Walker Zimmerman and the US found some new faces in the January camp, even as long term solutions remain to be made inside the program.
Sanjay Sujanthakumar
– LOS ANGELES
The 2023 edition of USMNT January camp culminated with a hard-fought 0-0 draw on Saturday night against Colombia. The overwhelming majority of the sellout crowd at Dignity Health Sports Park supported Los Cafeteros, charging the atmosphere for a rather memorable “Camp Cupcake” USMNT friendly.
“The way I saw it from the touchline, it could easily have been a qualifying game. Such was what the players were putting in, both teams were putting into it. It was a very intense game,” said interim head coach Anthony Hudson. “I don’t think there was any moments in the game where the game just went very slow and calm. It was a game full of transition, it was a quick game. In the first half, there was probably a lot more back and forward and transition, and we changed a few things at halftime just to get a little bit more stability. It was a really good test for our players, especially some of the younger guys.”
Twelve Americans made their debut in last week’s matches, a January camp record.
After a week here in Southern California, here’s what I’m thinking / wondering about the program.
- This camp served its purpose.
With US Soccer searching for a new sporting director as well as head coach, Anthony Hudson will probably remain interim manager through the Concacaf Nations League Finals and Gold Cup this summer. In terms of system and style, Hudson will preserve this team’s Gregg Berhalter-molded identity while he’s in charge. He doesn’t have time to deviate from that in the next few camps, nor does he have the incentive to (he’s not getting this job long-term).
But Hudson does need to refresh the player pool and begin the process of identifying the additional core pieces and depth necessary for a deep 2026 World Cup run. This camp was a positive first step towards that end.
The USMNT would love to see more of Alejandro Zendejas in the near future.
Alejandro Zendejas was the most varsity-ready debutant last week.
“You see his personality on the field. Exciting player, good quality, technically really, really strong. Really attack-minded, and I just love his desire to keep going. Puts his body in the way, keeps making runs, really nice combination play. This kid’s a really good player,” Hudson said. Zendejas went 90 against Serbia then flew back to Club América. “I did try and plead for him to stay,” Hudson added.
Another Mexican-American who debuted Wednesday and scored the lone American goal last week was FC Cincinnati striker Brandon Vazquez. Both Zendejas and Vazquez haven’t committed to either the US or Mexico, and a call-up for Nations League in March would nudge them to make a decision about their international future. Both deserve a look with the A team as soon as possible.
“When we get back [to Chicago] and we start preparing the squad for March, it will be a lot clearer. But all I can say on Brandon and Alejandro is for me, personally, I thought they were both very, very good,” Hudson said. “Alejandro during the last game, I thought, was excellent. He was great in training. We loved having him in camp. Good character, enjoyed being here, and the same with Brandon. I’ve really enjoyed working with him. So they’re two players that are well and truly gonna be in our conversations when we get back to Chicago.”
Two debutants on Saturday who held their own and could eventually have a significant impact for the MNT are Paxten Aaronson and John Tolkin.
Aaronson had said he was practicing as a No. 8 and he was indeed deployed as the left-sided central midfielder vs. Colombia. Early in the first half he noticeably struggled with their pressure and physicality, and was even dispossessed twice in a row. But he quickly rebounded with tenacity and confidence leveraging his body – he’ll bulk up for the Bundesliga – to steady his overall performance.
“They’re very strong in their duels. So I knew from the start that they’re a talented team, and they had a lot of young guys that were buzzing around. And they did a really good job of – when I got the ball – just swarming, swarming everybody on the field,” Aaronson said. “So I knew as the game especially progressed, it got more and more tight, the lines got thinner, especially with your touches and stuff. But yeah, I just knew that I would have to put in a defensive shift and also adjust my style of play.”
“I thought he did well tonight,” Hudson said. “It was a tough game, a very physical game, a lot of transition moments. Which means especially in midfield, in transition, you need physicality, and there’s a lot of quick and physical players in there. But he never gave up, he kept going. And he had some really good moments in the game.”
