Julian Araujo to be called-up for the USMNT World Cup qualifiers
The United States will make a last attempt to call-up the LA Galaxy defender after he declined to join the national team for the Gold Cup tournament.
Julian Araujo is a Mexican-American defender that plays for the Los Angeles Galaxy and he is one of the most watched young prospects in Major League Soccer. The 20-year-old has been a regular starter for the Galaxy the past two-years and he played with the United States youth national team earlier this year in the CONCACAF Men’s Olympic qualifying tournament.
Araujo leaning towards playing for Mexico
The LA Galaxy defender has been very clear that he has not committed to the USMNT because he wants to play for the Mexico national team. There has been talks that the coach of Mexico, Gerardo Martino has considered Araujo for a possible call-up with 'El Tri' for the international break of September.
But the USMNT manager Gregg Berhlater will make a last effort to convince Araujo because he doesn’t want to lose another player to their key rivals. Earlier this year Araujo’s teammate, Efraín Álvarez, was in the same situation as him and at the end Álvarez committed to the Mexican national team.
It seems that Araujo is ready to follow his teammates' steps because he declined the USMNT call-up to play the Gold Cup this summer. The United States will have a tough start of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers next month when they travel to El Salvador (2 September), then return to the US a home games against Canada (5 September) and then travel to Honduras (8 September) to conclude the first round of the Octagonal round-robin tournament.