There is a strong U.S. presence to the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament that kicks off tonight in Guadalajara.
There are 32 players taking part in the qualifying who played in U.S. leagues in 2003: 17 in MLS, 10 in college and 5 in the A-League.
Besides the 16 MLS veterans on Glenn Myernick's U.S. roster, Jamaican captain Shavar Thomas played for the Dallas Burn in 2003. He was recently traded to Kansas City.
U.S. collegians Chad Marshall and Chris Wingert — both drafted by MLS's Columbus Crew — are joined by Canadians Alim Karim (Syracuse), Winston Marshall (Wright State), Mathieu Savaria (Fairleigh Dickinson), Josh Simpson (Portland) and forward Stephen Ademolu (Cleveland State), Trinidadians Anthony Noriega (George Mason) and Scott Sealy (Wake Forest) and Jamaican Khari Stephenson (Williams), who was picked by the Chicago Fire in the MLS SuperDraft.
Five players are on A-League teams: American forward David Testo (Richmond Kickers) and goalie Andrew Olivieri, defender Adam Braz and midfielders Sita-Taty Matondo and Chris Williams (all Montreal Impact)
While conflicts prevented the U.S. from recalling standouts Oguchi Onyewu (La Louviere/Belgium) and Conor Casey (Karlsruhe/Germany), limiting Coach Glenn Myernick to one European-based player (Zak Whitbread (Liverpool reserves/England), other teams were able to recall players from outside CONCACAF.
Canada has 10 European-based players, including Julian De Guzman, a starter at German Bundesliga club Hannover, and Costa Rica recalled star Winston Parks from Russian power Locomotive Moscow.
Jamaica recalled two players from English club Watford, and Panama has three players based in South America.
Mexico and Honduras have no foreign-based players.