (Bolton Wanderers)

Midfielders: Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Mix Diskerud (New York City FC), Alfredo Morales (Ingolstadt), DeAndre Yedlin (Tottenham Hotspur), Gyasi Zardes (LA Galaxy), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)

Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Aron Johannsson (AZ Alkmaar), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)