National Team Bound: Three Crew SC Players to get USMNT Looks

Today a report on MLSSoccer.com broke the news that the Columbus Crew SC's Wil Trapp, Tony Tchani, and Ethan Finlay will be receiving call ups to the upcoming USMNT Camp, starting next week. The annual January camp is considered to be the best opportunity for younger, primarily US-based players to get their chance in the National Team set-up. As part of the camp the trio could feature in two friendly matches, vs. Iceland on 1/31 and vs. Canada on 2/5.

The latter match may prove interesting for Ethan Finlay, who was rumored to be a target of the Canadian Men's National Team, due to his father being born in Canada. This is Finlay's first ever call-up to the US National team, and he never featured for any country at youth level. It was rumored that he was under consideration in 2014, but the call-up never materialized. Presumably his stellar 2015 campaign raised his profile enough to warrant selection.

Tony Tchani was not included in the original report, but a short while after the first story broke it was updated with additional information from its source. Tony Tchani will also be making his first senior international appearance. He is Cameroonian by birth, and was called up by his native country in November of 2015, but withdrew due to injury. It was speculated at the time that perhaps a USMNT call up would be in his future. He became a citizen of the US in 2013.

Columbus native Wil Trapp was called up to last year's January camp, making his debut senior appearance as a substitute in the loss to Chile. He has represented the US at several youth levels, including captaining the side for one match in the 2013 U-20 World Cup, and is expected to be a key cog in the USA's Olympic team, should they qualify.

The official list of call-ups is to be released later this week.