One reason to have camps like this is that it offers a low bar to entry into the program. Forget about obscure players like Sam Rogers for a moment -- prominent guys like Tolkin and Vazquez still don't have a senior team cap yet. Integrating them now makes it more likely that they'll get caps at later, more competitive camps.
Are there recent examples of players elevating their game after getting a callup? I feel like getting some MNT recognition sets them up to be more key for their clubs, get moved abroad etc and so it can expand the pool in ways beyond just literally calling up more players.
I think these camps still have value for depth purposes. The games themselves may not always be good barometers but these camps traditionally have been a chance for some young MLS players to get exposure and be invited to the big boy camp. There's also other potential benefits with this being a new year. The 2021 camp cupcake allowed Daryl Dike to qualify for a UK workers permit which allowed him to go to Barnsley. So while somewhat of a rare case this camp could make a January move a bit easier for some players
Fans want to see what the young players look like so that they can fuel the hopes of their imaginations and they can dream about the next World Cup. It’s kinda like how every teenager thinks they’re smarter than their parents. Our fan base is very teenager.
Yes, there are many including guys like Clint Dempsey, Ricardo Pepi, Brendan Aaronson, Matt Turner, etc, etc. It basically puts a player on the international market and introduces them to a whole new level of professional contacts.
The camp still has value because lots of our guys who go to Europe are going to start in MLS first. There’s also always going to be room on the roster for MLS veteran guys, and we also just play so many regional tournaments that our European guys can’t go to, that this camp is good preparation for that. It’s less the case when we don’t have a coach, though part of the problem is we had a November/December World Cup. If it had been a summer World Cup, the coaching decision would have long since been resolved.
Those of us who wanted Vazquez and Tolkin specifically to be called up earlier, but were told they can't be because they haven't been called up before, or integrated into the team, or don't know Gregg's system, or whatever, the suggestion that this camp isn't unnecessary is particularly annoying.
Now at the start of a new cycle, we'll be in "casting a wide net mode" for a while. The coaching staff should be given the leeway to call up whomever they want to January camp. The fringiest of the fringe. Whomever. That's the point. Call up 15 year olds. NCAA players. USL players. Doesn't matter. The challenge is of course that this isn't the coaching staff moving forward. So we can't say that the coaching staff is getting a look at these players to see if they can be part of the program when the games matter. That'll presumably be a different group. So the ONLY point of this camp is as a recruiting exercise. Particularly any dual-nationals that we want to bring in. The U16s, U17s, U19s, and U20s have camps right now. The one age group that doesn't is the U23s. So I would focus on players eligible for the Olympics with a lot of these roster slots. And of course we can take overage players to the Olympics, so keep an eye on the guys who might be up for those roles. Tolkin is exhibit A of that kind of guy. He's eligible for the Olympics. He and Jonathan Gomez (should he commit) are up for that LB spot. As is George Bello I guess. We have a tendency to forget how young George Bello is. People whining in this thread about that focus on U20s/U23s apparently haven't looked at the median age of the senior USMNT right now. The average age of the USMNT at the World Cup was 24, and that was really skewed by Ream. So yes, we're focusing on the waves of young players coming thru. The point of January camp has never really been about the friendlies afterwards. So if people are upset that we're going to get bashed by Serbia is we don't call in our "best available team."...............don't worry about it.
A roster release a week before an offseason senior camp, let's be honest, is amateurish. And there's no excuse for it (even though the defense crew will try to make one). It doesn't instill confidence in the expected quality of choices or performance. And then if things don't work out, a sect of fans will use the skewed sample to justify their assertion our MLS contingent sucks so we should get rid of the exercise for the future.
Hearing reports the interim goalkeeper coach is Brad Friedel, who will meet the January camp call ups in the parking lot with a baseball bat...
I don't really get the discussion on this board of "why do we have this camp? its useless!"" We should have as many camps and friendlies as we can possibly get early in a cycle to test guys. With young players we should accept invitations to the Toulon Tournament. Pan Am Games. Frickin' Milk Cup. Send whatever players are available. I don't care if we have to dip into NCAA and academy players. I don't know why we'd ever have any debate about getting players together when we can. Is it with some coach nobody has heard of? Sure. Who cares!!!!?? If some of the elite domestic players don't want to attend, then you go to the next level down and mine for diamonds in the rough. And if you lose to Serbia 4-0? Who cares? Mexico does this constantly. They have all sorts of camps, many of US soil, with "B" and "C" teams. Why not?
Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I think there really are only a very small handful of posters (like, maybe 3 or 4) that have recently expressed the "Camp Cupcake should be abolished" opinion. Most everyone agrees there's value to it--the difference being what the focus should be in the camp.
Once Gregg is gone the main suspicion about January camps (that they give lesser players a leg up in Gregg's consciousness) will go away.
I don’t know why Arriola would even accept a call up. If he’s playing well enough this summer to get called, he’ll get called.
Well he just got married so that may affect his callup but he just seems a guy that loves the national team. I wonder if he is future coaching material along with Roldan and some of the other lesser talented wasted gen guys. It's not always who you think it will be either. Sometimes guys you think will be coaches disappear and others you never thought of do well and some ping back and forth as commentators and coaches. I admit I'm very surprised Dempsey become a talking head and is really good at it. I thought he would go hunting and fishing never to be seen again. Must be his rapping side coming out.
Sources: FC Cincinnati's dual-national forward Brandon Vazquez has been called into USMNT's January camp. Up to him to accept or decline (eligible for Mexico too), but I'd assume he'll be there.Vazquez, 24, had 18g/8a in 33 apps last season. Played for US youth national teams. pic.twitter.com/WXLGRAl55i— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) January 17, 2023
This is key regarding Brandon's decision. The USMNT has been pressing for months (even had a chance to make the WC roster). He's been waiting for México to call and have more substance to make a decision but "One has called and the other hasn't (...)" https://t.co/VAc29ITOtD— Michele Giannone (@MicheleG3) January 17, 2023
Unfortunately Brandon Vazquez has turned down the call up after watching a two minute video clip of the April 2019 Colorado Rapids... it gives me no pleasure to report this.