UCF Alum Sean Johnson Called Up to USMNT

Former UCF and current Chicago Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson has been called up to train with the U.S. Men's National Team at their camp in Carson, California.

The camp started this past Monday and runs through February 6th, and includes a pair of friendlies against Iceland on January 31st and Canada on February 5th.

Johnson will be in competition with David Bingham of the San Jose Earthquakes and Luis Robles of the New York Red Bulls. He was called up due to an injury to Bill Hamid of D.C. United.

With Tim Howard no longer in competition for the USMNT at the age of 36, the keeper spot for Jurgen Klinsmann's squad may be ripe for the taking.

Here are Johnson's career numbers with the USMNT:

Johnson, who stands 6'4", played at UCF in 2007 and 2008, winning team MVP honors in his final year as a sophomore after recording 108 saves, which at the time was third-most in school history.

Here are his career stats at UCF:

While Johnson's stats weren't all that impressive, you have to remember that he only played at UCF as a freshman and sophomore. Clearly his potential was such that he was asked to join Generation Adidas, a player development program targeting home-grown talent in the United States.

While at UCF, he left the Jamaican National Team system and chased a spot on the U.S. Under-20 team in 2008, and has been in the USMNT system ever since.

Here's a feature we did on Sean when I worked on UCF SportsKnight back in 2008. Note that, at the time, Johnson was in the Jamaican National Team's pipeline, but after joining Generation Adidas, he cap-tied with Team USA:

He then turned pro, going to the Chicago Fire in the fourth round of the 2010 MLS SuperDraft:

In six season as the Fire's keeper, he's started 154 matches, giving up a total of 212 goals.

Here's an interview series with Johnson from the Chicago Fire:

SB Nation did a feature on Johnson three years ago following his experience with the U23 National Team:

Here are some highlights from Johnson's MLS career:

Johnson's performance in camp may be critical to his securing a spot on the National Team in advance of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.