As a Union fan I can roll this into my comment! As far as camp cupcake, worthy of a C Team friendly go, I would say only Flach. I know he is flawed and I know not a lot of people like him, but I still think his projection as a 6 at the NT level is worth a camp cupcake call up. To me he plays like a discount Adams, rangy, defensive awareness, will tackle and run all over the field for 90 minutes. I think we can try out our backup 6 options and I think Flach is worth a shout. As for other players, I would say most of still U20 or U23 level. Sullivan, McGlynn are going to be big for the U20s and I think Harriel is still eligible for the U23s. Let them develop there first.
My tentative roster update for this one.... Goalkeepers: Sean Johnson, Drake Callender, Roman Celentano, Gabriel Slonina* (John Pulskamp) Right Backs: Shaq Moore, DeAndre Yedlin (Brooks Lennon, Kyle Duncan, Nathan Harriel) Center Backs: Walker Zimmerman, Matt Miazga, Aaron Long, Miles Robinson* (Henry Kessler or Justen Glad) Left Backs: DeJuan Jones, John Tolkin* (Andrew Gutman) Midfielders: Kelyn Acosta, Cristian Roldan, Eryk Williamson, Leon Flach, Paxton Pomykal, Keaton Parks, Aiden Morris, Johnny Cardoso* -I believe Mihailovic will already be in Holland. Wingers: Jordan Morris, Paul Arriola, Chris Mueller, Niko Gioacchini, Alan Sonora* (Ben Bender) Forwards: Jesus Ferreira, Brandon Vazquez, Jeremy Ebobisse ...Of note, I’m guessing that we won’t have a new coach by the end of this window. I don’t terribly mind even if Berhalter isn’t the new coach that he has his send off at the January Camp. ...Of note, I debated giving the World Cup players off, but decided to include all of them, as this will be a good opportunity for the new guys to feed off of the team environment we created in the World Cup. -Of note, I didn’t include any of the u20’s, as I want them to have their own camp. Who and what I really want to see..... (1) Brandon Vazquez and John Tolkin - This camp serves no greater purpose than get Vazquez and Tolkin on the field for us. We really need to find a possible solution at the 9 and we need depth at left back. (2) Is Miles Robinson healthy and able to go? (3) Can we snag Alan Sonora and Johnny Cardoso for this camp? Anyone else that we can grab. (4) I want to see a team environment that’s immediately read for the 2026 cycle and players who will battle to be part of the senior team. (5) 2022 WC veterans take the guys who missed out under the wing and help them know what that environment is all about.
Great. We will be able to identify four players who'll later be exposed by Sweden inn a mid+summer friendly.
With the U20 World Cup in the summer, I very much expect this to be a joint USMNT / U20 camp at some level. So I expect Sullivan and McGlynn to be there in some capacity. It could be a full joint camp, or the sort of simultaneous one they had.
I'm going to both of these games -- already have my tickets. Looking forward to a good time and interested in who will be brought in.
It’ll be useful if: (1) We can start Brandon Vazquez and he looks like a legitimate #9. (2) We can start John Tolkin and he looks like a legitimate back up to Jedi Robinson. (3) We can manage to persuade Chelsea to let Gabriel Slonina get a couple caps with us. (4) We can get some of the YA’s who will be out of season and get them some reps: Johnny Cardoso, maybe Alan Sonora. I can’t think of anyone else off hand but you get the point. (5) We can try out some of other depth midfield options: Paxton Pomykal, Eryk Williamson, etc. (6) We can get Matt Miazga a couple reps and see if he can compete to be the Walker Zimmerman replacement. (7) We can get Miles Robinson back. .....Of course, it’s going to be a dud when we compare it to the World Cup, but preparation for the next World Cup starts today. Best for us to try and get some answers, even if we don’t get a lot solved either. At the same time, I want to see our program add a u20/u23 January Camp. We may see more benefit there. But no reason we can’t do both.
