U.S. men’s national team interim head coach Anthony Hudson has already been forced to make one roster change ahead of the resumption of Concacaf Nations League action.
Djordje Mihailovic has been added to the USMNT roster for the upcoming matches against Grenada and El Salvador, replacing forward Timothy Weah. Weah entered concussion protocol after suffering a head injury in Saturday’s 2-0 Ligue 1 victory for Lille.
The 23-year-old Weah has made 22 appearances for Lille this season, and has earned 29 caps with the USMNT.
Mihailovic joined Dutch Eredivisie side AZ Alkmaar in January and has proceeded to score one goal and add one assist in nine senior appearances. The 24-year-old previously played in MLS with CF Montreal and the Chicago Fire before moving to Europe.
Mihailovic has earned six caps for the USMNT, scoring on his international debut in January 2019. His last USMNT appearance came in December 2020 during a 6-0 friendly win over El Salvador.
The USMNT claimed four points out of a possible six so far in Nations League play, defeating Grenada 5-0 and tying El Salvador 1-1. Hudson’s squad will visit Grenada on Friday, March 24 before hosting El Salvador at Exploria Stadium on March 27.
“i personally would prefer to learn right now about booth, reynolds, etc. more than relearn what i think of christian. as it stands maybe i see them for 10-90′.”
I don’t mind seeing them now but I can’t take it seriously.
I’m more concerned with how they look when we are heading into picking the Copa America team or the 2026 World Cup. That’s when it matters.
my issue is 90% of this team is picked like they are taking grenada and ES deadly seriously. these are the first 2 full access friendlies of the new cycle. anyone familiar with 2007, 11, 15, or 17-18 knows these are the games when you call a bunch of trialists who couldn’t make the world cup we just played, either for being young or they just missed it but are seen as promising. this should be like the first september or october friendly after a world cup. think “portugal 2017.”
personally i find the justifications a bit contradictory. we seem super serious about winning despite the quality of opponents. we then call mostly who we just lost to holland with. to be fair, they should destroy the teams we are scheduled to play, but your own experience should tell you they finished the world up with 1W 2T 1L and perhaps possibly hmmm maybe not the 2026 endgame. or if they are, we aren’t going as far as some dream.
i feel like one reason we plateau is right about now we get conservative on system and selection. we act scared that change threatens our current standing. instead of looking at what can we tweak or who can we add to make this some bit better where we compete for even bigger things. my personal experience, my club team made it to the final 4 in state, lost out, swapped out a few players to chase state, won it the next year. the US would be hemming and hawing that we can’t mess with a final 4 team. are we trying to win or not. or are we trying to prove some sort of stylistic point with coaches like berhalter and hudson. in which case, “where’s my pretty soccer then?” anyhow, i don’t get what the justification for stasis is. we got beat up badly 3-0 in a first round knockout against an ok opponent, not even a semi team. we didn’t look much better against similar teams in 2018. so maybe try something different. new coach, some new faces, new system.
“my issue is 90% of this team is picked like they are taking grenada and ES deadly seriously. ”
?????
What a crock of shit.
HTF does “deadly” seriously differ from “seriously” or from “drunkenly throwing darts at a list posted on a wall” seriously?
There are good reasons to get the team together that have nothing to do with the specific identity of the opponents. Especially in light of the possibility that it might be a while before Gregg gets back.
If your car is going to be sitting in the garage for a while, it’s a good idea to start it up periodically to keep the battery from draining.
2014 first friendly after Brazil, vs Czech Republic we brought 11 guys not on WC roster this time we have 13 (12 before Weah).
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2010 we played Brazil in August with 2 players not on WC roster Bedoya and Kljestan. The Oct friendly in 2010 had 1 non WC player starting that was Jermaine Jones who would have been at WC had he not been injured.
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I really hate when facts get in the way of a good opinion.
put differently, i don’t believe this is really our best team to win games, and it’s also not trialing new contributors much.
i agree with the sentiment that we should care about games more later in the cycle but the problem is that the fanboys have expanded the list of must-wins to every game that counts for the cycle, which will mean 2-3 cycles of nations league qualifying, probably 4 or more tournaments. taking that deadly serious encourages systemic and personnel conservatism.
historically the US while trying to win would calibrate the squad to the opponents. ok we can try some new players against cuba or barbados and not be so insecure we don’t try anything risky. and the funny thing on couva is you can argue we lost for making too few changes to the first choice lineup and not too many. have some faith you can send a team of guys like cohen reynolds cowell green balogun zendejas tolkin down to grenada and pick up 3 points. it might not be 8-0 but the idea is figure out who else we have and not reprove we fetishized the old group a lot. who then proved to have limits.
