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ATLANTA (May 22, 2025) – USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino has named a 27-player training camp roster ahead of June matches against Turkey and Switzerland. Players will begin reporting June 1 to Chicago to start preparation for the summer.

The matches will provide the USMNT with one of its few opportunities to face European opposition before the World Cup and will serve as the team's final tune-up before competing in the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup.

"As we continue preparations for the World Cup, this is a fantastic opportunity to work with this group of players for an extended period and it's important we take advantage of every moment we have together," Pochettino said. "Of course, we want to win and to perform in a very good way. These players have earned the chance to compete for our fans and to show their quality and mentality."

Nearly one year before the start of the World Cup on home soil, the USA will first host Turkey on June 7 at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET, with the match broadcast live on TNT, truTV, and Telemundo Deportes and streamed on Max, Universo, and Peacock. [TICKETS]

WELCOME HOME
Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field will hold a special in the heart of Patrick Agyemang. Not only did he attend his first USMNT game there in 2010 at the age of nine, it's also in his hometown of East Hartford, Conn. Born to parents who emigrated from Ghana, he climbed nearly every rung on the soccer ladder, starting in the Division III college program at Eastern Connecticut State to Division I, MLS Next Pro, and finally at Charlotte FC in MLS, all before landing his first USMNT callup in January of this year. He's made the most of the opportunity, already collecting three goals in four matches.

Three days later, USA-Switzerland, presented by Coca-Cola, will serve as the Send Off match ahead of the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup. GEODIS Park in Nashville, Tenn., hosts on June 10, with the match kicking off at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. local) and will be available on TNT, truTV, Max, Universo, and Peacock. [TICKETS]

Both matches will be carried live on radio as Westwood One Sports delivers English language commentary on USMNT matches for the first time while longtime partner Fútbol de Primera has the Spanish language call.


DETAILED ROSTER BY POSITION (Club/Country; Caps/Goals)

GOALKEEPERS (4): Matt Freese (New York City FC; 0/0), Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew; 3/0), Zack Steffen (Colorado Rapids; 30/0), Matt Turner (Crystal Palace/ENG; 51/0)
DEFENDERS (8): Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew; 3/0), Sergiño Dest (PSV Eindhoven/NED; 33/2), Alex Freeman (Orlando City; 0/0), DeJuan Jones (San Jose Earthquakes; 10/0), Mark McKenzie (Toulouse/FRA; 19/0), Tim Ream (Charlotte FC; 68/1), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace/ENG; 24/1), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati; 32/3),
MIDFIELDERS (10): Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United/ENG; 47/8); Tyler Adams (Bournemouth/ENG; 44/2), Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver Whitecaps/CAN; 0/0), Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis/ESP; 18/0), Luca de la Torre (San Diego FC; 24/1), Diego Luna (Real Salt Lake; 4/0), Jack McGlynn (Houston Dynamo; 4/1), Quinn Sullivan (Philadelphia Union; 0/0); Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven/NED; 17/0), Sean Zawadzki (Columbus Crew; 1/0)
FORWARDS (5): PATRICK AGYEMANG (Charlotte FC; 4/3), Folarin Balogun (Monaco/FRA; 17/5); Damion Downs (FC Köln/GER; 0/0), Brian White (Vancouver Whitecaps/CAN; 4/1), Haji Wright (Coventry City/ENG; 15/4)
 
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March 1, 2023 -- By Kels Dayton, The Hartford Courant

When Patrick Agyemang first stepped onto campus as a freshman at Eastern Connecticut State University, he could have had no idea what was ahead of him. At just 17 years old and still growing into his body he was just looking for an opportunity to keep playing soccer– the game he'd loved all his life. But the Division III All-American nod? The Little East Offensive Player of the Year award? The first-round MLS Draft pick?

 Nobody would have ever seen that coming.

Agyemang, born and raised in East Hartford, was taken with the No. 12 overall pick in the MLS Draft by Charlotte FC, which traded a future first-round pick to move up and select him, on Dec. 21. He's the first ECSU player ever to be drafted.

In a few months he'll be taking the field as a professional, the culmination of a lifelong dream fused with faith and a relentless work ethic.

"When I look back at the whole journey and everything that has been done, it's kind of hard to believe in a sense," Agyemang told The Courant. "I think it still hasn't hit me, the fact that I got drafted. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I'm like 'What, I really got picked?' It's crazy, but I'm just grateful, man."

