Philadelphia Union: Chris Pontius added to Gold Cup roster
By Chuck Booth
After being left off of the 23-man roster for the friendly versus Ghana, Chris Pontius will be joining the national team.
Pontius will be replacing Kenny Saief who will be leaving the national team due to a groin injury. Pontius will join the team after the Philadelphia Union play Sporting Kansas City on Thursday night. Pontius will be joining Alejandro Bedoya as the only members of the Philadelphia Union on the US national team roster.
Pontius earned his first national team cap on January 29th against Serbia before making his fist career start on February 2nd against Jamacia. Pontius will be looking to build on these cap numbers while also helping his country reach the final.
CJ Sapong also made the provisional roster and can be called into the national team if an injury arises or as one of Arena’s rotations in the later rounds.
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Also representing the Philadelphia Union organization in the Gold Cup are Andre Blake and Corey Burke. Both of them were called up by Jamacia. All four could potentially miss Union games until after July 26th. During that time, the Union will play Sporting Kansas City, the Montreal Impact and the Colombus Crew twice.
With Pontius set to miss an extended amount of time, it is a good thing that Fabian Herbers is returning to health. While he likely won’t feature against Sporting Kansas City, Herbers can likely use the friendly against Swansea as a tune-up ahead of the Eastern Conference clash with the Impact.
While Herbers will also see more time, rookie Marcus Epps will also be a bigger cog in the attack. It may be a brief time for the Philadelphia Union to see how their wingers work together before Pontius’ possible departure at the end of the season.
The Philadelphia Union will miss Chris Pontius’ assists and power in the air while he’s gone but it will offer a valuable look at some other guys on the roster.