I posted this in the USMNT player pool thread, but decided it needed it's own... Compared to the other cycles, this cycle seems to be one of the hardest for players to crack into the first team. The reason is that we have had some solid veterans, no confederations cup, no U-20 cup, no olympics, and the bulk of our starters play in europe. In the past, it was not uncommon for players to use Camp Cupcake to launch their careers. Now, it's hard to imagine a player like Justin Morrow ever getting a chance with the first team with guys like Fabian Johnson in front of him. In other words, although MLS is improving, we are starting to see its influence on the national team dwindle. And while it is a good sign that we have a good core of players playing in the top leagues in europe, we may be shooting ourselves in the foot by not testing out these fringe players. Therefore, the question remains to how do you integrate or test guys like Morrow, Bruin, Beitashour, etc... as being international quality. Personally, i don't want to wait until June 2014 and we have another emergency crisis to try and bleed these guys into the system. So, i propose that we introduce the USMNT B team. When we schedule a friendly, schedule another match-up that would provide good competition for these players to determine if they can hack it or not at the next level. For instance, let's take the Russia game in November for example. let Klinsy call in his regular first teamers.... And then call in the fringe players for a match against someone like Azerbaijan, Gabon, or Bahrain which one of his assistants can coach. My roster would be: A TEAM: For Russia: GK Howard, Guzan, Rimando FB Cherundolo, Chandler, Johnson, Lichaj CB Bocanegra, Cameron, Goodson, Ream MF Bradley, Jones, Edu, Torres, Williams, Kljestan FW Donovan, Dempsey, Altidore, Gomez, Pontius, Boyd B TEAM: For Azerbaijan or whoever GK Kennedy, Meara, Gruenebaum (Hamid, Johnson, Patterson-Sewell) FB Spector, Morrow, Beitashour, Castillo (Parkhurst, Loyd, Myers, Lade, Cunningham, Henley, Sinovic, Alston, Beltran, S. Williams) CB John, Gonzalez, Hines, Onyewu (Whitbread, Besler, Brooks, Hedges, Parke, Packwood, Wynne, Moor, Orozco, Berry, Anibaba, Marshall, Soares) MF Holden, Beckerman, Corona, Diskerud, Zusi, Morales (Cronin, Kitchen, Okugo, Cruz, O' Brien, Bedoya, Gil, Evans, Lletget, Gerzicich, Larentowicz, Clark, Feilhaber, McCarty) FW Gatt, Wondolowski, Bruin, Wooten, Gyau, Adu (Agudelo, Sapong, Cooper, Beasley, Duka, DeLeon, Shea, Bunbury, Brkovic, Salgado, McInerney, Davies, Gordon, Lenhart, Johnson, Rogers, Nguyen, Buddle, Kiesewetter, Gaven, Hurzeler) Note: if you look at that B team, that's a pretty solid group, and i would say that all of them are potential contenders for the A team.
I'm not against the concept. Problem is that JK seems to value major tests each time we play a friendly. Which is not bad, but that means he will probably never accept a true B team configuration. Only if someone is on fire, or there is a specific tactical need will MLS guys receive significant time. MLS guys want to make the big dance in JK's reign, do what Cameraon has done, and show everyone that you cannot get any better here and there is a better market for you to keep improving.
I agree that you don't need an entire B Team set-up. You would hope that Klinsmann (or any coach for that matter) would use friendlies as an opporutiny to pick and choose fringe players to integrate into the team. That said, I completely disagree with the notion that MLS is incabable of producing national team talent while players are still with MLS teams. Your Cameron example is perfect proof to disprove your point. He has been capped both under Bradley and Klinsmann and hasn't played a single professional game outside of MLS. Bill Hamid gets consitent call-ups from Klinsmann. Landon Donovan, Kyle Beckerman, Brek Shea and Juan Agudelo have all gotten multiple call-ups under Klinsmann. In fact, you could argue that several National Team players have effectively ended their National Team prospects by leaving MLS and going to Europe.
A USMNT II? I'm not against it, and the more I think about it, the better an idea it becomes... So maybe!
That's only if we won it last year and be playing in the Confederations Cup next year. It will more than likely be an A team for next year's Gold Cup. Mexico will be bringing in a B team because their A team will be playing in the Confederations Cup.
The Confederations Cup is next summer and so is the the Gold Cup, but next year's Gold Cup doesn't qualify you a spot in the Confederations Cup the 2015 GC will
Maybe I have my dates off. I seem to recall that the last cycle the Gold Cup that didn't matter was in the opposite year of the Confed Cup. But I could be wrong.
2009 Gold Cup 2009 Confederations Cup (winner of 2007 Gold Cup) 2013 Gold Cup 2013 Confederations Cup (winner of 2011 Gold Cup)
Not the job of the national team. Those guys get looked at when they are good enough to make the January camp. Klinsmann has already called the January camp the "C" team. Players who do well on the C team will get bumped up to the A+B team structure which is the ~29 or so player pool. This year Cameron, Parkhurst, and Zusi got bumped up.