It's been a meteoric rise for the East Hartford native, who former coaches say was a late bloomer. He grew up in a soccer family, his parents having brought the love for the beautiful game with them when they emigrated from Ghana. Patrick took to it from a young age, playing alongside his brothers Enoch and Emmanuel and watching as many FC Barcelona games as he could find on TV. "You could call me like a superfan, I was crazy," he said.

He watched as his older brothers began playing at East Hartford High, and Emmanuel became one of the few freshmen to earn a spot on the varsity team.

"Emmanuel was the [original] Agyemang phenom. He was the man," said East Hartford coach Mike Vendetti. "And Patrick was the younger brother. He was always around, kicking the ball around. … To be honest, I wasn't expecting him to be that player. I've watched his growth and it's been wonderful."

Vendetti said Patrick didn't start playing varsity until his junior year. He blossomed as a senior, becoming a team captain and leading the Hornets to an elusive state tournament win– erasing a long first-round losing streak players had started to refer to as a curse.

"My first five years of my tenure at East Hartford, we could not make it past the first round," Vendetti said. "And no matter — I mean, we had had some extremely talented players — but we could just not put together that winning succession through the tournament and yeah, they broke the curse. We would lose to an FCIAC team like every year, but those guys [ended] it."

East Hartford fell to top-seeded Naugatuck in the second round that year (2017), but Agyemang's group laid the foundation for a run to the state semifinals the following season.

There weren't any curses to break when he got to Eastern, just a whole lot of records. Agyemang made an immediate impact there– scoring nine goals and racking up 21 points as a freshman, and earning Little East Conference Rookie of the Year honors. He was even better as a sophomore– pouring in 21 goals and seven assists, and becoming just the third player in ECSU history to earn Division III All-America honors.

After that season it became clear that he would have opportunities to play at bigger programs, so he left for the University of Rhode Island, where he went on to be named All-Atlantic 10 twice while becoming the Rams' top scorer both seasons. Ahead of this season, he was named to the Mac Hermann Trophy watch list, an award that goes out to the best player in the country.

ECSU head coach Greg DeVito credits Agyemang's attitude and work ethic for pushing him to heights no Warriors player has ever reached before.

"He came in and said, I want to be a pro someday, and he's one step closer to making that happen," DeVito said. "You don't do that without the determination and the intrinsic motivation to make yourself better."
.When we looked at him sophomore year we were like, this kid could be unstoppable if he gets to that mentality, and he got there. … I think the potential was always there, but it's up to him, if he wants to put the work in. That's the thing that he needs to be really proud of. No one did this for him. This wasn't handed to him."

Now, Agyemang has headed off to Charlotte to begin training with his new team, which just so happens to have been among the most popular in the Western Hemisphere in 2022, by average attendance. Charlotte FC began play as an MLS expansion franchise last season and averaged over 35,000 fans per game at Bank of America Stadium, also home of the Carolina Panthers.

Agyemang said that growing up watching Barcelona, he and his brothers would dream of playing in front of packed stadiums. After Charlotte traded up to draft Agyemang with the No. 12 pick, sending a 2024 first-round pick to the Colorado Rapids, he'll have his chance.

The MLS season begins Feb. 25, and although he's already done things no one from East Hartford or Eastern ever have, he's got more history on his mind.

"Just to have this chance is crazy, and I just want to go and do things that haven't been done," Agyemang said. "I want people to realize it doesn't matter where you start, it only matters where you end."

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June 2, 2025 – By Dom Amore, Hartford Courant
After school at "The Headquarters" meant watching soccer, trying cool, new things. For Patrick Agyemang and his older brothers, Emmanuel and Enoch, it was a time to surf YouTube for the latest bedazzling video.

"I remember he would watch videos of Cristiano Ronaldo," Emmaniel said. "Pat used to play on the wing, and he would like to do all those tricks. We would watch the videos, then go outside and practice it against each other."

That was Patrick Agyemang as a child. The Headquarters was the name the Agyemang brothers, along with cousins and friends, came to call their home, a multi-family house, 2 1/4 miles from Rentschler Field, with an open, patchy back yard. Their parents, Emelia and Patriac, originally from Ghana, have worked multiple jobs to maintain the home for 25 years.

