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Altidore, Reynolds, Araujo headline USMNT and U.S. U-23 squads for January camps

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Jozy Altidore is ready to make his return to the U.S. Men’s National Team, headlining a 12-player group of senior team players that will train alongside a 26-player group of U.S. Under-23 players in Bradenton, Florida.

Altidore joins a collection of 12 veterans that will gather in Florida for the annual January USMNT camp. This year’s edition will see the senior team group that will train alongside the U-23 group. Later in January, a select number of the U-23 players will combine with the veteran USMNT group to make up the squad that will play in a friendly being arrange for late January. The friendly has yet to be made official, but reports have identified Serbia as a potential opponent.

“This is an important year for our National Team programs, and we are looking to maximize every possible opportunity,” Berhalter said. “For the senior team players, this is an opportunity to continue to develop as a group and build on the foundation of a busy and challenging year. Being alongside our U-23 team gives that group a chance to prepare for Olympic Qualifying while further integrating into our culture and game model.”

Jordan Morris, Aaron Long, Sebastian Lletget and Cristian Roldan join Altidore in headlining the senior contingent, while the U-23 group features such prospects as Julian Araujo, Bryan Reynolds, Henry Kessler and Daryl Dike.

The U-23 group will be getting together to provide coach Jason Kreis some preparation time to evaluate the group as he works on identifying the team that will feature in Concacaf Olympic qualifying, which is scheduled to take place in March.

“With Olympic qualifying approaching quickly, this training camp is a great opportunity to prepare ourselves and evaluate some new faces,” Kreis said. “While 2020 was a very challenging year, it was impressive to see so many U-23-eligible players make major strides on the field. Some of them have been involved with the senior team over the last few months and it’s exciting to now get our players and staff back together in camp alongside Gregg and his group as we prepare for a very important qualifying tournament.”

The U-23 group is made up mostly of MLS players, but does feature European-based prospects Chris Gloster (PSV) and Bryang Kayo (Wolfsburg).

Also included is FC Dallas right back Bryan Reynolds, who has been widely-linked to a winter transfer move, with Juventus among the clubs linked to him.

One player not included is Philadelphia Union defender Mark McKenzie, who has been linked to a European transfer in January.

Here are the rosters for the January USMNT and U.S. U-23 camps:

USMNT DETAILED ROSTER BY POSITION (Club; Caps/Goals):

GOALKEEPERS (2)Sean Johnson (New York City FC; 9/0), Matt Turner (New England Revolution; 0/0)

DEFENDERS (3)Tristan Blackmon (LAFC; 0/0), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls; 18/3), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC; 13/2)

MIDFIELDERS (3)Kellyn Acosta (Colorado Rapids; 24/2), Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy; 17/4), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders FC; 19/0)

FORWARDS (4)Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC/CAN; 115/42), Paul Arriola (D.C. United; 34/6), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders FC; 39/10), Chris Mueller (Orlando City SC; 1/2)

U-23 USMNT DETAILED ROSTER BY POSITION (Club):

GOALKEEPERSJT Marcinkowski (San Jose Earthquakes), David Ochoa (Real Salt Lake), Brady Scott (Austin FC)

DEFENDERSJulian Araujo (LA Galaxy), George Bello (Atlanta United FC), Chris Gloster (PSV Eindhoven/NED), Aaron Herrera (Real Salt Lake), Aboubacar Keita (Columbus Crew SC), Henry Kessler (New England Revolution), Mauricio Pineda (Chicago Fire), Bryan Reynolds (FC Dallas), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United FC), Sam Vines (Colorado Rapids)

MIDFIELDERS: Hassani Dotson (Minnesota United FC), Bryang Kayo (Wolfsburg/GER), Andrés Perea* (Orlando City SC), Tanner Tessmann (FC Dallas), Eryk Williamson (Portland Timbers), Jackson Yueill (San Jose Earthquakes)

FORWARDS: Cade Cowell (San Jose Earthquakes), Daryl Dike (Orlando City SC), Jeremy Ebobisse (Portland Timbers), Jesús Ferreira (FC Dallas), Jonathan Lewis (Colorado Rapids), Benji Michel (Orlando City SC), Djordje Mihailovic (Montreal Impact/CAN)

