Photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com
A few more U.S. national team players will be extending their trips to Europe.
Real Salt Lake's Kyle Beckerman and the Columbus Crew's Robbie Rogers have had training stints arranged with Bundesliga club Kaiserslautern by U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann, joining the growing movement of MLS players getting training experience with top-flight European clubs.
They're not the only ones getting Bundesliga experience, either.
D.C. United's Perry Kitchen, coming off a strong rookie season and an invite to the just-concluded U.S. Under-23 national team camp that was held in Duisburg, Germany, will train with SC Freiburg for the next week, sources told SBI.
While Klinsmann arranged the training periods for Beckerman and Rogers, Kitchen's was set up independently.
"In an effort to have USMNT players stay more fit during the MLS offseason, Coach Klinsmann arranged for me to train at FC Kaiserslautern for a few weeks. I'm not sure exactly how long I'll be in Germany. So far we have been treated very well and I'm looking forward to this new experience," Beckerman said in an online statement.
For Rogers, who is set to be out of contract with the Crew and has expressed a wish to return to Europe, the training period is not a trial, but it does provide him an opportunity to catch the eye of Kaiserslautern coach Marco Kurz. He confirmed the training stint on his Twitter account on Wednesday.
Beckerman, Rogers and Kitchen join New York Red Bulls forward Juan Agudelo as MLS players training in Germany for the time being. Agudelo joined VfB Stuttgart on Wednesday.
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What do you think of these developments? Happy to see more and more Americans get training time overseas?
Share your thoughts below.
Bundesnob is more accurate. I think it’s great though. Regarding your other comment, I think you’re right. Klinsy has connections in Germany and across Europe that can only serve to benefit the USMNT, and MLS by extension.
He will do better when his team gets out of WC group. However, just forgetting these games dont count Klinsi has done a poor job capping new players or really bringing in a barage of players to see in person but has done a good job picking from Bradley’s trash heap and thinking he can make Orozco, Rogers and Beckerman Int. players.
I would humbly submit that quite a few european coaches couldn’t get this kind of thing done either. It’s as much ’cause the man was a legendary player as well.
so does this make JK a Eurosnob? Just sayin….
it’s great that he has come street cred. lots of coaches couldn’t do this this kind of favor-asking. I hope that Beckerman and Kitchen make the most of this opportunity and hopefully Rogers figures his self out as well…
I like Klinsmann’s proactive approach to improving the game. I like the change in formation that I’ve seen the past few games. I expect this move to become the norm for players with little European experience.
Sack him!!!!
all of you anonymous haters of whatever players (Rogers, Beckerman, Bradley, Sasha, bornstine, Jozey, and hundreds more) go tell them to their face. You are cowards and idiots. Anybody that puts the American uniform on deserves our respect and support. You are pathetic.Soccer is not a track meet.
Wow, happy for Beckerman and Kitchen, especially Kitchen. Freiburg, that’s my team. Maybe they’ll take a deeper look. Still don’t understand the RR obsession. Irritating.
Same.
JOB had bad knees. Holden just keeps geetting hacked by hitmen.
you sir are hilarious
The German sports press is running small news items on the MLS players training at the Bundesliga clubs, I imagine because of the Klinsmann connection. It would be great if one or two ended up with a transfer offer. Here a link is with a photo of one of the players (Beckerman haters should not open the link):
http://www.focus.de/sport/fussball/bundesliga1/bundesliga-us-kicker-rogers-und-beckerman-trainieren-beim-fck_aid_685173.html
lol
You leave our fine menace squad out of this.
Torres had an injury, not sure if he is still recovering though.
Apparently Bob Bradley’s previous formations have you confused as to what a defensive midfielder is supposed to be and also what he’s supposed to do. None of those players you listed are straight out d-mids and watching baby Bradley have absolutely no positional sense for the last 5 years, it’s nice to not see a huge hole in front of our defenders anymore.
And please stop touting Holden. Until he can go three months of USMNT level of fitness . . . he’s JOB all over again.
JK has been the opposite of hard headed. He’s already let a couple of his pet projects (rogers, castillo, MOF) expire.
33% of your cm list is injured.
Give it a minute. If jones/edu/williams are better options than beckerman for that very specific role, JK will make the change.
More likely planting the seeds for US hopes 20 years from now. That is some forward thinking!
You don’t recuperate by resting, you recuperate by staying in shape. Depends on the type of training these guys will be doing, of course.
Beckerman is there as a strong defensive mid. He’s better than Edu or Bradley in that regard, and Jones is inconsistent (and older than Beckerman anyway). Holden is injured. Williams is inexperienced. All of these are liabilities if the immediate goal is to work on shoring up the back line, who need a reliable defensive mid to give them breathing room while they sort things out.
That leaves Torres. Not sure why he hasn’t been called up lately.
I think maybe Klinsmann might be sending all these USMNT players to Germany so they can hang out and find players with US ancestral connections that can join the team.
IN europe players get about a month off at most. they train 11 months of the year.
