Los Angeles: United States coach Gregg Berhalter on Thursday named a 27-man squad ahead of this month’s crucial final round of 2022 World Cup qualifiers. The squad will group for a training camp in Houston this weekend as they prepare for next Thursday’s crunch clash with CONCACAF rivals Mexico in Mexico City. That game on March 24 is followed by a home game against Panama in Orlando, Florida, on March 27 before a final qualifying game on March 30 against Costa Rica at San Jose. The USA is second on the qualifying table for teams from Central America, North America, and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), and are desperate to qualify for this year’s finals in Qatar after the heartache of missing out on the 2018 tournament in Russia. The top three finishers in CONCACAF’s eight-team final round of qualifying will advance automatically to Qatar, while the fourth-place team faces a playoff in June. Canada leads the standings with 25 points from 11 games, with the USA on 21 points, just ahead of Mexico in third on goal difference. Panama currently occupies a fourth place on 17 points. “We’re excited about the opportunity to achieve our goal of qualifying for the World Cup,” Berhalter said in a statement. “We have a group that’s ready to compete and deal with the challenges that come our way.” Squad: Goalkeepers: Ethan Horvath (Nottingham Forest/ENG), Sean Johnson (New York City FC), Zack Steffen (Manchester City/ENG) Defenders: Reggie Cannon (Boavista/POR), Sergino Dest (Barcelona/ESP), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls), Erik Palmer-Brown (Troyes/FRA), Antonee Robinson (Fulham/ENG), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United), James Sands (Rangers/SCO), DeAndre Yedlin (Inter Miami), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC) Midfielders: Kellyn Acosta (LAFC), Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig/GER), Gianluca Busio (Venezia/ITA), Luca de la Torre (Heracles/NED), Yunus Musah (Valencia/ESP), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders) Forwards: Brenden Aaronson (Red Bull Salzburg/AUT), Paul Arriola (FC Dallas), Jesus Ferreira (FC Dallas), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders), Jordan Pefok (Young Boys/SUI), Ricardo Pepi (Augsburg/GER), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea/ENG), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Tim Weah (Lille/FRA).