“when they get a few weeks to work together, bed in new people in the summer, get them on the field for multiple games that count.”
A few weeks?
Care to tell me when that happens with the players who will realisticaily be in the first 26 ?
And if it does, how may months pass by between those few weeks?
How many club teams do you know that regularly have two months between league games?
as i discussed below, what i am saying is summer tournaments are when they have weeks to play together and really work on system and rapport. a friendly window is like a week or 10 days of a few practices and a couple games. as such to me it makes more sense, at least early in cycles, to just try out players in friendly windows with basic scheme introduction. when you have the players at length for summer tournaments is when it makes sense to focus on the first choice and implement your system.
i feel like our win-now mentality aggrandizes the coach’s system, choices, and success now at the expense of being ready for the endgame. i think personnel wins games so i think it’s more important to be sure you pick the right people than to emphasize system and chemistry which i see as putting the coach on the pedestal. the system looked bad so i don’t think our coaches should be propped up as better than they are.
to me this coach shouldn’t be picking favorites, as he is just keeping the seat warm. he should be putting the pool on tape for the actual coach to review. otherwise, let’s be blunt, we will go through this process now where hudson settles on his people, and then the new hire in september will start back over from zero trialing players. so this whole year should just be an extended trial, and if you just have to take games seriously, make 1 or both summer tournaments a serious effort based on who trialed well.
i also want this because i feel like too much of this team is picked off paper and not how the games go. eg i don’t think we brought back the actual best january camp players.
also re basic scheme introduction, if one believes in “playbook security” and dual national risk, maybe any idiot coming in for a friendly, that the coach is saying can shop the competition, shouldn’t get the full playbook just yet. conversely efforts should be made to cap tie anyone who does get called. letting, say, ochoa in camp but then not tying him down risks him telling mexico the scheme. not that the scheme works, but NFL teams usually save practicing their trick plays for after the preseason cuts.
“then not tying him down risks him telling mexico the scheme. not that the scheme works, but NFL teams usually save practicing their trick plays for after the preseason cuts.”
This isn’t the NFL.
A guy like Ochoa telling Mexico the “scheme” is not that big a deal.
Especially since the USMNT often looked like they did not know what kind of scheme they were playing.
primary concern is weah. that looked bad. secondarily i think this change is good as it gets us to trial an experiment instead of so much of a first string call sheet. if it freaks out the uber-capitalists to trial complete noobs, even at cycle start, djordje has a cap history and was in contention for the world cup team. this is the time in the cycle when most teams — even the best — see what all is in their pool to play with. i’d favor that over win at all costs, though i think this pair of games are fairly easy even if we sent out a B or experimental team.
i’m not even going to fuss about precisely who, he has had interesting numbers and i’d like to see what he does. that i’d prefer to see more like him, separate issue. not going to beef because it’s more appropriate to what i think we should be doing anyway. and the reality is the starters will start salvador and the only question will be who plays grenada. which is my response to the people acting like he goes from off the list to starting. this instead will push reyna to starter and zendejas to backup, with djordje in reserve — that is, unless the coach started a crack habit.
I don’t really think anyone is complaining about his inclusion or will care if he plays against Grenada.
and i said my point was not even him specifically, he’s fine, it’s we should be trialing more like him. this game is akin to a world cup qualifying semi round game back in the day, or perhaps even the prelim rounds to get there eg teams we played like barbados. we have already slapped them around at home. even with my rule of thumb 1-2 goal swing for road games, it’ll be a walk. send hungry kids out there.
“primary concern is weah. that looked bad. ”
It looks like Weah should be ready for the 2026 opener.
i said that but i just saw footage of him in the lockerroom walking around with an icepack on the side of his face. i read something that suggested he’s out due to our concussion protocol. in other words we made our own medically driven decision not to call.
