Gianluca Busio and U-17 USMNT Start World Cup this Weekend

Sporting Kansas City’s season may be over but at least one Sporting KC player is headed to a very important series of games and it starts on Sunday. 17-year-old midfielder Gianluca Busio is headed off to Brazil to join the United States U-17 National Team for the U-17 World Cup.

He will do so as the player with the most professional experience ever for a US player at this competition. He has 29 MLS appearances and 34 appearances across all competitions. The US comes into the tournament off a strong showing in May in the U-17 CONCACAF Championship where they fell just short against Mexico of winning the full tournament.

Their first game is against Senegal who have never played in a U-17 World Cup before. In fact, they only got in because Guinea was disqualified for playing players that were too old for the 2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.

24 teams in total will compete in the competition. They are divided into six groups of four with the top two teams advancing automatically and the four best third-place teams also moving on. Busio and the United States are in Group D with Senegal, Japan and the Netherlands. It would be a disappointment not to see them move on to the Round of 16.

USMNT Schedule & How to Watch

• Sunday, October 27th — vs Senegal — 3PM CT on FS1 and Telemundo
• Wednesday, October 30th — vs Japan — 6PM CT on FS2 and Universo
• Saturday, November 2nd — vs Netherlands — 6PM CT on FS2 and Universo

Below is the full roster courtesy of SportingKC.com:

2019 FIFA U-17 WORLD CUP: USA ROSTER

(CLUB; HOMETOWN; U-17 CAPS/GOALS)

GOALKEEPERS (3): 21-Aaron Cervantes (Orange County SC; Chino Hills, Calif.; 4/0), 1-Damian Las (Fulham/ENG; Norridge, Ill.; 19/0), 12-Chituru Odunze (Leicester City/ENG; London, England; 7/0)

DEFENDERS (7): 15-Sebastian Anderson (Colorado Rapids; Highlands Ranch, Colo.; 4/0), 13-Adam Armour (North Carolina FC; Cary, N.C.; 18/0), 3-George Bello (Atlanta United FC; Douglasville, Ga.; 8/1), 4-Nicolas Carrera (FC Dallas; Frisco, Texas; 3/0), 14-Tayvon Gray (New York City FC; Bronx, N.Y.; 17/0), 5-Kobe Hernandez-Foster (LA Galaxy; Los Angeles, Calif.; 23/3), 2-Joe Scally (New York City FC; Lake Grove, N.Y.; 19/1)

MIDFIELDERS (5): 18-Maximilian Dietz (Freiburg/GER; Frankfurt, Germany; 2/0), 17-Ethan Dobbelaere (Seattle Sounders FC; Seattle, Wash.; 3/0), 8-Bryang Kayo (Orange County SC; Poolesville, Md.; 8/1), 6-Daniel Leyva (Seattle Sounders FC; Las Vegas, Nev.; 7/0), 16-Adam Saldana (LA Galaxy; Panorama City, Calif.; 25/2)

FORWARDS (6): 7-Gianluca Busio (Sporting Kansas City; Greensboro, N.C.; 15/7), 20-Andres Jasson (New York City FC; Greenwich, Conn.; 11/1), 19-Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez (Seattle Sounders FC; Merced, Calif.; 24/9), 9-Ricardo Pepi (FC Dallas; McKinney, Texas; 15/5), 10-Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund/GER; Bedford, N.Y.; 15/8), 11-Griffin Yow (D.C. United; Clifton, Va.; 12/7)