Hudson also praised how Tolkin met the challenge.
“First of all, I love him around the place. I love him in camp. He’s just got such a big personality, and then you see his personality on the field. He’s incredibly brave, he’s an aggressive player, a physical player. I don’t think this situation fazed him at all, he’s a very confident kid. So he’s one that we’re glad we’ve seen, because he’s impressed us before when he’s been in our pre-World Cup camp. He’s now someone that’s in our group of players.”
New Jersey has recently been the butt of USMNT-related jokes, but Tolkin and Aaronson are a reminder of the state’s value to the USMNT.
“Paxten’s a fake Jersey guy, he’s Pennsylvania,” Tolkin joked. “But no, I think anybody represents Jersey well. We’ve got a lot of guys coming out of that state.”
When I told Aaronson what Tolkin said, he laughed, and responded, “I think I’m from the real part of Jersey, from the beautiful part of Jersey. The calm part, I can go to the beach, chillax. I don’t know where he’s from, but I know I’m from the true part of Jersey. I love my part of Jersey.”
Aaronson is now thousands of miles away from the “beautiful part of Jersey”, adjusting to his new life in Frankfurt.
Tolkin’s rumored transfer to Europe is yet to materialize, but when asked about this postgame, he grinned and said, “As far as the transfer stuff goes, you never know. Something could happen in the next few days.”
He’s a character.
- How will the calendar shape the pool and squad selections?
The USMNT isn’t guaranteed a spot in the Copa América, but assuming it qualifies via the 2023/24 Concacaf Nations League, the Copa América plus the Olympics in the same summer is a good problem to have in terms of roster construction, and that could impact certain roster selections for senior and youth national team camps and tournaments between now and then.
I can’t imagine any player would participate in both tournaments (an exception, perhaps, would be someone who’s in limbo with their club whose minutes would be reasonably distributed across both tournaments). Clubs also aren’t required to release players for the Olympics, but they will be for Copa América.
Reaching the final of Copa América will be the priority next summer, yet there may be promising youngsters who could provide depth to that roster but would still be better off heading to Paris instead because they’d have a bigger role (e.g. Taylor Booth, Joe Scally). After missing the last three Olympics, that stage can’t be taken for granted. It’s a tournament environment that seems primarily like a natural progression for the core of the U20 World Cup side (if they’re released by their clubs) we’ll see in May (e.g. Aaronson), plus some senior team backups (Tolkin).
That U20 to Olympics pipeline should also include forward Cade Cowell and keeper Gaga Slonina, who both impressed against Serbia. Nineteen year-old center back Jalen Neal, who hasn’t even made his MLS debut with the Galaxy, also stood out on Wednesday.
Made his mark ??
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) January 26, 2023
Jalen Neal is the youngest #LAGalaxy player in club history to start for the @USMNT ? pic.twitter.com/djradHwEoZ
“It’s amazing. What a story, to have his first full professional game being a cap. It’s a big moment for him. First half he was really solid,” said Neal’s starting center back partner, Walker Zimmerman, following the loss to Serbia. “He had some good longer balls there in the second half, diagonals. He’s gonna grow from this opportunity, but for a guy who hasn’t played 90 minutes of professional football at this level, it’s a big deal. Overall, a very good first step.”
Considering the lack of blue chip center back prospects, Neal’s development with the Galaxy is really worth monitoring. Another center back who could also be on the U20 World Cup-to-Olympics path is Louisville City’s Josh Wynder. Wynder was recently in his first camp with the U20s and, with a European transfer anticipated once he turns 18, linked to Benfica.
If a new head coach is in place by the end of the summer – US Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone said she’s “hopeful” that’s the case – he’ll have four FIFA windows and a January camp to sift through the player pool and set his roster plans with the two tournaments in mind (perhaps there’s an extra winter camp after the MLS season?). If Hudson coaches through the summer, he’ll have had a (shortened) January camp, two FIFA windows (March and June) and one tournament (the Gold Cup). And I assume that the camp for the June Nations League Finals will be longer, maybe including another friendly or two, like in 2021.
