Earthquakes’ Jackson Yueill named U.S. captain for Concacaf Olympic qualifying

U.S. Soccer announced Wednesday that midfielder Jackson Yueill will serve as captain of the U.S. U-23 national team in the Concacaf Olympic qualifying tournament that kicks off Thursday.

The 23-year-old San Jose Earthquakes player was voted to be captain by his teammates.

“Jackson is a leader for this group on and off the field,” said U-23 head coach Jason Kreis upon announcing the news. “After tallying votes, he was the clear choice to captain this team during Olympic qualifying. He’s well-suited to the way we want to play and his experience with this system will help him anchor our midfield during this difficult tournament. Jackson is an incredibly hard worker and I’m proud of how much he’s grown over the last two years.”

Yueill has served as Earthquakes captain last season and he has the most senior international experience on the U-23 roster, with nine caps to date. Put simply, this news is not surprising in the least.

Yueill, Earthquakes teammate JT Marcinkowski, and the rest of the U.S. U-23s will open up Olympic qualifying Thursday against Costa Rica, with that game scheduled to kick off at 2:30 pm PT and will be televised in the United States on FS1 and TUDN.

Congrats to Jackson and best of luck in the tournament.

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