Charlotte FC forward Patrick Agyemang, right, hugs midfielder Ashley Westwood after scoring a second-half goal against Toronto FC in an MLS soccer match in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, April 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

Soccer was the boys' passion, they played it, loved it, dreamed about it, an organic part of growing up in that time and space, nothing forced, nothing on the line except joy.

"Patrick wasn't an 'academy kid,' who grew up in a (Major League Soccer) program," said Mike Vendetti, longtime coach at East Hartford High. "He wasn't a kid who grew up with that whole mentality. He grew up enjoying the game, and playing, and growing into it. Some people would call it a Cinderella story, but he enjoyed the game, he worked for it and now he's reaping the benefits."
Patrick Agyemang, now 24, is returning home this week as one of the most talked-about young stars in the most popular game on earth.

"He's scoring goals for the national team and you see little kids calling his name, 'Patrick, Patrick Patrick,'" said Greg DeVito, who coached Agyemang in college at Eastern Connecticut State. "He has a magnetic personality, really, and people are kind of drawn to him. To see all that, you're like, 'wow. I've known him since he was 16 years old and I never would have even imagined that this is where he would be.' I couldn't be more proud of him."

When he was 9, Agyemang was on his way to Rentschler, to walk with his youth team onto the field before the U.S. national team's match against the Czech Republic on May 25, 2010, but he didn't get his his permission slip in on time. Eventually he got to the game and to his seat.

"I remember getting pickup by my aunt and my cousin," Patrick said. "We were sitting higher up. I remember the celebrating. We celebrated a goal or two. I was just so happy being at a game like that, my first professional game."

Patrick Agyemang will be on that field June 7, playing center forward for the U.S. team against Turkey. Rentscher Field will be full, or close to it, with the next wave of Hartford-area kids anxious to see if Agyemang can build on his splashy debut with the national team, three goals in four games in January.

"I would tell them, 'that was me, I was in your exact shoes,'" he said. "I would say, 'keep shooting for your dreams."

The consensus among analysts is that Agyemang, 6 feet 4, brings a set of skills no other available player can to the USMNT, combining a height and strength advantage over defenders, a powerful left-footed shot and a knack for finishing, scoring.

And with the World Cup a year away, U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino is clearly intrigued.

"He's going to be able to add a different condition to the team that sometimes we were missing a little bit," Pochettino told reporters in January. "It's a very good alternative. His characteristics as a striker and an offensive player can provide the team different things. I think he's still a little bit raw, but I see the potential and the characteristics if he continues his progression. … Now it's up to him."

The Agyemangs played for the Hartford Soccer Club at various levels, then on to East Hartford High where his brothers were already playing. Emmanuel, two years older, was one of the top players as Vendetti was building the program. He didn't make the varsity team as a freshman.

"The main thing, especially in high school, I had to understand I was still growing," Patrick said. "I was 13, still young, trying to understand how high school worked. Still smaller, very skinny, I hadn't hit my growth spurt, either, so I was awkward. Long legs. I was focusing on my game, on my touch, how I was going to shoot, how I wanted to dribble, because that was the kind of player I wanted to be like."
One day, Vendetti turned to call Patrick off the bench and saw him with his iPhone out, taking pictures and videos.

"We were playing South Windsor," Vendetti said. "He tried to hide it, but he was still trying to take pictures. We took the phone, and I said he could just stay on the bench the rest of the game, and after the game —  and this is his personality — with a big smile on his face, he said, 'Coach, I just wanted to take some pictures to help evaluate us.' In the moment, you're furious, but you look back now and laugh. They're kids, they're doing what kids are supposed to be doing. Not that they don't take the game seriously, but they're enjoying it."

By his junior year, Patrick Agyemang began to grow physically, and more mature in his approach to school and soccer. He began to believe he had a future. He also ran track and played volleyball, and he became a soccer captain. As a senior, he had 17 goals and 12 assists as the Hornets ended a long string of first-round state tournament losses to beat Hillhouse, as Agyemang got two goals and an assist.

"In high school, Pat had all the technical abilities," Emmanuel said. "But he was still growing into his body. He would feel pain whenever he would run. Then when he got to college, he grew into his body, the pain went away, he got faster, he got stronger, he would out-pace any defender we would go against. And as soon as he got the ball on his left foot, you just thought it was going in."

