U.S. SOCCER: Myernick takes 22 players for Olympic qualifying training

The team will train for seven days before Myernick must cut down the roster to 20 players by the Jan. 31 deadline.

The U.S. roster is led by two members of the 2002 World Cup team, Landon Donovan (San Jose Earthquakes) and DaMarcus Beasley (Chicago Fire). Myernick also picked Bobby Convey (D.C. United), another U.S. national team starter and one of four members of the U.S. under-20 national team that finished fifth at the 2003 World Youth Championship in December. Others picked were defenders Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew) and Zak Whitbread (Liverpool) and striker Ed Johnson (Dallas Burn).

Out injured is another U-20 star, Ricardo Clark (MetroStars).

Eddie Gaven, not Freddy Adu, is only player Myernick selected from the U.S. under-17 national team that reached the quarterfinals of the 2003 Under-17 World Cup.

Whitbread was the only foreign-based player picked. Belgium-based defender Oguchi Onyewu (La Louviere) and German-based forward Conor Casey (Karlsruhe) were forced to remain in Europe with their club teams.

The U.S. U-23s will first face Panama on Feb. 3, followed by matches against Canada on Feb. 5 and Honduras on Feb. 7. All three U.S. opening round matches in Group A will be played at the 10,000-seat Estadio Tres de Marzo (in the Zapopan area of Guadalajara) and kick off at 9 p.m. CT. The Olympic qualifying tournament will be available on closed-circuit.