Photo: Earl Gardner

Alejandro Bedoya and Chris Pontius will be part of the 23-man roster that faces Serbia in a friendly at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on January 29. For Bedoya, this signals that he will remain a prominent face in the US Men’s National Team setup under new coach Bruce Arena.

Pontius’ international career looked over due to a series of injuries that prevented him from making an impression on former USMNT manager Jurgen Klinsmann, but Arena is giving the Union winger another shot following a stellar 2016 season. Pontius has been called up to US camps before but has never been capped. He collected 12 goals and six assists for the Union last year.

Although Keegan Rosenberry was not named to the 23-man group to face Serbia, Bruce Arena made clear on Thursday that the young right back’s presence in camp was part of a longer-term strategy aimed at developing the Gold Cup roster. “We brought in some young guys that I’m more or less looking at for potentially the Gold Cup, and I’d say that would be the case for (Taylor) Kemp and (Keegan) Rosenberry for example, and even (Walker) Zimmerman. They’re all candidates for the Gold Cup. We want to have the opportunity to see them here and then we’re going to follow them during their MLS seasons before we make those decisions.”

In other words, Arena sees Rosenberry, and the Georgetown product will have every opportunity to show he belongs at the Gold Cup by maintaining a high level of performance in his sophomore MLS season.

Rosenberry was released and will join the Union’s preseason preparations.