Breaking: RSL’s Corey Baird named to 40-man provisional Gold Cup roster

In preparation for this June’s CONCACAF Gold Cup, the provisional rosters for each participating nation were made available today. Included on the US’s roster was none other than Real Salt Lake’s Corey Baird.

Baird has now been included on 3 straight US rosters starting back in January when he was called into Gregg Berhalter’s first camp at the helm of the US men’s team. Baird has seemingly caught the eye of Berhalter and continues to do so. He has received 3 national team caps over the last 5 months, earning an assist and coming a whisker away from a couple of goals as well.

The work isn’t over for Baird however. The 40 man roster is deep with both domestic league talent as well as European based players. Berhalter will need to determine who the right mix of guys are and trim his roster down to 23 players by June 3rd, prior to the June 15th start of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Interestingly enough, in prior camps Baird was called up as a midfielder, however, today he was called up as a forward. It could be semantics by Berhalter, or could signal a potential shift in formation for the new USMNT coach. We will be sure to find out as we get closer.

The US dates for the Gold Cup group stage are as follows:

• June 18th, USA v Guyana
• June 22nd, USA v Trinidad & Tobago
• June 26th, USA v Panama

Full 40-man provisional roster:

Goalkeepers (5): Brad Guzan (Atlanta United), Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge), Sean Johnson (New York City FC), Tyler Miller (Los Angeles Football Club), Zack Steffen (Columbus Crew SC)

Defenders (15): Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig), Reggie Cannon (FC Dallas), Cameron Carter-Vickers (Tottenham Hotspur), Marlon Fossey (Fulham), Greg Garza (FC Cincinnati), Omar Gonzalez (Club Atlas), Andrew Gutman (Charlotte Independence). Nick Lima (San Jose Earthquakes), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls), Daniel Lovitz (Montreal Impact), Matt Miazga (Chelsea), Tim Ream (Fulham), Antonee Robinson (Wigan Athletic), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United), Walker Zimmerman (Los Angeles Football Club)

Midfielders (9): Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Duane Holmes (Derby County), Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy), Weston McKennie (Schalke 04), Djordje Mihailovic (Chicago Fire), Darlington Nagbe (Atlanta United), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew SC)

Forwards (11): Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC), Jonathan Amon (FC Nordsjælland), Paul Arriola (D.C. United), Corey Baird (Real Salt Lake), Tyler Boyd (MKE Ankaragücü), Joe Gyau (MSV Duisburg), Jonathan Lewis (Colorado Rapids), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders), Christian Ramirez (Los Angeles Football Club), Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen), Gyasi Zardes (Columbus Crew SC)