Comments

  1. I am at a loss on the Olympic obsession. You know what else we didn’t qualify for recently that was more upsetting? World Cup. That is even more pout inducing and a senior event. So that overrides your pouting about age group quali. We will need two first teams’ worth of players this summer, who should be the best 30-40 odd players we can muster of any age. The Olympics should be ad hoc assemblage of what’s left over. I should not be seeing Jozy instead of Soto/Nico or Roldan instead of Weah so that we can chase the Olympics. This is not an abstract exercise. Odds are players steered one way will be omitted for a lot of this year for the senior team. I also think if we’re running around offering Soto Akinola Efrain the Olympics and Jozy and Zardes get another NL/GC, you will lose some of the talent underrated and baby-tracked. Someone will offer them senior team just to spite us. So to me this is like the MLS expansion protected list or the 40 man in baseball. If at the tail end of the roster the choice is a mediocrity posing no dual nationality risk, or a kid with promise who could also play for Mexico, you lock the kid. You don’t offer the Olympics and hope the kid is fair minded and accepts your big picture notions and underrating of his talent.

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    • Let me start with generally I don’t care much about Olympic Soccer. However, given this year’s schedule the Olympic Tournament will be better competition than the GC. It is unlikely any team in the NL or who will be finishing qualifying for the Ocho will send top level teams to the GC. They aren’t going to tax their top talent in June and July before September qualifying. With only 16 teams qualifying for the Olympics those squads even though U24s will have better and more experienced players than the GC. Public pressure for the Olympics is also greater, the non-soccer community has no idea about the GC. Honestly I’m thinking it’s maybe 50/50 the Olympics even happen at this point so maybe this won’t matter.

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      • sorry but an organized senior team side worthy of the gold cup is likely a sterner test of a player than a regional u23 from a similar team — for sure — and than most if not all u23s in the world. mexico might send a decent u23 team but i think their B team is still better. i think you’re turning a legit complaint that we would see B teams into an inaccurate argument that mexico adult B is worse than mexico u23, which i don’t buy.

        you’re also neglecting the experience gained — and utility drawn from that experience — from going to that level competition as an adult player. olympics might be the pinnacle of u23 but the level is below gold cup and gold cup level — with coaches who don’t want to qualify untested players — gets them tested. you broaden the pool of tested players. and as i argued tracking the best kids to senior ball might also help lock them down for the future in a way going to the jozy roldan well a final time will not. and then jozy roldan etc. might not even be around for 2026.

    • I’m not talking about Olympic qualifying I’m talking about the Olympics, obviously the qualifying tournament isn’t going to be as good of competition. I’m saying the U23 squads of France, Germany, Spain, probably Argentina and Brazil are going to be better than Bermuda, Nicaragua and Panama B.

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    • Amen. Yeah, I am concerned that the lackadaisical approach where we frame it — even after a cap that should morally bind — as players still having a choice, while legally technically accurate, encourages that sort of ambivalence. And Akinola took him right up on it to shop Canada. I think having hooked the fish first — even if just morally — you are an American. Call them up and set the freaking hook. Don’t even encourage the idea they could choose something else or have a legal right to still shop. You are one of us. Done deal. See you again in January. If they even hint they want to shop they are not ready for us and shouldn’t get caps and the playbook — particularly if they are kicking the tires of our neighbors. Counter intuitively I think that commits more players because they know loyalty is being judged. Saying you have a choice plants the seed they could choose the other team. We’re the big dog. Why would you choose anyone else?

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    • Do you know he wasn’t asked? Or perhaps he’s lining up a club trial somewhere? Just because a player isn’t on the list doesn’t mean he wasn’t approached.

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      • pure speculation. you’re looking at this mild list — after his making a recent camp — and suggesting he couldn’t make it again? and while in theory he could be on trial, there is no report that is the case. the more likely reason for silence is GB didn’t aggressively chase and lock the one time switch, and so EA is now framing his camp as “por cortesia.” and that’s not speculation, that’s fact. like akinola is going to play for canada. want to speculate how that favors GB somehow as well?

    • Yes but it’s also pure speculation to say Efra wasn’t contacted or that Berhalter didn’t make a push. Until someone with first hand knowledge says something assuming USMNT didn’t do this or that is just complaining to complain.

