The USMNT may have disappointed fans in the Copa América at home, but there is another international tournament this summer that the U.S. men are participating in— the Olympics.

This is the first Olympics the U.S. qualified for since 2008— which is 16 years ago now. 

To give you context of how long ago that was, 13 out of 15 U-23 players in that squad have already retired. An overage captain of that team, Brian McBride, just turned 52 years old.

After a heartbreak after heartbreak failing to qualify for the Olympics, the U.S. have returned to the stage by winning the CONCACAF U-20 Championship two years ago.

Surprisingly though, the coach who helped the U.S. qualify, Mikey Varas, won’t be the one coaching in the Olympics. Instead, it will be Marko Mitrovic, who was coaching the U.S. U-19 team. 

He made some pretty big calls for the selection of the squad, such as leaving out Diego Luna which many fans aren’t happy with. But there are still exciting names on this squad. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Benjamín Cremaschi

The youngest member of this squad is Benjamín Cremaschi. But arguably, he is the most popular one as well, making his name around the world because he is a teammate of Lionel Messi at Inter Miami and has put in pretty impressive performances there.

Born and raised in Miami, Cremaschi joined Inter’s academy back in 2021, when he was 16, and immediately became one of their top prospects.

His father was a former rugby player from Argentina, and growing up in an Argentine family, he has a lot of love for the country. The midfielder trained with the Argentina U-20 team in the past but after conversations with their coach Javier Mascherano, Cremaschi feels the U.S. are the best option for him.

This doesn’t mean he doesn’t have love for the U.S. either as he has spoken recently that he loves playing for this country and his family is very proud of him after he made the Olympics squad.

A silky smooth player who is also age-eligible for the next Olympics four years from now, which the U.S. will be hosting, he has a very bright future and is one to watch this month in France.

Tanner Tessmann

Someone who will be playing alongside Cremaschi is Tanner Tessmann, a player who would normally be the captain if this was just a purely U-23 squad. He’s handed over the captain armband to a much more experienced Walker Zimmerman but he will still be an influential leader in this team.

Tessmann has a unique story from his American teammates. Godson of a college football coach Dabo Swinney, he grew up playing both sports, and even committed to play both sports at Clemson University.

However, when he got offered a professional contract by FC Dallas, he took that instead and became a professional soccer player in 2020 instead of going to college.

After a great first season in MLS, he went off to Italy and joined a newly promoted Serie A side Venezia. To go from a newbie at MLS to one of the best leagues in the world was a massive jump and he struggled, but he’s developed into a fine player in the last couple years in the Serie B.

The 22-year-old was crucial in Venezia getting promoted back to the Serie A and he has been heavily linked with the current Serie A champions Inter Milan. 

Having this career trajectory and a chance to play in the Olympics were things Tessman couldn’t even dare to imagine five years ago. Everything could’ve been so different for him but for now, he will continue to write his brilliant story.

Patrick Schulte

The 23-year-old Patrick Schulte has had an incredible rise in the last two years. 

After impressing at Saint Louis University, Schulte decided to enter the MLS Draft in 2022, right before he turned 21. He got selected by Columbus Crew. 

He spent time with their reserve side Columbus Crew 2 in 2022, playing in the newly established MLS NEXT PRO League. 

The young goalkeeper had a fantastic season with them, winning the MLS NEXT PRO Cup and the league’s Goalkeeper of the Year Award. 

In the first game of the 2023 MLS season, then-Columbus goalkeeper Eloy Room couldn’t play due to visa issues, allowing Schulte to debut for the team. A couple weeks later, he got another chance to play as Room got injured. This time, Schulte didn’t let go of the opportunity. 

He went on to start every remaining MLS regular season and playoff game, helping Columbus win the MLS Cup in December.

Schulte’s story doesn’t end there. In January of this year, he debuted for the USMNT, and he was key in Columbus reaching the final of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, beating two Mexican sides on the way.

