United States national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann calls his freshly announced 23-man Gold Cup squad a quality mix of experienced and younger players that is built to win the prestigious tournament starting on July 7.
Klinsmann trimmed his provisional squad from 35 to 23 players for the announcement Tuesday, although the team does have the option to make changes after the group stage as long as any player brought in was named to the original 35-man squad.
The U.S. coach reiterated the importance of winning the Gold Cup, which the team did in 2013, and said they'll do everything possible to repeat as champions and earn a berth in the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia.
"Our approach for putting together the roster for this summer's Gold Cup, which is very, very important to us, is obviously to do everything possible to win this competition," Klinsmann said. "That's why we came out with a roster full of quality, but also a lot of experience."
The squad has veterans like Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey and Omar Gonzalez, who have experience playing in high-profile CONCACAF competitions, as well as some new faces, like Ventura Alvarado and Gyasi Zardes, who have worked their way into the senior team and will be playing in their first Gold Cups. Despite some of the new inclusions, 17 of the 23 players were on the World Cup roster in Brazil.
"It's an exciting roster, and obviously we have a chance to make some changes after the group stage if necessary," Klinsmann said. "We put all of these things into consideration, and we believe we have a very, very strong group that can win."
Just six of the American players on the 2015 squad took part in the 2013 Gold Cup: Kyle Beckerman, Alejandro Bedoya, Mix Diskerud, Omar Gonzalez, Nick Rimando and Chris Wondolowski.
After the exhibition against Guatemala on July 3 in Nashville, Tenn., the Americans open their title defense in the 12-nation tournament against Honduras four days later in Frisco, Texas. They play Haiti on July 10 in Foxborough, Mass., and finish the first round three days later against Panama in Kansas City, Kansas.
The U.S. is seeking to reach its sixth straight Gold Cup final, which will be July 26 in Philadelphia.