Noone has said these friendlies are not happening...so far its just a unique circumstance due to the February freindly date being used as the opening Hex match. It seems like stretching resources, expecially if Jurgen has to spend a week plus with these fringe guys, travel to some Central/South American nation to play some games then come back and immeidtaely switch gears to focus on the Hex. It might make more sense to bring the young guys in for a camp, maybe some freindlies against some MLS clubs in preseason, some universities or Canada or something and let the two camps overlap and measure them against the senior squad for a short while, maybe keep a few on for the Hex. It would suck cause I love watching the freindlies, but I wouldn't be totally opposed to this second solution. Bottom line is, the decision is not being made on a whim or because Klinsmann is lazy. We have to make it the World Cup...unfortunately every thing else (2013 friendlies, Gold Cup, and January camp) is secondary and a means to that end.
There really is an easy solution. Hold the camp as usual in mid January. Play your friendlies. If you identify anyone worth keeping, call them in for the Hex game. Or you just hold the camp in early January, do your evaluations, and let the guys go back to their winter vacation before calling in your squad for the qualifiers. Neither one would interfere at all with the end goal of World Cup qualification. There simply is no reason to scrap the friendlies or turn it into a U-23 camp. And a U-23 camp is a complete and total waste as it is considering none of these guys would be age eligible to play for the Olympic team when the U-23s are relevant again. I'm sure there will be some U-23's in the camp cupcake squad anyways.
Or run it exclusively as a camp and have the top U-23s and senior players play with and against each other. It would allow Jurgen and Co. to justify evaluating twice as many players.
For these purposes U-23 is just a moniker for younger players. If he decides to go young in January, the Olympics figure into that equation about 0%.
I'd be mad if there wasn't a Jan. camp because we have a lot of good players in the Scandinavian leagues. O'Brien, Mix, Steve Clark all deserve a look.
Considering that many of the young players that JK is going to be calling up will be in their mid-20s when the WC comes around it would not be a bad idea to begin to introduce them to the NT now. Plus they can make up the core of the GC roster this summer, giving them experience in competitive games, that's how Gooch cemented his spot on the team in '05.
Regardless, going young would exclude the group of players closest to being able to contribute for the national team during qualifying. It would be waste of time.
Huh? And who is that exactly? Pontius? Gonzales?....obviously those guys wouldn't be left out. Again, no one is talking of excluding anyone over 23. The focus, according to JK, is now going to be more geared towards getting these younger untested guys in camps sooner rather than later (guys that have the potential to help the USMNT down the road)...rather than clogging roster spots up with MLS veterans (known commodities, who are not likely to all of a sudden be international quality) who might have had a good year. To avoid confusion, let's all just say "younger-ish, fringe players" instead of U23.
Needs to be longer and more specific to avoid confusion: Human soccer players born in or of American descent, of a primarily younger demographic, who, while skilled, have perhaps not had the appropriate oppurtunity to display their skills for the Nationally based team of players from equally similar and disparate backgrounds.
Who pays the players for the January camp? Who covers the insurance if they get hurt? Have any Scandinavian leagues ever complained about them? A U-23 camp sounds good (Like people said some players in Europe and Mexico would not be available).
I don't have a problem with a more U-23 focused camp but that doesn't mean you should completely ignore guys in their mid-late 20's.
We have the gold cup this upcoming year. I dont really blame Klinsmann if he just uses that as the usual test for fringe players.