Although they failed to win the tournament, he did win the Best Goalkeeper of the Tournament Award, and is now going to the Olympics.

It will be interesting to see whether he or Chelsea’s Gabriel Slonina starts in goal.

Duncan McGuire

Just like Schulte, Duncan McGuire has also had a massive rise to success in the last 18 months.

In 2022, Duncan McGuire was thinking about jobs after his college graduation. The big striker was playing for Creighton University and Lane United in USL League Two— which is a fourth tier of American soccer pyramid.

Then, things suddenly changed. He ended up scoring 23 goals in 24 games for Creighton, setting a new record for his school which got him nominated for the ESPY for Best College Athlete in Men's Sports, and was awarded the Hermann Trophy— the highest honor in college soccer. 

Most importantly, he was drafted by Orlando City in MLS. At 22 years old, he began his professional soccer career, something he couldn’t even imagine a year before it happened. 

McGuire then scored 13 goals in 29 MLS games in 2023, a very impressive stat for the first-year pro which got him noticed by clubs abroad—especially Blackburn Rovers.

Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out so well with Blackburn’s interest. It became one of the most dramatic transfer sagas as Blackburn’s initial offer was rejected by Orlando and when they finally agreed on a price, it collapsed.

McGuire was already in England when it collapsed but because he was so determined to play in English football, his agent and Orlando tried to strike a deal with Sheffield Wednesday.

Then, Blackburn came back with a new offer to loan him instead of buying him, and he and Orlando accepted it. They announced the deal and he even took photos with their kit, but bizarrely enough, the English Football League didn’t approve McGuire’s registration due to the club’s error in submitting documents. 

What’s the error? Blackburn clicked “save” instead of “submit” when submitting paperwork. By the time they realized, it was too late.

Now back in Orlando, he has seven goals in 19 games this year. McGuire would love to have a great Olympics and ignite the European interest once again.

Kevin Paredes

There is one player in this U.S. squad that’s playing regularly in a top five European league right now— Kevin Paredes.

The winger left DC United for Wolfsburg back in 2022 and so far, he has already played 52 Bundesliga games. He just turned 21 a couple of months ago.

This past season was a breakout season for Paredes, as he featured in 28 out of 34 Bundesliga games for the German side. It’s a bit surprising that he wasn’t included in the Copa América squad for the USMNT, a team he’s already played three times for.

On a bright side though, playing in the Olympics is more valuable for him as he will most likely be a starter and can be the key difference maker for this team. It was actually surprising to see that Wolfsburg released him instead of keeping him for the pre-season.

A pacy winger who was recently awarded as U.S. Soccer Young Male Player of the Year, let’s see if Paredes can light it up in Paris for the U.S. 

Johan Gómez

Only 18 players are allowed in the Olympics squads, but they do allow four alternate players, who can train with the team and can be included in the squad eight hours before a match begins if someone gets injured.

One of the four alternates is Johan Gómez, older brother of Real Sociedad defender Jonathan Gómez.

Johan is a close friend of Tessmann, as both are products of the FC Dallas youth academy. They even had a podcast called ChumChat in the past, where they would speak about their experiences as young professional players and invited other players to come speak as well.

The attacking midfielder left the U.S. back in 2020 for Portugal’s Porto. After a year there, he moved to Germany’s FSV Zwickau and then Eintracht Braunschweig.

Braunschweig are a club playing in Germany’s second division and he seems to be finally settled there, and developing well at a decent level. He played 35 games in this past season.

Johan is turning 23 just one day before the U.S. play their opening game against hosts France. What would be the ideal late birthday present for him? A U.S. win of course, which would stun the hosts and their fans.

Will Johan get to play any minutes in this Olympics? It would be something interesting to watch out for. Regardless though, he will have a great time reuniting with his close friend Tessmann, four years after they started their podcast talking about their experiences, dreams, and soccer ambitions.