Without any Division I offers, Patrick joined Emmanuel at Eastern Connecticut, where DeVito was familiar, having had coached against him at the club level. He was the Little East Conference rookie of the year, and scored 30 goals with 10 assists in 39 games across two seasons.

"And his sophomore year, he won at least a half dozen penalty kicks that he let his brother take," DeVito said. "He was unselfish that way. Anybody who ever played with him will tell you he's just a good person. I saw somebody with a high ceiling. I didn't know it would be the ceiling he has, but that's on him, and all the work he's put in."

By now, Agyemang was 6-4, had filled out to 180 pounds, and was playing the No. 9 position on the field, center striker, and he was a D-III All American.

"Going into my sophomore year, I was just … I was flying," Patrick said. "That's when everything for me started, and I started to think, 'yeah, I have a chance at this.' Even though I wasn't playing at the highest level of college, I felt like everything was going to click at that point. I was so much more comfortable, and at that point I was only 18."

The transfer portal opened during the pandemic and Agyemang got offers. He moved to Rhode Island, where he had 19 goals and 12 assists in 37 games. In December 2022, Charlotte FC traded up to take Agyemang in the 12th pick of the Major League Soccer draft. The league had sent a camera crew to The Headquarters in East Hartford to record the moment as Patrick watched with is family. At least two dozen jammed into the living room, nearly all with iPhones, jumped up to record the moment.

"There were a lot of times I had to take time for myself and just reflect on the ups and downs," Patrick said. "The downs hit very hard. There were times I started to doubt myself. People didn't believe I could make it and I started to think myself, 'is this really feasible? Is this really possible?' So I had those moments, but when it finally happened, it was crazy."

It didn't take long for him to make the varsity this time. In his second season, Agyemang, playing for the MLS minimum $71,000, led Charlotte with 10 goals and five assists in 19 starts, catching attention with his deft control of the ball and ability to thread needle-sized alleys to find the back of the net. Last December, Patrick was training with his brother and a friend when his phone went off, and he walked away take the call.

"His mouth just dropped, he was in shock," Emmanuel said. "I'd been around him, he doesn't react that way. It must be something big. He was in shock the whole day."

Pochettino, the new coach, had been looking at younger players to rework the roster, and called Agyemang up to the USMNT for a match with Venezuela on Jan. 18. He got control of the ball near midfield, outraced a defender without losing control, and chipped it past the goalkeeper, who came out to try to stop him. Four days later, against Costa Rica, Agyemang got the ball at the top of the box, fended off a defender and blasted it with his left foot to beat the goalkeeper.

"His game is so different from other strikers because his height doesn't match the way he plays," Emmanuel said, recalling the days his brother first tried out these moves at The Headquarters. "And a lot of coaches don't know what to do with it, how to stop it. He can get the ball wide and take on a defender 1 v. 1, and there's not a lot of strikers who can do that."

ESPN analyst Herculez Gomez, who played for the U.S. team, said "he's handful for any defender around the world. … He's got a nose for the goal, one of those intangibles that goal-scorers must have." East Hartford's Patrick Agyemang will be trying to win a spot for the World Cup when USMNT plays Turkey at Rentschler Field June 7.

Back with Charlotte for the start of the season, Agyemang was heating up again, with five goals and an assist in 15 starts when he was called back to the U.S. team for June's friendly matches, starting with the game vs. Turkey in East Hartford, and then the CONCACAF Gold Cup, hosted by the U.S. and Canada.

"Its going to be great to see his smiling face," Vendetti said.

Agyemang has been getting interest from Premier League teams in Europe, and Vendetti, for one, hopes he eventually goes for that challenge.

In the meantime, there is every young soccer player's dream, from any corner of the world: The World Cup. Several of the most established U.S, players, notably global star Christian Pulisic, will take this summer off to recover from their European seasons, giving the coaches the chance to evaluate younger players. Patrick Aygemang is apparently at the top of that list.

In that back yard at The HQ, where they could run free and dreams had room to run wild, the Agyemang brothers and their group, used to play their own version of the "World Cup." There'd be seven kids trying various moves.

"And it was last-man-standing kind of thing," Agyemang said. "My earliest memories are with a ball. … It's just crazy. Just a kid from East Hartford. You have dreams of these things but you never know if it will come to pass. To be able to represent Connecticut in that way, and my heritage, my family and my last name, would be just be amazing to be a part of the pinnacle of soccer."