One difference is the men's tournament is July 10-28, approximately two weeks earlier than Paris 2024 was. Few, if any, league games will have to be missed, not even in MLS.
Indeed. By then MLS will have altered their calendar to align with Europe. This will also help us when it comes to call ups to international events in the late spring and summer. MLS players aren't going to be missing as many first team games.
I think we want to win both tournaments to ensure our FIFA ranking is in the top 12 so we can get a seed in 2030.
Yeah. Can you imagine the outrage if the players sits the Gold Cup again, too? I imagine that it will be a main focus to have the full team for the Gold Cup. For players who are good enough for Copa and young enough for the Olympics, let them choose. While it’s possible that Gozo is a starter for the full team in two years, the drop off behind him would be small enough that he should be allowed to play in the Olympics. I’d lean towards full strength U23s at the Olympics.
He’s eligible for the U-20s, but Gozo is an Olympic pool guy Zavier Gozo’s goal for RSL last night in a 4-1 friendly win over Burnley (who are having a nightmare preseason tour in the USA) Gozo could be with the #USMNT soon, but I think it would be good for him to lead the Olympic team in 2028 pic.twitter.com/XxVaGIKg2E— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) July 16, 2026
Maybe.......................................... Two years from now Gozo could be established as a full USMNTer on a Copa America squad.
Nighte Pickering ('05) has moved from Las Vegas to St. Louis 2. Not really a guy who is in much of "the discussion," I realize, but as a bigger striker, who knows I suppose. https://www.uslchampionship.com/news_article/show/1363901
The whole "player identification" phase for Cherundolo should be easy. Yes, there could be some late-emerging players you don't want to miss (like Sebastian Berhalter, Max Arfsten, and Alex Freeman) who were all not on the 2024 Olympic team despite being age-eligible. But right now, the call-ups for the first few Olympic camps this fall seem obvious. Only 15 U-23 players will make the final roster. The other three will be overagers. This isn't a complete list, but this is the core, if healthy (which not all are right now). Zavier Gozo Peyton Miller Brooklyn Raines Niko Tsakiris Benja Cremaschi Josh Wynder Ethan Kohler Matthew Corcoran Nolan Norris Frankie Westfield Luca Bombino Diego Kochen Then after the 2027 U-20 World Cup, you start working in top players - which will likely include: Mathis Albert Cavan Sullivan Justin Ellis Neil Pierre Julian Hall Adri Mehmeti Then maybe some more of these players emerge into top players, like Marvin Dills, or whoever. Then there is a chance Noahkai Banks wants to play. But that's the bulk of the team.
Yup. Its just a question of how many of those guys Pochettino (presumably) wants to take a look at in senior camps. Presumably the senior camps won't be the status quo. Presumably, they're talking to players like Gozo and Banks (hopefully) about which camp they'd prefer to be in.
Can a national team have split squad games during international windows? I'm just curious if Cherundolo could schedule a friendly for the u23 squad at the same time as the senior usmnt friendlies, with clubs still being required to release players
I'm far from an expert on the rules around this, but I think that while, sure, we could schedule multiple matches in a given window, only a first-team game would be considered official for the purposes of things like caps and callups. Now, could we use a U23 roster in a first-team game? Maybe -- especially perhaps if the opponent had the same idea and agreed to do so. Perhaps someone else here knows more of the details.
Didn't we used to have "B" international friendlies for such a purpose? I seem to recall England doing that at one point. Those B international results weren't taken into account in FIFA ranking points and all that stuff. ....................but I'm pretty darn sure that callups to those teams could be declined. I have no issue with the September camp being a U23 camp with a few veterans for leadership. If we really want to call up these guys to a camp that can't be declined, then just do that. Cherundolo can run the camp with Poch there for alignment and scouting. Give the guys who played in the World Cup a window off. There's isn't one of them that the staff needs to learn more about.
If the idea of a Banks-Pierre centerback pairing doesn't pump your plums then you might wanna check your pulse.
I agree with bshredder that it would be better long term for a lot of these guys to excel and head the U23 / Olympic team and then move to the full team after that. It's what we used to do I think except for the very top players. He could still get some callups for the full team and especially if the U23's aren't playing or practicing in some windows.
I don't think anyone is opposed to the top U23 players participating in the Olympics, even if they've already matriculated to the U23 team. My objection is the use of overage players who aren't elite. Like, if three of Pulisic, Balogun, Adams, McKennie, Jedi, Malik Tillman or Richards are willing and released, by all means, upgrade and go for gold. But if it's a choice between Diego Kochen and Matt Freese or Neil Pierre and Tristan Blackmon or Josh Sargent vs. Julian Hall, go for the kids. I mean, how much better did Brian McBride and Brad Guzan make the Olympic team in 2008 or Miles Robinson and Walker Zimmerman in 2024?
My take is a little different. If the senior team is playing an important tournament that summer that is the priority. Period. Full stop. The overage selections should fill specific positional weaknesses on the Olympic team.
Pretty much every Olympic team has had three or more areas where an upgrade would have been helpful. Even from a second or third string senior player. I'll be very surprised if it is different this time.
Everything might change in 2 years, but as of today we have uniquely talented 2008-2011 group and pretty mediocre older bunch, where second/third stringers might be border line starters or the same second stringers for the U-23 team. Do we want them? Would they go to be back ups? Just 18 players on the roster. The standard late blooming areas are GK, CBs, CMs and strikers. We don't have game changing older keepers or CBs besides Richards. I might add Berhalter to the list, maybe Pepi, but not deeper.
The 2024 team didn't do great but our underage CB options were not strong. Sometimes we need to fill holes. Copa will almost certainly mean we aren't getting guys like Pulisic or Adams to play in the Olympics. But if we have a nice Olympic team, we also shouldn't cripple it if Auston Trusty or someone will be filling a major weakness.