My most ideal starting XI at January Camp..... ————Vazquez——Ferreira———— ———————Sonora———————- ———-Pomykal———Williamson——— ———————-Cardoso——————— Tolkin——————————————-RB ————Miles——————Miazga——— ————————Slonina———————- *RB could be Yedlin, Lennon, or Moore
I disagree. The coaching staff gets to see players for almost a month. Gets to see how they interact, how they train. You don’t get opportunities like that outside of tournament settings. For MLS players already in the pool, it can help provide valuable training time during an offseason that is too long. It can also help identify new players and give extended minutes to backups to see how they do in a larger role. The position group I think we’ve used it to best effect has been to help identify center backs. Ream got his second cap at a January camp. Besler got his first right before the hex. Geoff Cameron really broke through during his 3rd January camp. Zimmerman was man of the match in his first January camp in 2017. Miles Robinson was part of the 2021 camp (where Matt Turner also got his first cap) Sure the games usually are a slog. And yeah most players won’t have much impact for the full team. But it’s a great opportunity to cast a wide net and see if players emerge. Usually at least one of two players do.
U20 January Camp GK Chris Brady, Antonio Carrera, Emmmanuel Ochoa RB Kayden Pierre, Michael Halliday CB Marcus Ferkranus, Joshua Wynder, Noah Cobb CB Jalen Neal, Brandon Craig, Matai Akinbomni LB Caleb Wiley, Noah Allen, Jonathan Gomez* MF Jack McGlynn, Obed Vargas, Danny Leyva MF Daniel Edelman, Josh Atencio MF Niko Tsakiris, Noel Buck FW Cade Cowell, Jackson Hopkins FW Diego Luna, Quinn Sullivan, Brian Gutierrez FW Serge Ngoma, Rodrigo Neri, Fede Oliva, Malick Sanogo
What's his status? I thought he had switched to Cameroon, but now it looks like that may have just been a flirtation. He has shown flashes throughout his career in MLS. Could be a useful role player, but I don't know if there's a ceiling to be special, and there's some stiff competition for forward/wing minutes in this program already.
I just don't even understand how someone can have this opinion... if only we could have TEN TIMES as many camps! We saw this cycle how fast the time with the national team goes by, players not getting much time together to gel, guys like Scally not integrated into the team, guys like Vazquez never called up...
I wanted Scally called in during the October window. It didn't happen. But that in my eyes was the one obviously missed opportunity. The way the schedule worked out, there just weren't all that many obvious chances, and he got his chances this year in June and September.
It doesn't matter what country Ebobisse chooses, he's not good enough to ever be a difference maker for the USMNT. Watch him every game for the Quakes and he's decent, but not fast, not dynamic, not technical, not quick thinking, doesn't do anything that wows you. A good inexpensive domestic option at the MLS level, if you're not spending millions on DP attackers. But hey by all means call up Ebobisse in January so Vazquez looks better in comparison, the opponents are usually minnows so Ferreira won't do that (instead he will give people false hope by scoring against Cuba or whoever).
On Ferreira, I’d just say, remember that he’s still only 21. Athletically, I worry that his ceiling is limited. But he could improve enough to be a legit player for us. I wouldn’t write him off. And, on Ebobisse, if I called him in, it would just be to be a body in a January camp. He’s probably below 10th on my depth chart.
Why don't we call zero MLS players for a while, instead? Rather than start the cycle with our annual ritual that signifies the special place that MLS holds in the USSF heart.
Because all the non-MLS players are in season in January??????? I mean, try harder. You've been posting here since 2001.
We've finally found it, the BigSoccer dude who operates 284 social media accounts that all scream "Where's Pulisic??" every time a January camp roster is announced...
I'm in favor of the January camp but also think that one off December Camp they had in Europe should be repeated as often as possible. It makes it too easy for coaches to lean on mediocre MLS players because they are known commodities.
That was a special COVID FIFA window. There's no actual dead time for European leagues except the summer windows, which are Gold Cup and Nations League and the such. I do imagine where we can friendlies with Europe, Africa or Asia, we'll do more European centric stuff.