April 2, 2024 – Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) News Release
CHICAGO – U.S. Men’s Futsal National Team head coach Hewerton Moreira has named his final 14-player roster for the 2024 Concacaf Futsal Championship to be played April 13-20 at the Polideportivo Alexis Argüello in Managua, Nicaragua. The competition serves as the qualifying tournament for the 2024 FIFA Futsal World Cup set for September 14-October 6 in Uzbekistan.
As the Futsal MNT attempts to qualify for its second-straight Futsal World Cup, the team will depart for Nicaragua on April 7 where it will train for a week in advance of its tournament opener on April 13 against Trinidad and Tobago (12 p.m. ET). The team will then face Dominican Republic on April 14 (2 p.m. ET), before rounding out group play against Guatemala on April 15 (2 p.m. ET). Broadcast details will be shared closer to the tournament.
“Our team has prepared well since last fall, and coming off a solid camp in February in Argentina we feel very confident with the group of players that will go to this month’s Concacaf Championship,” Moreira said. “There are two main objectives for us in Nicaragua. The first is to ensure we qualify for the Futsal World Cup this fall, and the second is to make it to the final game and win the Concacaf Championship for the first time in 20 years.”
Since becoming head coach last September, Moreira has focused on building a core group of players that could gel quickly leading into this month’s World Cup qualifying tournament. The USA’s Concacaf Futsal Championship roster demonstrates that continuity, as 12 of the 14 players have taken part in every training camp under Moreira, while 13 players participated in both January’s domestic training camp in Rome, Ga. and February’s trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina where the Futsal MNT performed well against local sides Racing Club, Ferro, and San Lorenzo.
The team is led by 2023 U.S. Soccer Male Futsal Player of the Year Luciano Gonzalez, who is one six veterans of the U.S. squad at the 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup in Lithuania, along with goalkeepers Diego Moretti and Robert Damron, fixos Raphael Araujo and David Ortíz, and ala Alencar Ventura-Junior.
Gonzalez is also one of two players that play professional Futsal in Italy where he features for APD Sammichele 1992 in Bari, while Nicholas Lopez lines up for Ciampino Futsal in Rome. Meanwhile, seven players are on Major Arena Soccer League rosters, with Araujo representing the St. Louis Ambush, Erik Macias,…