Saints goalkeeper Cody Cropper has received a call-up into the full USA squad for their friendly against Ukraine next week.
Cropper, who is uncapped at senior level, is part of the 24 man group that will travel to Cyprus for the game which takes place on Wednesday 5th March, with kick-off at Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium in Larnaca set for 2pm. GMT.
US Men’s National Team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann says he’s using the match as an opportunity for the European-based players to showcase their talents ahead of his squad selection for the World Cup Finals in the summer.
Cropper joins fellow Barclays Premier League representatives: Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Jozy Altidore (Sunderland), and Tim Howard (Everton), with Klinsmann stressing the importance of a good performance against a side that narrowly missed out on World Cup qualification.
“Having this Ukraine game is a huge opportunity, mainly for our European-based players,” the former Spurs man told USsoccer.com
“You want to give them a chance to show where they are at and what’s going on in their specific situation. It’s great to call in players like Oguchi Onyewu, Will Packwood – his first time to come in – Tim Ream, who is playing consistently well at Bolton, Danny Williams, who has now kind of made his way through at Reading and playing week-in, week-out, and Juan Agudelo, who is now in Holland.
“It’s a huge opportunity for all those guys to prove to us that they are eager and hungry to jump on the train to the World Cup. We will get a good picture of them over those couple of days, and therefore, we left almost all the MLS players back in the United States.”
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