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  2. The 12 “Senior” players called leaves a lot to be desired. I get the GK’s called, but the defenders are either uninspired known entities or someone I’ve never heard of before. Midfield is even bleaker with only Lletget a viable depth option. At attack I get Morris & Mueller (who’s age eligible for the U-23s), but why Jozy (always injured) an Arriola (known not to be of sufficient quality).
    Hopefully whenever the game is actually scheduled and a roster is selected only Turner/Johnson, Lletget, Morris, & Mueller are included from the Sr side of the camp and the rest of the squad is made up of the U-23 player pool.

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    • At this point we might still need a CB or two from MLS on the full-fledged roster, so it’s still good to give the “known qualities” more training time because they might have a role to play yet. I think regarding our A-team CB depth, the only locked-in player is Brooks; Richards is a likely candidate going forward, perhaps McKenzie backing up Brooks for the time being. But there is a spot open there.
      I don’t think Miazga is a given for a spot, though he’s in the running. So Long and Zimmerman, along with the other defenders, are still fighting for a place on the A roster.

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      • The defense has been disappointing long enough — and yet he has resisted playing new names even when he had Richards around — that we may regret cycling through known quantities. It’s not quite 2016-17 bad but it’s not fixed and it’s the same shortlist mentality. Which feels weird because that’s not how he’s been handling the offense, where he casts the net pretty wide. To me you want known quantities for the business end of the cycle and this is where you learn about everyone to know who’s best. More bluntly my concern is GB has settled on a defense even though it’s readily apparent it’s swiss cheese against teams as bad as Panama. So to him they’re not just known but reliable and since when is that true?? I even think Long is decent most nights but has enough bad days shop his position too. But I expect Long and Zimmerman starting and that’s basically communicating I already know what I want to do. He might trial people wide but I think he has an idea where that’s headed which is why they are mostly labeled “U23.”. Even if LB remains a mess.

      • Known quantities is exactly the problem. How many CB’s has Gregg really tried Since his appointment in Dec. of 2018? There have been a total of 22 Games the USMNT has played under Gregg and this is the breakdown….
        Brooks 3 CAPS – Our Best CB…has 3 appearances under Gregg.
        Long – 16 CAPS – Most inconsistent CB. Not a possession CB & not particularly good at anything. Yet gets a free pass.
        Ream – 15 CAPS – Granted most of these CAPS were at LB not CB…but still way too many for a player of his age/ability.
        Miazga – 9 CAPS – Again an inconsistent payer but has played in ~50% of games.
        Zimmerman – 9 CAPS – Another who doesn’t fit a possession style game. Not really a standout at anything. At least he played only ~50% of the games.
        Omar Gonzalez – 4 CAPS – Was a known waste in 2018, yet still received 4 CAPS.
        McKenzie – 2 CAPS – Only given a shot this year Jan & Dec.
        M. Robinson – 2 CAPS – Had a breakout 2019 club season, but a poor 2020.
        Richards – 1 CAP – Only given a shot this year and understandable. MUST be incorporated more with the US 1st Team.
        CCV – 1 CAP – Completely unexplainable when OMAR was give 4 CAPS.
        EPB – 0 CAPS – Just insane he doesn’t have 1 when the US played in his clubs back yard this year.
        .
        Basically Gregg has hedged he’s bet and only used what he knows (OLD & MLS) with the exception of Brooks. He’s given too much time to below average players (Long, Ream, & Zimmerman) who are older and comfortable choices.
        He’s never given anyone else an opportunity.
        Same can be said for Roldan (14 CAPS), Lovitz (13 CAPS), Arriola (15 CAPS), etc… It shouldn’t take that many games to realize that someone isn’t cutting it, and spend some time finding an alternative.
        Especially when Dave S. helped ID possible options when he was caretaker in 2018 against much stiffer competition than the USMNT has faced under Gregg.
        Players CAPPED by Dave S. during his 11 game run as Coach:
        CCV-8 CAPS, EPB-2 CAPS, Miazga-7 CAPS, A. Robinson-6 CAPS, Weah-8 CAPS, Green-7 CAPS,

  3. Only 3 defenders and 3 midfielders on the senior team? And no Zardes? This seems like a strange, very unbalanced arrangement. You would think there would be a few more MLS veterans that could be called in for those thin positions.

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      • Here is a list of coaches who have considered Zardes valuable. Roy Hodgson, Bruce Arena, Jurgen Klinsmann, Greg Berhalter, and Caleb Porter. They all have one thing in common. They have all been national team coaches, albeit Porter was for the Olympic team. Arena, Klinsmann, and Hodgson have been national team coaches more than once. If you are wondering about Hodgson, he tried to get Zardes to go to England out of college. I think he tried to recruit him for West Ham.

