FC Dallas forward Jesus Ferreira has been named to the U-23 US Men’s National Team for the Concacaf Olympic qualifying tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The Colombian-born dual national was one of three FC Dallas players to attend a pre-tournament camp alongside Ricardo Pepi and Tanner Tessmann.
“I spoke to [Tessmann and Pepi] yesterday,” said FC Dallas Head Coach Luchi Gonzalez on a conference call. “They had good experiences and are obviously disappointed not to be in that final list. But who knows what could happen if there’s injuries in the next week and they’re still on the reserve list. We’re also happy to have them back integrating with us. They’re very important players for us but they had a good valuable experience there in an environment that is, I think, similar to ours.”
A recent leak from Concacaf showed Ferreira as being given the number nine jersey by coach Jason Kreis, widely considered the 20-year-old’s greatest predecessor in the nine jersey for Dallas.
This is Ferreira’s first call up to any age-restricted national team roster after only receiving his US citizenship in December 2019. Three months later the homegrown would win his first cap for the US senior national team in a 1-0 friendly win over Costa Rica. His second cap came exactly a year later in the 7-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago that saw Ferreira record two goals and three assists before being replaced by Chris Mueller in the 64th minute.
“I’m very proud of Jesus,” said Gonzalez of the call-up. “I know he was with the senior team and was very impactful, statistically, in the game against Trinidad.
“I’m really I’m very proud to see now that he’s pretty much established his place on that team and I know he’s playing with a lot of confidence to help them qualify.”
The United States has not qualified for the Olympic men’s soccer tournament since 2008. A semi-final defeat to Bryan Acosta’s Honduras left the USA unable to qualify automatically, relying on a Concacaf-CONMEBOL play-off. Despite a tie in the first leg in Barranquilla, Colombia would win at Toyota Stadium to keep the US men out of the 2016 Rio Summer Games.
Olympic Qualifying Schedule
*Listed in CDT/local time
Group Stage
Thursday, March 18 – Jalisco Stadium
16:00/15:00 USA vs Costa Rica
18:30/17:30 Mexico vs Dominican Republic
Friday, March 19 – Jalisco Stadium
14:30/13:30 Honduras vs Haiti
17:00/16:00 Canada vs El Salvador
Sunday, March 21 – Akron Stadium
18:00/17:00 Dominican Republic vs USA
20:30/19:30 Costa Rica vs Mexico
Monday, March 22 – Akron Stadium
17:00/16:00 Haiti vs Canada
19:30/18:30 El Salvador vs Honduras
Wednesday, March 24 – Jalisco Stadium
18:00/17:00 Costa Rica vs Dominican Republic
20:30/19:30 Mexico vs USA
Concacaf Men’s Olympic Qualifying Championship Roster by Position (Club; Hometown):
GOALKEEPERS (3): Matt Freese (Philadelphia Union; Wayne, Pa.), JT Marcinkowski (San Jose Earthquakes, Alamo, Calif.), David Ochoa (Real Salt Lake; Oxnard, Calif.)
DEFENDERS (6): Julian Araujo (LA Galaxy; Lompoc, Calif.), Justen Glad (Real Salt Lake; Tucson, Ariz.), Aaron Herrera (Real Salt Lake; Las Cruces, N.M.), Henry Kessler (New England Revolution; New York, N.Y.), Mauricio Pineda (Chicago Fire FC; Bolingbrook, Ill.), Sam Vines (Colorado Rapids; Colorado Springs, Colo.)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Johnny Cardoso (Internacional/BRA; Denville, N.J.), Hassani Dotson (Minnesota United FC; Federal Way, Wash.), Ulysses Llanez (Heerenveen/NED; Lynwood, Calif.), Djordje Mihailovic (CF Montreal/CAN; Jacksonville, Fla.), Andrés Perea(Orlando City SC; Medellin, Colombia), Sebastian Saucedo (UNAM Pumas/MEX; Park City, Utah), Jackson Yueill (San Jose Earthquakes; Bloomington, Minn.)
FORWARDS (4): Jesús Ferreira (FC Dallas; McKinney, Texas), Jonathan Lewis (Colorado Rapids; Plantation, Fla.), Benji Michel (Orlando City SC; Orlando, Fla.), Sebastian Soto (Norwich City/ENG; San Diego, Calif.)