The U.S. men’s soccer team roster that will represent Team USA at the Summer Olympics in Paris was released Monday. This is the first time the U.S. men are in the Olympic soccer tournament since 2008.

The 18-man team roster will include defenders Miles Robinson and Walker Zimmerman along with forward Djordje Mihailovic as the overage players. The three players failed to get used by the senior national team that crashed out of at the Copa America in the group stage earlier this month.

Olympic soccer is largely limited to players under 23 years old, with each team allowed only three players over the age limit.

“We couldn’t be more excited to have this group of great players and great people represent us at the Olympic Games,” head coach Marko Mitrović said in a statement. “It’s a special moment for all of us as they have worked their entire lives to reach this stage.”

Fifteen players on the roster have international appearances with the full U.S. men’s national soccer team.

Zimmerman, 31, leads the team with 42 international appearances. He last played for the U.S. against Canada in the June 2023 CONCACAF Nations League Final.

Robinson, 27, was on the U.S. roster for the Copa America but didn’t get any playing time. He had 29 international appearances.

Mihailovic, 25, has 11 international appearances but hasn’t played for the national team since the loss to Panama in the July 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal.

Others with senior national team experience are midfielders Gianluca Busio, Tanner Tessmann, and Jack McGlynn; defenders John Tolkin, Kevin Paredes, Caleb Wikey, and Benjamin Cremaschi; forwards Taylor Booth, Paxten Aaronson and Duncan McGuire and goalkeepers Patrick Schulte and Gaga Slonia.

Defenders Maximilian Dietz and Nathan Harriel and forward Griffin Yow have never played for the senior team.

Cremaschi at 19 is the youngest player on the roster and is also age-eligible for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

In the roster, 10 players are from MLS, two each from newly promoted Venezia in Italy and the Dutch Eredivisie and one each from the Premier League, the German Bundesliga, the Germany second tier and Belgium’s top tier. All but Dietz played in MLS at some point or in an MLS development academy.

The alternates named to the roster are goalkeeper John Pulskamp, defender Jacob Davis, midfielder Josh Atencio and forward Johan Gomez.

“We’re grateful to the clubs that released their players in support of our mission,” Mitrović said. “Our goal is to make our country proud and we will give everything for the United States.”

FIFA does not require clubs to release players for the Olympics.

The U.S. men open their tournament play on July 24 against host France, then meet New Zealand and Guinea. The top two nations in each group advance to the quarterfinals.

U.S. men’s Olympic soccer team — full list

Marko Mitrović — Coach

Djordje Mihailovic — Forward
Taylor Booth — Forward
Paxten Aaronson — Forward
Duncan McGuire — Forward
Griffin Yow — Forward
Johan Gomez — Forward (alternate)

Miles Robinson — Defender
Walker Zimmerman — Defender
John Tolkin — Defender
Kevin Paredes — Defender
Caleb Wikey — Defender
Benjamin Cremaschi — Defender
Maximilian Dietz — Defender
Nathan Harriel — Defender
Jacob Davis — Defender (alternate)

Gianluca Busio — Midfielder
Tanner Tessmann — Midfielder
Jack McGlynn — Midfielder
Josh Atencio — Midfielder (alternate)

Patrick Schulte — Goalkeeper
Gaga Slonia — Goalkeeper
John Pulskamp — Goalkeeper (alternate) 

The leader of a doomsday cult in Kenya went on trial on Monday on charges of terrorism over the deaths of more than 400 of his followers in a macabre case that shocked the world.

Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie appeared in a packed courtroom in the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa along with 94 co-defendants.

Principle magistrate Leah Juma ordered the removal of journalists from the court shortly after the start of the hearing to enable a protected witness to take the stand on camera.

Mackenzie, who was arrested in April last year, is alleged to have incited his acolytes to starve to death in order to “meet Jesus” in one of the world’s worst cult-related massacres.

The father of seven and his co-accused pleaded not guilty to the charges of terrorism at a hearing in January.

The 55 men and 40 women also face charges of murder, manslaughter, as well as child torture and cruelty in separate cases.

The remains of more than 440 people have been unearthed so far in a remote wilderness inland from the Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi, in a case that has been dubbed the “Shakahola forest massacre.”

Autopsies have found that while starvation appeared to be the main cause of death, some of the victims — including children — were strangled, beaten, or suffocated. In February, Mackenzie pleaded not guilty to the murder of 191 children whose bodies were found in mass graves. 

Previous court documents also said that some of the bodies had had their organs removed.

“Worst breach of security in the history of our country”

Prosecutors said in a statement that they planned to call about 90 witnesses to testify as well as show physical and digital evidence.

“The prosecution will present evidence to illustrate that the accused did not function merely as a fringe group, but rather as a well-organized criminal enterprise operating under the guise of a church under the leadership of (Mackenzie),” the statement said.

Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, turned himself in after police first entered Shakahola forest in April last year and found the bodies of four people and several other starving people.

The police action came after a relative of one of the victims received a tip-off from a former member of Mackenzie’s Good News International Church about grisly happenings in Shakahola forest.

Family members have said Mackenzie told his followers to join him in the Shakahola forest, where he offered them parcels of land for less than $100. Court documents allege that in early 2023, Mackenzie told his followers in the forest that the end of the world was coming and they must prepare through extreme hunger.

He allegedly split members into smaller groups assigned biblical names. It’s believed these smaller groups died together and were buried together in mass graves.

Mackenzie had set up the church in 2003, but closed it in 2019 and moved to the sleepy town of Shakahola.

In March this year, the authorities began releasing some victims’ bodies to distraught relatives after months of painstaking work to identify them using DNA.

Questions have been raised about how Mackenzie, a self-styled pastor with a history of extremism, managed to evade law enforcement despite his prominent profile and previous legal cases.

Several surviving members of the group have told family members that what he preached would often come true, citing as an example his prediction that “a great virus” would come, just before COVID-19 hit the country. As people struggled during the pandemic, financially and medically, Mackenzie preached about leaving the difficulties of life behind and “turning to salvation.”

Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki last year accused Kenyan police of laxity in investigating the initial reports of starvation.

“The Shakahola massacre is the worst breach of security in the history of our country,” he told a senate committee hearing, vowing to “relentlessly push for legal reforms to tame rogue preachers.”

Reports by the Kenyan senate and a state-funded human rights watchdog have said the authorities could have prevented the deaths.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) in March criticized security officers in Malindi for “gross abdication of duty and negligence.”

The horrific saga has seen President William Ruto vow to intervene in Kenya’s homegrown religious movements.

“What we are seeing … is akin to terrorism,” Ruto said last year. “Mr. Makenzi … pretends and postures as a pastor when in fact he is a terrible criminal.”

In largely Christian Kenya, it has also thrown a spotlight on failed efforts to regulate unscrupulous churches and cults that have dabbled in criminality.

In 2022, the body of a British woman who died at the house of a different cult leader while on holiday in Kenya was exhumed, according to the family’s lawyer. Luftunisa Kwandwalla, 44, was visiting the coastal city of Mombasa when she died in August 2020 and was buried a day later, but her family has claimed foul play.

Sarah Carter contributed to this report.