The point is that although Hudson won’t be the boss next summer, he and his staff could be around long enough to influence how the rosters fall into place. Six months from now, Hudson or U20 head coach Mikey Varas could actually be well-positioned to lead the U23s to Paris. However, the new sporting director and head coach will probably have their own preference.
As the US search for a new head coach, it is odd that Bob Bradley’s name doesn’t appear often in the conversation.
- An experienced head coach and/or sporting director is the next step
Essentially enjoying home field advantage in Qatar, Morocco became the first Arab and African team to reach the World Cup semifinals under a coach it hired about three months before the tournament. Before he took over the Atlas Lions, Walid Regragui, who spent most of his playing career in France, had only coached club teams in Morocco and Qatar.
During Morocco’s historic run, Regragui said, “Explain this miracle. Experience? It doesn’t matter. It’s skills. It doesn’t matter your background, religiously speaking or culturally speaking or where you from. Skills are the only measure.”
The consulting firm Sportsology Group is leading the search for a new sporting director, who will ultimately decide how much to weight experience when evaluating the coaching candidates. I doubt Gregg Berhalter is back due to all the drama, but before that – when the Yanks were eliminated in Qatar – I didn’t want to move on from him only to let a new manager once again learn on the job (that said, that Jim Curtin in 2026 would basically mirror Regragui in Qatar in terms of age and experience did make me wonder…).
There’s hardly any appealing American options.
Jesse Marsch is reincarnating the MNT in the Premier League and if Leeds can comfortably avoid relegation, his career still won’t align with a job that he’s destined for eventually. Marsch has already been an MNT assistant under Bob Bradley, and speaking of Bradley, I find it truly bizarre that his name isn’t really in the conversation. The foundation has been laid with a player pool trending in the right direction for Bradley’s vision of attacking soccer to be realized. We’re more than a decade removed from his first stint at the helm – that pragmatist tournament experience is a major bonus – and he’s added experience to his resume at both the international and club level (both in MLS and abroad) that almost no other American can compare to. Bradley won a World Cup group and a Gold Cup, reached an international tournament final,, and had one of the best tenures, if not the best tenure, of any American manager in men’s program history. He deserves a prominent spot in the conversation.
If people actually have an issue with the fact that only one American manager in the last 25 years wasn’t from the area of the most densely populated state in the country / the most populous city in the country, I hate to break it to them, but Pellegrino Matarrazzo and Peter Vermes are also from the Garden State, and we Jersey folks claim Jesse too.
That exception in the last 25 years was, of course, Jürgen Klinsmann. Today, while there’s also barely any obvious choices among foreign managers, Klinsmann’s former assistant and successor as Germany manager, Jogi Löw, is available. So is Klinsmann’s other friend and former DFB Sporting Director Oliver Bierhoff, who was also hired as the General Manager when Klinsmann became Germany’s coach in 2004. Bierhoff was fired after Germany failed to advance from their group in Qatar. During the Löw era, Germany reached the Euro final in 2008, the World Cup semifinal in 2010, the Euro semifinal in 2012, they won the 2014 World Cup, again made the Euro semifinal in 2016, and won the 2017 Confederations Cup.
Bierhoff became the director of all German national teams and its academy from 2018 onwards. I’m not sure how Bierhoff’s role with the DFB would functionally correspond to the role with the USSF, and we don’t know if the MNT General Manager role will still exist as well. I’m also not sure if we could afford Löw, but the federation’s reported interest in Zidane indicates real ambition. While the German player pool was undoubtedly of paramount importance, Löw’s level of experience from that successful period is priceless.
The clock is ticking. The magnitude of the opportunity that 2026 represents cannot be understated, and the sporting director and head coaching hires will be an investment in the potentially exponential growth of the sport in the US.
Sanjay Sujanthakumar is a longtime contributor to The Yanks Are Coming. He was most recently the head soccer coach of Trojans FC at the University of Southern California. Follow him on Twitter at @tha_real_kumar.