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Djordje Mihailovic ruled out of USMNT June camp with ankle injury

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Djordje Mihailovic’s return to the U.S. men’s national team for a busy June schedule was a testament to the midfielder’s stellar rise in MLS, but the grueling wait for Mihailovic will unfortunately continue due to a recent ankle injury.

Mihailovic is ruled out of June camp due to an ankle injury suffered in Saturday’s 4-3 league win with CF Montreal, U.S. Soccer announced Monday. The 23-year-old will not be replaced on Gregg Berhalter’s roster for the quartet of matches against Morocco, Uruguay, El Salvador and Grenada.

Mihailovic played only 17 minutes in Saturday’s match at Stade Saputo before being substituted off following a collision with FC Cincinnati’s Junior Moreno. The attacking midfielder was set to earn his first USMNT cap since featuring in a December 2020 friendly against El Salvador.

Mihailovic has impressed in his first two years with CF Montreal after being acquired in a trade with the Chicago Fire in 2020. The former Fire homegrown player totaled four goals and 16 assists for CF Montreal in 2021, setting a career-high in both categories.

His impact carried over to 2022, where Mihailovic has totaled seven goals and four assists in 14 league appearances this season. In total, Mihailovic has earned six caps for the USMNT, scoring once in his debut back in January 2019 vs. Panama.

The USMNT kicks off its busy window on June 1 in Cincinnati against Morocco.

Comments

  1. I was looking forward to seeing what this kid could bring to the game and how his playing style would work with some of our regular A-Teamers. I guess now we’ll get to see how in-effective Roldan is….Again.
    I’m becoming resigned to the fact that Roldan will make the WC roster regardless of the fact that he lacks the ability to complete at the international level. He’ll end up going because Gregg will claim he needs to keep continuity among the players familiarity within the system. This is why I’ve been so disappointed in Gregg’s unwillingness to drop Roldan & Lletget earlier and give some other players opportunities. Now we’re stuck with them.

    Reply
    • This constant whining, they don’t play. Your complaining about the 5th and 6th 8 spot. Even if Reyna isn’t ready for Qatar Roldan is 6th in line how is he going to see the field. Lleget hasn’t seen the field the last ten matches and hasn’t been called the last two camps. Roldan played 75 minutes over 14 games. Would you know more about another player from 75 minutes?

      Reply
      • I get where you both are coming from. I think Djordje would potentially be a better option than Roldan. However, having Roldan on the 26 man roster isn’t bad if there are no better options. In short stints he’s passable and that’s how GGG has used him in qualifying. Like JR said, he probably won’t see the pitch unless we have a ton of injuries anyway.

        I think that’s more the concern than him being player 25 or 26. If there are that many injuries where he’s first off the bench, ouch.

      • Since Gregg took over in Dec. of 2018 Roldan has the following stats:
        25 caps, 1266 min, 0 Goals, 0 Assists
        You point out that he’s played 75 minutes over the course of the last 14 games that the US has played….fine. What did we learn about Roldan in the last 14 games that we didn’t learn in the previous 11 where he played considerably more minutes?
        What did we learn about anyone else who could have been called into a camp but wasn’t so Roldan could ride the bench….Nothing because Gregg refused to call anyone else. No Green, No Holmes, No Mihailovic.
        Could one of these guys possibly have contributed something…..we’ll never know and now it’s basically too late to try.
        You may think it’s acceptable to include players in the roster who contributes nothing on the field….but I don’t. I was upset when JK brought Brad Davis and Wondo to the 2014 WC instead of Donovan and I was pissed when Arena refused to budge from his guys (Omar, Bradley, etc…) when it was clear that the game had passed them by in 2018.
        Rewarding mediocure players is never acceptable….I don’t care if they are 6th on the depth chart. If they can’t contribute on the field they shouldn’t be with the team.

    • That’s how Michael Bradley became a regular.

      There were all kinds of chances for other players to take PT away from him but the challengers, guys like Edu, Sasha, Benny, Rico, Holden, Jermaine Jones, etc., either sucked or kept getting hurt at inconvenient times.

      The difference is Michael got better and better while Roldan did not. He’s the same invisible, humdrum, mediocre guy for the USMNT that he has always been. He may play like a super star for Seattle but if he does not play like one for the USMNT then who cares?

      The lesson is that showing up matters but playing well to show you deserve more also matters.

      At this point, it’s hard to imagine that Roldan is ever going to perform any better for the USMNT.

      While he’s always likely to remain at the lower end of the roster,. it’s hard to believe that they could not find someone else with a little more potential to improve or to produce something special.

      Reply
  2. That sucks.

    I was really hoping to get a good long look at him. I personally think he’s ahead of Busio at the moment as an 8 – I like Busio, eventually, as a 6, though he’s got some work to do there in getting some lead in his butt and getting nastier defensively and I think Busio might be more of a 2026 guy than 2022 guy – and I thought Djorde would make a fairly nice complement to Luca de la Torre.

    Here’s hoping the winds shift and Djorde gets another opportunity. I think he can help us in 2022.

    Reply
    • I don’t think Djordge is an 8 in our 4-3-3. He really plays very little defense for Montreal (not that they ask him to). As he played for the Olympic qualifying squad he’s more a tucked in winger. I also don’t think Busio will ever be a solo 6, if he as a ball winner next to him in a double pivot sure but he just first have the defensive skill of technique to be a ball winner.

      Reply
      • The thing is, if Busio DOESN’T improve his defensive chops he could wind up on the outside looking in at some point, IMHO…for him it’s the 6 or nothing. IMHO, because he just is not dynamic enough or good enough on the ball or creative enough to be one of our co-8’s. I absolutely love his vision and he’s a tremendous passer – especially a tremendous long passer – and he’s got a vicious shot from distance and dead-ball ability to boot and he’s got more than a little Pirlo in him but Busio’s weaknesses could keep him off the squad altogether unless he figures out a way to minimize some of them and it’s easier to get more committed and more rugged defensively than to magically become awesome on the ball.
        Also, to me, the big HELP WANTED sign is over the 6 spot anyhow…we have Tyler Adams and that’s mostly it…Acosta can do it but he’s a better 8 than 6, IMHO.
        Still, whether as a tucked-in winger (which works for us, since Dest and Jedi are so enthusiastic about getting forwards), or as an 8, I still think Djordje could have helped us. He’s been arguably one of the top 2-3 guys in MLS the last season and a half or so since he finally got healthy.

      • I don’t think what Busio is missing is a learnable trait. If we use the same formation he’ll struggle as an 8 or a 6 at times. I think in the right system he could play as a tucked in winger but then his competition for the spot is even deeper.

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