Well, the 2013 Gold Cup falls in the middle of the Hexagonal (knock on wood the US qualified for it). Outside of the 2013 January camp there won't be a better opportunity to break in new players until after the Hex ends. The US didn't qualify for the 2005 Confederations Cup. Despite that, they didn't take an A-Team to the 2005 Gold Cup. Sure, Clint Dempsey was there. But he wasn't THE Clint Dempsey yet. Jimmy Conrad and Oguchi Onyewu were getting their first caps. Santino Quaranta and Conor Casey were there, as was Pat Noonan, Brad Davis, and Tony Sanneh.
For the Gold Cup, i would not call in our regular starters. I'd say omit: Howard, Bocanegra, Goodson, Onyewu, Cherundolo, Johnson, Chandler, Edu, Torres, Jones, Bradley, Beckerman, Donovan, Dempsey, Gomez, Wondolowski, and Altidore. We will rely on these players heavily in the hex and playing them in the Gold Cup is both risking them injury and taken the chance away from another player. In other words, i think the Gold Cup is more of an opportunity for some of the newcomers and other players that need the minutes like Guzan, Cameron, Ream, Kljestan, Morales, Holden, Pontius, Gatt, Lichaj, etc... More, i would also try to see if i could persuade guys like Adam Henley and see if we can grab Osvaldo Alonso too. And A LOT can change between now and next summer, but a rough look at the guys i'd be looking at bringing to the Gold Cup... note, i could name a lot of players that just missed the cut... GK: Guzan, Patterson-Sewell, Meara DF: Lichaj, Castillo, Spector, Ream, Cameron, Gonzalez, Hines, Whitbread MF: Morales, Williams, Zusi, Diskerud, Kljestan, Holden FW: Pontius, Gatt, Adu, Gyau, Boyd, Wooten -----------------Boyd---------------------- -----Pontius---------------Gatt----------- -----------Kljestan---Holden------------- ----------------Williams------------------ Castillo-----------------------------Lichaj -----------Ream-----Cameron---------- -----------------Guzan------------------
So 3 guys you mention were A-Team. But the 8 I just mentioned + Greg Vanney, Chris Armas (no longer the Chris Armas of 02-03), Steve Ralston, Ben Olsen (injuries prevented him from fulfilling his full international potential) and Matt Reis were not A-Team. B and C teamers outnumbered the A-Team guys. Bruce Arena rested players in 05, and Bradley did it 09 and would have done it anyway Confederations Cup or not. So bring on the B-Team in 2013 with Steven Lenhart, Dan Kennedy, Brandon MacDonald, Adam Henley, Mix Diskerud, etc... It's also a cap-tying event. So there is also that.
Jurgen Klinsmann said he will always call in the best players available except for Canp Cupcake, I'm sure many of the USMNT starters will be playing in next summer's GC.
Like others have said here, why risk the health of the A-Team in the middle of the hexagonal round? Everyone would much rather qualify for the 2014 World Cup, than win the 2013 Gold Cup. Why not give other players a chance? This is the best opportunity to give other players a chance, all while CONCACAF foots the bill. I guess we'll know for certain in about a years time who gets the call.
The B team concept is an interesting idea, that I've considered before, but I don't think the U.S. would ever actually do it. In my opinion, a good B Team would consist of a combination of fringe players, regulars who need to regain form and, most importantly, young players who are attempting to break through. A B Team would actually be very valuable. However, I simply don't see it ever happening.
Camp Cupcake. The Gold Cup squad from 2009. The Copa America squad we took down to Argentina all those years ago. The notion of having a B team, and then trying to schedule games specifically for that team is more or less impossible, because no club on planet earth would release their players for these games. But when opportunity presents itself, past regimes have been able to give fringe players a prolonged look. While Klinsmann did sprinkle in a few more regulars than normal in the January friendlies, that still was more or less a B team collection of players. Whether or not that trend continues moving forward remains to be seen, but I'm not sure where people are getting the idea that Klinsmann will only call in the A team no matter what.
This is the purpose of Gold Cup 2013. Pick top MLSers like Donovan and maybe a couple others abroad* that want to play. Sprinkle in a bunch of unknowns that Klinsmann couldn't check out due to the Hex. *Unlike the other top American players, Chandler should be required to prove his loyalty by playing in this 2nd tier tournament. He's gotten his summer beauty rest in 2011 and 2012.
If Altidore is on your B team (after a 19 goal season in all competitions), who are your A team strikers? Also curious who your A team centerbacks are if Goodson is your B team.
Oy Vei. I promised to be on my best behavior, so I'm just going to move on...but seriously. Jozy is in poor form, but we're going to put a guy who hasn't played for the nats in over a year, who isn't a striker, and has been below average in MLS as your A team striker? Don't bother replying...we will never in a billion years every see talent evalutation even remotely close to the same way...not worth discussing.
That still doesn't make him a striker. Too bad he doesn't perform consistently. At some point people need to realize that not one single coach anywhere in the world (club or country) has thought that Adu's immense talents (and he has the talent) are worth giving him consistent minutes. Not even his Holy Emminance Jurgen Klinsmann. Why do you think that is?