THeir season is 9 months and they train with their club teams in July through August.
They get June off mostly.
In the US most players are done in October and dont play again till late January. Way way more time off than other players.
I hear ya, but klismann is not just showing love for Beckerman. What he want is for USA player get better and stay in shape. That is why he has them training with a European and that could help Beckerman and other player to do well for not only the USNMT but for the MLS. Remember that he is hooking up Agudelo, Hamid, Johnson, Shea, and now Robbie also. Also some of the youngster are getting some training from European team.
I like Beckerman and wish him well with club and country, but the friendlies he has participated in seem to show that he does not have the pace to play in the middle of the field at the international level. Perhaps training with German clubs can help him find a way to compensate for that in the future.
after the January camp, there are two months until MLS season starts, they’ll have plenty of time. and Yeah JK might as well come out like Maradona did about Mascherano and say something like “Beckerman and 10 others” I understand Beckerman is not a USMNT player but Holden is not fit (who knows if he ever will and for how long), Torres is out until who knows when, not sold on Edu and Jones is getting up there in age. so, as far as midfield goes, we’re not as “deep” as people may suggest we are. yes Feilhaber and Adu, but they’re not DM’s by any nature, only creative players. in International game we need players that can attack and defend well.
Beckerman saw what was going on with the recent evictions in the Occupy Wall Street Movements, where he planned to spend his off-season, and said “Well, f*** that, I’ll just stay in Germany for the winter.”
True Story.
As a good point man should. After all, Klinsmann does love wingers.
can’t have transformative action when your players suck. talent pool is not exactly very good for the USA now, is it? at least by getting them some playing time with real pros, all Klinsi can hope for is that they learn a thing or two, if not that they will stay in shape in the offseason.
it will take time to see transformative changes. next generation players such as Agudelo and Rogers have room to learn and grow.
I believe the MLS offseason is way longer than the European offseason.. they’ll have plenty of time to recuperate. Training in that environment in invaluable for MLSers
Klinnsmann still has to scout our player pool and since we have limited depth he has to work with what we have, also Beckerman may have a specific role to play in Klinsmann system, nevertheless JK will have to wait for most of our key players heal or return from a tight club schedule to evaluate his options.
It is too early to judge. It is hard to compare the records of the two because different teams and players are involved. For whatever it is worth, there may be an argument that Klinsmann in certain respects already did better than Bradley. For example, Bradley lost his last game to El Tri and Kilnsmann’s team got a tie against the same opponent despite not having Dempsey available. And Bradley’s team tied Slovenia is South Africa, but Klinsmann’s team beat Slovenia at Slovenia. And Klinsmann’s team won in Europe – something that BB’s teams have been unable to do in the last 3 years.
So far. Love how people like to bash this early. It’s crazy if you think we’re going to take a magic pill with ANY coach, and change overnight.
Too early to have actual “transformative action”…but this is huge. New coaches typically need 2 years to really change a system over. Too many call for their heads, too early.
He got me laid, too.
That’s what I’m worrying about. Beckerman is just an MLS player nothing more let him just play for Real Salt Lake try to win MLS Cups for his Club and just stay out of the USMNT way. We have too many talented players ahead of him for the CM position but JK seems too hard headed to unserstand that. We have players like: Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones, Danny Williams, Stuart Holden (He plays CM for his club Bolton), Maurice Edu, Jose Torres we have too many players for that specific position IDK how Beckerman makes it over all those players…
It’s good – best idea by far since he’s taken over. I haven’t seen much in the way of transformative action that was promised upon his takeover of the program, but this seems good. I’m surprised this wasn’t pushed before.
Bradley is winless with Egypt
So when do the players get off time to recuperate? It’s good for them to remain sharp, but we gotta make sure they don’t overextend themselves and run out of gas or get injured when we need them the most.
So far his European connections have gotten him a worse record than Bradley.
Robbier Rogers is the worst player in MLS. If I were Kurz I would make him train with the u12 until he can show he can hang with that speed of play. Can someone just stop him from playing all together or make him only play for someone like the Des Moines Menace?
Looks like Klinsi’s mancrush on Beckerman isn’t going away any time soon…
Klinsmann is hooking it up for EVERYONE haha. He’s buying shots for the whole bar.
This is why having a coach with European connections is important for US soccer. Whatever your opinion of Bradley and his firing, I doubt he had the kind of access that Klinsmann has. The MLS and the USMNT can only benefit from the exposure to a different style of play and training.
I really like this trend. It’s a good way for MLS players to develop and possibly impress some foreign teams.
Who are we playing January 19th? I thought the next game was on January 25 against Panama at Panama City?
Will some of these players even get a month off? The next USMNT games is January 19. Figure he calls players two weeks before hand then you have MLS preseason.
well, he’s already in germany with the u-20/u-23’s; so it’s just a matter of traveling to freiburg.
a week’s worth of training for Kitchen? Getting over jet lag will take longer than that!
Wow, Klinsy isn’t fooling around. I like this proactive approach.