      • Gary, your argument is misleading because GB wants him as a 9 and a lot of the people you are mentioning wanted him as a wing. Trinidad is the best team he has scored on in the region. We need to score on better teams than Trinidad to emerge from the Hex. The 9 is huge and basically what the whole offense funnels to. If it’s that important and he sucks as one, sorry, I would rather play CP out of position, bring back Wood, or give an in form kid a chance, than put my hopes on a winger being played out of position.
        I mean, you realize we handed him the 9 job for Gold Cup and he couldn’t score all knockout round, and we lost the final. I think it’s nuts to have Christian and Reyna and Musah and McKennie and they’re all trying to set up……..Zardes? Really?

      • While I have never been a fan of Zardes, in the MLS final Zardes showed why he is valuable; he worked tirelessly to harass defenders and made good runs that pulled the defense out of shape.

    • The defender thing concerns me because while I like where the offense is headed the defense sucks and yet the selection is complacent. We are running out of windows to change that and Blackmon is the only experiment without a U23 label that basically tickets them to the Olympics instead of qualifying.

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      • Well Zardes has also scored against the Netherlands, and I don’t think we have anyone else on the roster that has scored against a top 10 team in the world so there is that! Zardes will continue being apart of the senior team because he should, his movement and ability to score goals out of nowhere(albeit weird sometimes)can’t be ignored, and his inclusion is exacerbated only because he’s a MLS player when it should be applauded because none of our other ST are doing anything of note domestically or abroad! Is he the most polished or technical player, nope, but he’s beyond serviceable and can handle the mantle until the “pups” catch up!

      • Read the game logs next time — he scored on Holland playing RW. Gyasi’s speed and athleticism were rewarded wide and we were punished less for sloppy finishing because someone else is the focal point 9. I repeat myself, the best team he’s scored on regionally as a 9 is TnT. The best team he has scored on as a 9 is Ecuador. Thanks for playing.

        [Reality is at this point if he tried to move back to RF he would be whooped by the improved talent wide. He was OK in a down period where we missed qualifying. The faster we move past the bunch who couldn’t qualify the better.]

    • Zardes scored twice against Canada who is ranked 31 spots above Trinidad. If you actually watched games you’d also know Zardes is a far better CF than he is a wing. Zardes is a master at making runs that open space for teammates Pulisic, McKennie and Reyna will love to play with Gyasi. I’d love to have a CF that’s the total package but we don’t have one of those right now so Gyasi still needs to be an option.

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  4. I’d like to see Gloster and Reynolds. I’d like to see them keep trying new LB ideas. I’d like to see one of the fresh GKs though I expect they are camp bodies to watch Johnson who sucks.

    Long, Morris, and Lletget should have been left off as proven vets in a busy year. If he likes Zardes still then Jozy is a waste of space as an old player when only one older player slot should be on trajectory for the senior team. Too much young senior talent to be handing out caps to washed up veterans who aren’t even your favorite veteran. Roldan is also a waste of a slot. I think the 2020 games basically demonstrated his lack of value relative to the competition, at which point you might as well give new people a chance. Keita is horrible. I’d have left off Mihailovic but part of the game here is call the camp U23 also so you can call in some frustrating age group players for what should be a senior roster.

    Yueill being labeled U23 is interesting.

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    • I see a lot of whining about things that don’t make sense, or are simply borne out of angst for Greg. Listen, there isn’t much veteran talent domestically over the age of 24 right now in MLS, those that are were called in, but what’s clear is Greg and Co. are focused on getting youth and U-23 players up to speed to be competitive in the Olympics and for the senior team with what will be a long year with several major games and tournaments we’re competing in. The goal is to combine the two camps before the friendly is to be played, so obviously only a few veterans were called in to compensate for that and that is not at all backwards thinking, it’s forward thinking actually! This makes total sense because it allows younger players the chance to up their standing in the pool with an eye for challenging more established players on the senior team. I don’t know how this can be looked at any other way than positively tbh. I understand the angst for Altidore being called in, I too am not that interested in him anymore, but this more than anything else speaks to how thin we are at ST, especially domestically! People continue to rail against Lleget, when all he’s done when healthy is ball out for the USMNT, and he is still only 27y/o(I believe). Let’s let this play out and try harder to fight our urges to want to criticize every move that is made by USMNT management, because if you were to look closely some good things have been done in terms of dual nationals, continuing to integrate younger players into the pool here and abroad and the play on the field is starting to look more fluid

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      • i have nothing against lletget. my point there is he made his case already the last two years and in a busy fixture year these weeks of added practice plus a game are just unnecessary wear and tear. you know what you need to know and there are not many first team locks around to gel with.

