Dave Sarachan isn't available. He's currently under contract as the head coach of Puerto Rico. He's busy recruiting dual-nationals away from us. At the youth levels they're doing a much better job of that recently.
W/ this in mind, he could end up alienating a lot of players, and harming the confidence of them, in a short time. We don't need that m.o. during a period that's going to feature a lot of impressionable youth. FTR, I wasn't suggesting hiring Sarachan again, just using that as an analog. Whoever that is to USS now. It's not like Sarachans don't grow on trees, which was the point. They shouldn't be able to screw this up by doing something like hiring Hudson. As far as Sarachan's coaching getting worse, you mean him becoming pragmatic to get results? It's not ideal, as these exercises should be used to get info about players. But I don't remember it being that bad, and I don't expect us to drag our feet as much this time around. If so, that's going to make it a disaster that Hudson has the job.
The thing is who else are we even going to be calling up. Even if we call up Johnson, Yedlin, Moore, Zimmerman, Long, Roldan, Acosta, Arriola, Morris, and Ferreira that still leaves alot of gaps and the U20s aren't available to fill any of them.
We find a crew of players to call up every January camp. Yes, some of them may never play a meaningful game for the USMNT. But if you identify just one guy to move forward with, then its a worthwhile exercise. And by the way, we have a lot of depth at the U20 level. Some of those guys aren't going to get to the U20 camp. So bring them into the USMNT camp instead. Why the hell not? I do think the World Cup guys are going to be given a break. But there are the "just missed" MLS guys that may be there. Arriola, Lletget, and those guys. There probably will be some players like that there. You do want some veteran leadership to show the guys what being a USMNTer is all about. I remember the first camps after WC elimination last cycle featured Ale Bedoya and the kids.
For me, I might just narrow it down to Vazquez, Tolkin, and Pomykal as the guys I'm really interested in seeing. I feel like those three are young enough (or late bloomer enough in Vazquez's case) to still have a higher upside to go along with a higher baseline to potentially make a difference for the USMNT, even if just as quality backups. The other guys you list...I don't know. There might be some pleasant surprises, but I'm not counting on too much from them.
You can always find enough domestic starters in MLS. There are almost 30 teams and 200 pool players. And if there's overlap, the seniors should always take priority. There probably isn't much because of the weaker performance of youths this season. But Gutierrez could be an example of a guy who's accomplished enough and is of more use to the senior squad. Wiley may also qualify. Some like McGlynn, although I don't so much as a senior teamer because of his terrible d/range.
I think the U20 cuts making the senior camp is going to be confusing. You got promoted because you weren't good enough? That said, if the timing works, I could see what happened last time. U20 camp is first and the very best players get promoted to the senior camp at the end.
There's more than that. Celentano definitely qualifies, for one. As for the others, you can't necessarily count on them, but the more right calls you make on the borderline, the better chances you have of pleasant surprises. Zimmerman became an afterthought. Turner was slept on by plenty because of his age. And even in the case of Miles, for so long he was slept on. I was among a small group beating that drum. At least 2 of those guys would be useful this cycle. And historically, could a Geoff Cameron or Stu Holden have helped us on a team that projects to be as good as 2026's? I'd argue yes. Cameron could be a sufficient backup to Tyler, if nobody else breaks out between now and then (which is a big question imo). And in the case of Stu, a guy who was voted EPL best XI during his time there, that would have made him a candidate to start even. He didn't debut at Jan. camp, but was in practices to have a look at him, then got hurt. And Cameron is an example of a clear Jan camp success.
For me the biggest thing we need as a team right now is depth in the midfield and full back. Hence why in addition to the three names you mentioned (Vazquez, Tolkin, and Pomykal) I want to see Jones, Williamson, Parks, Morris, Flach, and Sonora. I don't care that much about the goalies as I think both will be surpassed by Slonina and Brady, but no harm in taking a look at Celentano and Callender. The other MLS goalkeeper options aren't that notable anyways. Miazga and Kessler are really in contention to be next cycles Zimmerman and with Ebobisse we might as well given our lack of an established 9.
you want to bring the u20s who don't make the u20 camp to the sr team camp? is there nothing so ridiculous you won't support it?
I don't necessarily think of January camp as a senior USMNT camp. More like a pool camp. I give the coach freedom to call up whomever they want to the January camp. Its the only camp like this in a year. They can call up 16 and 17 year olds for all I care. NCAA players, USL players, MLS Next Pro players, whomever. This has always been my view of the January camp. So, for instance, Ben Cremaschi may not make this U20 camp. He's 18 and his natural U20 cycle is the next one. This is the kid from Inter Miami that has been called up by Argentina recently. A highly coveted dual-national. Should we bring him into a camp this January, or just leave him out altogether? Would we rather call him up or Sebastian Lletget to senior national team camp? Lletget led all USMNT players in MLS assists this season. THere's justification for Lletget.............but I'd go with Cremaschi. [Ben might make this U20 camp as Paxten Aaronson and a few others are unavailable from the U20 CONCACAF Championships team.] I basically steal my philosophy from Uruguay. They have a domestic camp. But they don't call up senior players from their domestic league to make up the numbers if they don't think they can actually help the national team. They call up players of any age that they think have a senior national team ceiling. They indoctrinate them into what it means to be a Uruguay senior national team player and that culture.
Our guess is correct. Hudson it is. BREAKING: U.S. Soccer announce that Anthony Hudson will serve as USMNT head coach for January camp.— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) January 4, 2023
Note that it only says January camp (which presumably includes the two friendlies). Doesn't mention the March matches. The USSF is dealing with a lot more than this right now. Putting fires out everywhere.
I'd sure like to see Ebobisse and Vasquez get some looks. Re: Ebo, apparently Gregg rated him much more poorly than I would. W/ Gregg at least temporarily out of the picture, I hope he gets some call ins. He's worth looking at.
Anthony Hudson will serve as head coach of the #USMNT for the upcoming January camp » https://t.co/tUN0sRQhgJ pic.twitter.com/bpc4LoIHVM— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) January 4, 2023
I don't think it's a huge deal for January camp. It's not as if Hudson is in contention for the full time job. And I don't think it makes sense to bring in a Caleb Porter just do this camp.
Really, there's no reason to go crazy about Hudson's appointment. All it says is that he's going to be the interim coach for one camp.
Eh. At this point, it’s just about having a body. Main thing is get Brandon Vazquez and John Tolkin into camp.
Eh. We just found out the U19s are having a camp too. So there went Mirkovic. So if the USSF needed a coach they already had under contract for January camp.............the U15s, U16s, U17s, U19s, and U20s have competing camps! Here's a conspiracy theory for you. Berhalter was going to be the coach of this camp. He was getting the contract extension, but those negotiations stopped when this legal investigation started. So they needed SOME warm body on a USSF contract at the last minute, and Hudson qualifies. There you go. There's your QAnon consipracy for the day.