SEATTLE, WASH. – U.S. Soccer announced over the weekend that Cristian Roldan has been named to the U.S. Men’s National Team 24-man roster for a pair of friendlies against Brazil and Mexico. As the six-game Kickoff Series gets underway, Head Coach Dave Sarachan once again focuses on the prospects of the next generation, calling 24 players to the New York area for matches against five-time World Champion Brazil and regional rival Mexico.
Roldan, 23, has three career senior caps for the USMNT, and made his debut last summer in a CONCACAF Gold Cup Group Stage match against Martinique. He then started and logged 68 minutes in a scoreless friendly vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina in January before making a late substitute appearance against Paraguay in March. Roldan has three goals and five assists in 26 matches – all starts – for Seattle in 2018, following a breakout 2017 season in which he was voted Sounders FC Team MVP. Roldan joins Seattle native and former Sounders FC Homegrown Player DeAndre Yedlin on Sarachan’s squad.
USA-Brazil opens the two-game set on September 7 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with coverage on FS1, UniMás and UDN beginning at 4:30 p.m. PT. Four days later, the next edition of one of the region's greatest rivalries will be contested at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, as USA-Mexico, presented by AT&T, begins at 5:30 p.m. PT, with ESPN, UniMás and UDN broadcasting the action.
The U.S. is currently scheduled to face four teams ranked in the FIFA Top 20 as part of the Kickoff Series, including Brazil (third), England (sixth), Colombia (14th) and Mexico (16th). With the final match expected to be announced later this week, the six-game set provides the aspiring young U.S. side with top-level competition in this phase of the journey towards 2022.
Roldan joins four other Sounders FC players that have been called in to international duty during the FIFA break. Raúl RuidÃaz (Peru), Gustav Svensson (Sweden), Román Torres (Panama) and Jordy Delem (Martinique) also departed Seattle following Saturday’s win over Sporting Kansas City.
After setting the single-season MLS record with its eighth consecutive win this past weekend over Sporting KC, Sounders FC returns to MLS play on September 15 in Vancouver, with a Cascadia Cup showdown against Whitecaps FC (7:00 p.m. PT / JOEtv, YouTube TV, 950 KJR AM, El Rey 1360 AM).
