Two starters from Sunday’s 3-2 friendly win against Iceland are heading back to their respective clubs.
On Tuesday, U.S. Soccer announced that Brad Evans and Michael Orozco have been released by the U.S. Men’s National Team.
According to the press release, Evans is suffering from tightness in his hamstring and was released to the Seattle Sounders as a precaution. Meanwhile, Orozco will re-join Liga MX side Club Tijuana as he was only scheduled to play in Sunday’s match.
The Sounders versatile defender and midfielder started at right back against Iceland and was replaced at halftime. Orozco, on the other hand, started, played the full 90 minutes and scored his fourth goal for the U.S. in the second half.
The USMNT plays Canada on Feb. 5 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California (10:15 p.m., FOX Sports 1/UniMas/Univision Deportes Network).
What do you think of the releases? Think Klinsmann will call in new players for the second game?
Share your thoughts below.
I’d call Alvarado in for “cover”. Would’ve liked to see Hedges but I doubt he gets called in at this point.
It’s way more likely that Klinsmann could convince Tijuana to release their CB who was coming back from injury and they have cover for anyway, to make the short 3 hour drive to LA or a very short flight lol than to convince America to release a player that has been starting like 4 out of 5 or 6 of the league games so far because they have injuries to their starter or starters in a team way further in Mexico city.. plus I can imagine TJ has good ties with US players given how many they sign to their senior team, like how Corona came up with them from the Second DIvision and even in their academy and youth ranks…. so it’s understandable they are more willing to let a player go when it is not a FIFA date which is the only time Clubs are required to release players
It’s tough for me to see Brad Evans at next World Cup or even playing a big role in Qualifiers. Orozco maybe…but only if John Brooks doesn’t progress. They did their bit, showed JK what he needed to see and now onto some other options. Why so much angst on the board?
Nguyen played centrally and for 90 minutes, Bradley and JJ worked much better together, and no one was played vastly out of position so there wasn’t much else to attack Klinsman over.
Orozco was called in for the simple reason that Miazga left camp to sign at Chelse. Orozco was the only CB who was relatively close and could arrive quickly since he was in TJ working towards fitness for his club. I would have preferred Hedges had gotten the call, but can accept he wasn’t, but in general Orozco loosing ground to the other CB Options (Cameron, Gonzalez, Alvarado, Miazga). Don’t expect to see much of him in the future.
Evans was called to provide some leadership/mentoring to the outside backs. Considering how poor all of our outside backs have been I have no problem believing that Evans will continue to get called and see see games even when all options are available.
So glad the program got a look at these 2 players to understand what they can bring to the table.
^^^^^^^^^
hahaha, come on though, there is a bigger picture. Evans and Orozco might be two of JK’s best camp players, and he wanted them there to influence and guide the newbs in healthy USMNT work habits. I could make more hypotheses, but I think I’ve made a decent enough point from one example.
Are the tickets free of charge for the Canada game?… if not they should be…