I'm praying that Klinsy still uses Camp Cupcake. We have a lot of fringe players we need to test. For instance, forward is still anyone's game...you've got guys like: -Pontius and Gatt who have to be there -Johnson, Wondolowski, Gordon, and Cooper who are older but had amazing seasons -Bruin, McInerney, DeLeon who had excellent seasons for young players. -Agudelo, (Shea), and Adu who have all the talent in the world but had poor seasons -guys like Sapong, (Bunbury), Magee, Lenhart, Duka, and Gaven who appear serviceable -Johannsson as a complete wildcard and possible game changer if he commits. These guys are competing with Donovan, Dempsey, and Gomez... all three will be over 30 come 2014. It'd be nice to see what our next crop of guys can do. And Klinsy is going to have to take on the pressure of selecting who has the potential to help out and who to hold off on. Fullback, Midfield, and Goalkeeper are pretty straightforward in that the main guys being talked about are the same... In goal, i think Klinsy's #1 will be Sean Johnson or Nick Rimando with a small chance going to Hamid or Clark (not to forget: Meara, Pickens, Gruenebaum, Kennedy, and Hall). Goalkeeper is such a weird position in that you stick with one guy all the time but if he ever gets hurt, suspended, or a run of poor form, you're in crisis. It'd be nice to feel comfortable with our #3 keeper. At right back, Myers and Beitashour deserve a shot to prove capable back-ups given that Dolo is aging, Spector is inconsistent, Chandler is sometimes a nutcase, Parkhurst is solid but not great, and Lichaj is on the fence with club and has yet to be on the fence for country. At left back, Justin Morrow is the main name thrown around but there are still the less acclaimed: Seth Sinovic, Heath Pearce, Conor Lade, and Zach Loyd. While we are blessed to have Fabian Johnson, let's not pretend to forget how long we endured Jonathan Bornstein at LB because we had no other options and that twice we have had an injury crisis at LB for WCQs already. For midfielders, we are pretty crowded right now until someone gets hurt, suspended, or run of poor form. And we have some promising talents in O' Brien, Mix, Bedoya, etc... that could push some of the starters. In other words, we're comfortable but I'd wait to say we are stacked. In short, it'd be nice to have camp cupcake for these guys for depth purposes. But the pressing issue is at center back. It's imperative that we get Besler and Gonzalez as many minutes as possible before the Hex. We are going to need them. Also, we should be evaluating if John, Hedges, Berry, Okugo, and Soares are international quality or not. Center defenders is the primary reason why we need this camp to prepare for the hex. If we have another camp cupcake like 2012 where we found 1 or 2 gems out of 20-30 then it will prove worthwhile... especially, if we find another reliable center back.
I can. He should be casting a wide net in January then use the Gold Cup to decide who he is ready to integrate into the full team for the rest of the Hex and the World Cup. We are not so deep that we can choose to not tryout fringe players when we get the opportunity. And i prefer that come spring 2014, we don't go, "oh crap. so and so is hurt. who can we look to replace him?" Now, after the Gold Cup, I can see Klinsy wanting to focus on a core group of around 30 players for the next year. But we still have plenty of opportunity to try out new guys and still focus on the task at hand.
Klinsmann has to have a Camp Cupcake in January, simply because he needs to blood some new center backs.
so is there no January camp at all or is it just gonna be young guys? Id like to see: GK-Guzan, Rimando, Hall DF-Gonzalez, Besler, Brooks, Beitashour, Morrow, Lichaj, Castillo MF-Diskerud, O'Brien, Corona, DeLeon, Luis Silva, Mccarty, Kitchen FW-Pontius, EJ, Gordon, Cooper, Bruin, Gatt, Wooten, Agudelo also wouldnt mind seeing Wondo, Bedoya, Myers, Davis, Berry, Lenhart, John, Zizzo, Gyau, Adu, Hedges, Okugo, Packwood, Hines, Whitbread
I want a January camp. Im just not going to be pissed or anything if we dont. It would be great to have a friendly to give the likes of Gonzalez, Okugo, or Besler a National Team experience before the hex. If we dont, their first call up under Klinsmann could be for an official match which isnt ideal. I agree with schrutebuck.. The centerback issue is the main concern if there is no January camp. Otherwise our depth is good enough to where we can call in a lot of the guys we would for January in for the Gold Cup instead. Getting centerbacks acclimated is a good enough reason to solely have one... However, someone like Brooks for instance, who I think should be called in with Gonzo, wouldnt be able to come in January anyways...