      • I think his dual national efforts were delayed, he has few of them actually locked down as a result, and his loosey goosey attitude encourages players to consider and perhaps make a contrary decision. I like the aggression with which he pursued players for the fall but he now only has two of them back in camp. One of the others is playing for Canada. Efrain may have wandered back off. And if he’s going around selling to people that they may get the Olympics that’s stupid. Even if you rate a guy as an Olympian if a bench slot at Gold Cup instead locks them down as American, you pull a Green/AJ and let them be roster player 23 and cap tie them in the tournament. And to me this is backwards. U23 feeds senior team. Not the reverse. If someone stars in this friendly they should be done with U23. If he’s running around offering Olympics to people who think they earned senior team he’s going to lose some of his talent to teams willing to take the risk and brand them senior players.

      • To me actual forward thinking is call this senior camp since it’s a senior game, and if people impress enough they become senior players. Calling a lot of them U23s and hinting that’s the best they will get undermines incentives and is actually fairly short termist. If you track a group of players towards U23 who play no more senior games — even if they look good in this one — you have ruled them out for the summer and fall for senior team, and complicated even using them the rest of quali cycle because they will be inherently inexperienced senior players systematically denied events like Gold Cup where one can be tested and gain experience outside of high stakes quali. You basically create the classic needing experience to get a job paradox. Even as you’re making some effort to bring in young experimental players. Why call in young people only to tell them no matter how well it goes they are Olympians? So we can chase Olympics? Really? I’d prefer qualifying. I’d prefer the senior team progress faster as opposed to he slowwalks a list of talent through some second tier track. I didn’t like it when he did this to Sargent, Weah, and others before, and this is just as silly.

  5. My primary beef would be framing it explicitly as a U23 camp when he otherwise wouldn’t have numbers for the senior team without them, and there is a senior team game scheduled but no U23 fixture. It might be in some ways more honest — I am sure we have had senior camps/games before that were glorified U23 trials but not called that. But this is a senior team game where the standouts should be ticketed to stay with the senior team based on performance. The message this sends is if you have the U23 label you’re on the U23 track no matter how you look or if the senior team could use you. To me this encapsulates a backward mentality where this funnels talent to U23 when to me the purpose of the age groups is to feed the senior team. Particularly when it’s a senior game the reward for performance perhaps should be senior status even if we have the Olympics this summer, as both teams will be playing the same time and a standout player can’t be both places at once. Even if his theory is he doesn’t rate the ones tracked U23 enough, it’s a senior game and the incentives and basis for analysis are goofy if you basically remove the senior carrot and say at best your reward is gelling into the U23. I also don’t support in any way diluting senior team talent for quali and GC to have Olympics players. To me the Olympics players should be the leftovers who after games like this couldn’t help the senior team at all. Otherwise the seniors are busy, the regulars need rest, and the marginals deserve experience and a fair opportunity at the senior slots, not going to a senior camp wearing a scarlet U23 sticker.

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    • Good points, but personally I would choose the Olympics over the GC. I don’t see the point for even holding the GC during WCQ years.

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      • My thing is we may need two units of the senior team to handle quali plus GC and NL, and I would rather have the best players of any age in the senior team trying to qualify and prove their senior team value, as opposed to tracking potentially helpful senior players to U23 and then calling someone like Roldan to fill their spot. I don’t think we need the Olympics that ad. And my other beef is just that I think calling players to senior camp but labeling them U23 before a ball is kicked is premature and gets the goals and incentives backwards. The primary goal is qualify. If you kick butt in this January game or the like you shouldn’t be having to outrun a U23 label. We already went through this once on players like Sargent, who got cut and sent to the Olympic team. Then he reverses himself. So maybe wait on the label til we have to apply it for U23 regionals and maybe Olympics.

  6. What no moaning about Altidore, Long, Roldan and Arriola or any other choices GB made? A lot of otherwise active posters here must finally have tired of their own vitriol.

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