Featured, January 2020, USMNT

As USMNT camp opens, that weird feeling you feel is hope

Neil W. Blackmon

TYAC Analysis: January USMNT Camp, 2020

It’s a new decade and it’s January which can only mean two things: 1) it is fashionable to have hope and optimism in the US Men’s National Team again, because seriously, how could this decade go any worse than the last one and 2) the month-long celebration of non-FIFA window soccering formerly known as “Camp Cupcake” is upon us!! 

Maybe you haven’t noticed– and judging by the ticket sales for the end-of-January camp friendly against Costa Rica at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson,California,  you haven’t– there are actually some tangible reasons to be optimistic about the USMNT in 2020. 

Some of the reasons for optimism have to do with infrastructure changes and the structural belief-  which, I’m told, is very strong inside US Soccer House in Chicago– that the second full year under Gregg Berhalter will be a corner-turning year where system and leadership emerges and good soccer ensues. 

If that sounds more like blind belief than tangible evidence of a path forward, that’s okay. But it’s more complicated than that.

The fact is the US Men enter 2020 with a healthier, deeper player pool, one that includes a few important players that won’t be in this camp largely because of the FIFA player release rules. 

Guys like this guy:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6-4LvIALMG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

And also this guy:

 

And how about this guy:

 

That weird flutter you just felt was the dopamine-release associated with your first feeling of US Men’s Soccer joy in many, many moons. 

But even without those players, a fair share of the players who provide a basis  for…let’s just call it “tempered, this is all going to blow up in my face but I wanna believe hope”… are in Gregg Berhalter’s 2020 camp. 

Originally, the camp was going to be even more interesting, with the US set to train in Doha as a “get acclimated” type trip ahead of the 2022 winter World Cup in Qatar. Not only would the US get acclimated, but a handful of closed-door games with European club sides on winter break were on tap to help battle test this group. Those games seemed like decent ideas, even if the trip itself was awkward.

After all, the World Cup in Qatar is already a source of justified controversy, what with the slave labor allegations surrounding the stadium, Qatari human rights abuses towards women and LGBTQ persons and continued allegations, many now evidenced and well-founded, that bribed FIFA officials titled the World Cup in the tiny, affluent Middle Eastern country’s direction. 

Despite the clouds of controversy, US Soccer apparently felt investing in a Qatar January camp two years removed from a World Cup US Soccer hasn’t qualified for yet was a decent idea. As fate would have it, the US had to cancel their trip to Doha when, as so often happens, geopolitical affairs collided with soccer affairs when the United States assassinated Iranian general Qasem Soleimani last week. That seismic political event put the American diplomatic corps in the region in grave danger, as evidence by immediate State Department withdrawals of American diplomats and their families from the region. Sending a soccer team, even under strong Doha and US guard, would have been lunacy and put the players at risk– a choice that US Soccer rightly was not willing to make. 

Florida and California it is then, beginning today in Brandenton, Florida. 

Here’s a TYAC analysis of what to watch for this month. 

Michael Bradley and Shinji Kagawa do battle at the 2008 Olympics.

An Olympic Qualifying feel

Me: Hey! Did you know the United States hasn’t played a men’s soccer game at the Olympics since 2008? 

You: (muffled) ((Something with an expletive, grumbling))

Me: Oh you’d heard that before! This is the camp for you!!

Is Jason Kreis the guy to finally get the US through the murky qualifying waters of mighty CONCACAF (it’s okay to gasp!) and through to the Tokyo Olympics?

He certainly has the pieces to field a good qualifying team, and many of those players are involved in this US Camp. The average age of the US players involved in camp is 23 years, 83 days, making it the youngest January camp on record. 

On a who’s who roster of youths, you could pick your favorites– at TYAC alone, there’s superfans for Paxton Pomykal (20 years old) and Jesus Ferreira of FC Dallas (20, 19 respectively), Julian Araujo of the LA Galaxy (18), Reggie Cannon (21) of FC Dallas and of course, Ulysses Llanez of Wolfsburg (18). All are in this camp, and all  should excite you in varying degrees, especially Ferreira, who had a brilliant year in Dallas as an attacking playmaker, and Llanez, who has been sensational in Germany and who may threaten, against all American odds, to give the United States a forward not named Jozy Altidore that can consistently score international goals. 

The fullback situation is especially interesting.

The US are suddenly immensely deep on one side (the right) and far less deep on the left. Antonee Robinson is the only proven LB in the pool- at least with Fabian Johnson (who has played there for club and country) still out of the mix and Timothy Chandler long gone from the US Scene. Will Berhalter invert Sergino Dest, something we’ve seen at club? Will one of the German-American veterans get a call?

As TYAC has repeatedly reported, Fabian Johnson remains open to a call-up, emphasizing last month again that conversations have occurred and he’d be willing to play competitively for country this World Cup cycle.

When asked in November, Timothy Chandler was more reticent, saying he’d “consider the call an honor” but noting that “no conversations” had occurred on that issue. 

For now though, the US seems content to move forward with its new crop- and a nice competition appears to be brewing.

https://twitter.com/FutureUsmnt/status/1127572352831762432?s=20

Other Olympic eligible guys on this team that have enough talent to come good yet include Jonathan Lewis of the Colorado Rapids (22), Justen Glad of Real Salt Lake (still only 22!!) and San Jose Earthquakes teammates  JT Marcinkowski and Jackson “you know, he’s not Wil Trapp” Yueill (both 22). 

Almost all of these players should be expected to play a role in qualifying the men for Tokyo and many of them will absolutely be in-the-mix when it comes to whatever final roster Kreis names, assuming, of course, he becomes the first u23 coach to name a final roster since Sacha Kljestan, Brad Guzan, Freddy Adu and Michael Bradley were Olympic team prospects. 

Gyasi Zardes? Future Olympian?

 

Gyasi Zardes

Gyasi Zardes is here because of course he is and after all, who else from the United States will score on a deflection off his collarbone to beat Costa Rica 2-1 next month? 

It’s strange thinking of Zardes, 28, as a grizzled veteran, but he is just that, and on a roster that lacks much in the way of experience up top, Zardes provides both experience and an understanding of Berhalter’s system and cultural demands. 

That’s why if the US does manage to qualify for the  Olympic games, we should not rule out an Olympic appearance by the likes of Gyasi Zardes, a hero of January camp past who has become fertile fodder for fan frustration tweets. Sure, Zardes is technically limited, with the first touch of a Valyrian stone man and the tendency to Carlos Rivas an open sitter here and sometimes there. 

Still, at an Olympics, Zardes would provide a guy with 60+ MLS goals, 12 senior team international goals and 50+ senior team caps– just the type of leadership and energy you want from an overage selection. Plus, he’ll track back and run the channels for days and days.I can’t believe I just talked myself into watching Gyasi Zardes march into a stadium at an opening Olympic ceremony please call a doctor the new decade clearly has me feeling all the feels.

Aron Hyde joins the USMNT from Atlanta United to coach US goalkeepers through a pivotal moment.

Goalkeepers under new leadership 

This will be the first full time camp for new US Goalkeeper coach Aron Hyde, who joins the US in that role from Atlanta United, where he held the same gig. Hyde auditioned for the role in November in US wins over Cuba and Canada, and he’s joined Berhalter full-time now to sort out an American goalkeeper situation that is cloudy at best.

Zack Steffen, with his longtime Berhalter ties, is likely the incumbent starter as the team moves towards the Hex. Fortuna Düsseldorf appear headed for relegation, but would almost assuredly be headed for the Bundesliga drop but for the heroics of Steffen, who ranks second in the league in save percentage.

The issue Steffen continually has, however, is playing the smart and safe ball out of the back. His distributions have gotten him in trouble internationally and at the club level, which likely leaves the door somewhat ajar as the US approach the Hexagonal. 

Brad Guzan isn’t the shot-stopping wizard he was when he broke the Gold Cup record for saves in a game against Panama in 2015 or when he rescued Aston Villa from the drop, but what he lacks in that area he more than makes up for with command of his area and leadership. He’ll be a factor this cycle. 

That leaves this camp- along with the absent Ethan Horvath- battling for one spot, and it’s difficult to see that as anything but a duel between Bill Hamid, back with DC United, and Sean Johnson of NYC FC, who has the trappings of a late bloomer with his league play of late and might be the best distributor in the player pool. 

The US haven’t entered a Hex year with this much uncertainty at goalkeeper in a long time. Hyde has his work to do, even if all he collects from this camp is institutional knowledge about depth. 

A Berhalter camp with no Wil Trapp feels… liberating?

A midfield without much sizzle, but a noteworthy exclusion

It’s interesting that Jackson Yueill is here and Wil Trapp is not. Perhaps Berhalter, despite his constant praise of Trapp’s footballing intellect, has finally come to the film study realization that Trapp just can’t keep up with the tempo of the international game, at least against World Cup qualifying type competition.

Cristian  Roldan, another smart player who struggles with international caliber tempo, is here, but that’s likely because Berhalter saw no “like for like” replacement for him in a non-FIFA designated international window. 

With Yueill, there is a deep-lying midfielder candidate who can play at a better tempo than Trapp and provide the same defensive coverage and technical awareness. With Tyler Adams back in the fold, but Weston McKennie presently sidelined,  the US can and should hope that in 2020, they’ll have a central midfielder not named Michael Bradley capable of busting open the lines with a pass. Bradley was the only deep-lying midfielder who filled that role in 2019, but Yueill is capable, and while he may prove to  only be third-string in the grand scheme of things, that’s useful in the grind of qualifying.

Further, Adams has been away so long we don’t know where he’ll play for Berhalter, and if his right back return for Leipzig is any indication, there’s no certainty where Adams is going to play for his club either. 

At TYAC, it seems an easy choice. But it’s good to make sure that Yueill is in camps over Trapp, just in case Berhalter has other ideas for Adams. 

The rest of the midfield camp lacks pizaaz or, at a minimum, a creative conduit. Sebastian Lletget has been a solid national teamer, when healthy, but that hasn’t been enough for a large sample size.

One fascinating midfield name to close on is Bryang Kayo, the 17-year-old Cameroonian-American who is by some distance the most interesting name called into this camp. Already a big, physical kid, Kayo is a gifted passer with a deft first touch who, TYAC is told will likely join fellow American Uly Llanez at Wolfsburg when he turns eighteen this summer. Could he get a senior team cap before that happens? Stay tuned.

Neil W. Blackmon co-founded TYAC. Based in Fort Lauderdale, you can follow him on Twitter @nwblackmon. 

Written by: Neil W. Blackmon on January 7, 2020.
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