Concussion protocol is a real thing. Definitely wouldn’t be allowed to fly if he had a concussion and need to be symptom free before you can return to play. If Tim had a concussion it “wasn’t our decision”. You can have a concussion and still be walking in the locker room with an ice pack.
If the break is for WCQ, then perhaps there is more leverage in negotiations with clubs. But the Nations League in comparison is relatively meaningless, taking slots where the US previously could schedule games against worthwhile opponents.
We know what Weah brings to the team. It’s an opportunity for Mihailovic to make a good impression.
personally i think it’s more important when they get a few weeks to work together, bed in new people in the summer, get them on the field for multiple games that count. beyond that, meh. i think something played at the intensity of the old defunct confed cup mattered but many friendlies don’t. people are dissing games that count played with intensity because of opponent quality but some of the marquee friendlies are played at a canter. [to be fair, mexico is played at 11/10 but that’s maybe one friendly a year.]
i think we need to be more concerned with a functioning system, getting the players a rapport where they can play off each other, trial some fresh faces, a little less concerned with pretending like if we played gods we’d become them ourselves. 2018’s schedule suggests otherwise. the teams you play don’t make your team work right. in fact, you might need to change yours based on theirs ie how the games go. which we don’t do enough.
“when they get a few weeks to work together, bed in new people in the summer, get them on the field for multiple games that count.”
A few weeks?
Care to tell me when that happens with the players who will realisticaily be in the first 26 ?
And if it does, how may months pass by between those few weeks?
How many club teams do you know that regularly have two months between league games?
what i was referring to was several weeks to practice and play together and really dial things in. that time frame is often available at summer tournaments where they might camp 1-2 weeks early, where they may call more than they dress/carry on the tournament roster (ie there may be a cut), and where they after showing up and beginning the tournament keep practicing and playing games for 3 weeks or so. in the right coaching hands i think that’s more valuable than exactly who our opponents are. that’s when you can figure out set piece guys, dial set pieces in, get to know players better, test them in several games, and maybe start to develop serious rapport like they are almost club teammates, on and off the field. people act like this gets done on normal windows but they might get a few practices then play, few more, play again. you aren’t drilling in the full system package there. you might teach the noobs the basics and then work on a specific issue or two. even if players start getting along you tear them back apart in a week. then hope they can find it again months later. i buy more gets done when they have a month or more just hanging out and being a team constantly.
which is why, to me, spend the early friendlies on trialing players then focus in on the best ones for the tournaments. it also serves the purpose that we seem to constantly pick a few of the wrong players at this stage, spend a lot of time integrating them, then figure out they aren’t good enough. eg zardes. so maybe instead of picking the winners before we play a friendly, as we did with zardes, only to watch him crater, just play games with trialists and see if zardes is really any better than options A B C D so to speak. make him earn it. heck, i still see the tournaments as them competing for time within their tier of quality. i think we should save all the system effort and selection certainty for the end of the process once we are sure we have picked the right ones and decided on a system that fits them. as it stands we force a system that doesn’t fit the personnel, and we kind of assume who we like from the pool on paper instead of send them out to compete for that crown.
anyhow, start experimental and only later settle on who performs for us — and not club form. use the tournaments more to test if we picked the right ones than as win at all costs. if your picker is right we will win anyway…..
Like 2021 when we took almost two entirely different teams to the GC? Or Jan camps or any of the winter Covid camps when we play guys who have shown glimpses but probably aren’t ready or the April match vs Mexico you were complaining about. Before 2019 GC when experimental rosters were used when we lost to Jamaica and Venezuela. Or Mexico fall of 2019 when Berhalter chose to work on tactics instead of winning the friendly. Berhalter and now Hudson seem to have done exactly what you’re prescribing yet you repeatedly call them names and question their soccer team building knowledge. Berhalter called in over 100 players in his time that’s unprecedented stop acting like he don’t experiment.
JR: quit pushing a false narrative. ANYONE who coached this young a pool was going to try a ton of people. and he still managed to get to the world cup not sure if he had the right 9.
dude, january camp is always a bunch of fresh faces. that is such a misleading basis for acting like a coach is open to new people. now that most of the NT is foreign being forced to primarily call domestics and the few released players is by definition going to yield a sort of trialist camp.
we are in march. who did he just call for march? mostly regulars. what i am saying is extend that spirit for the full access windows for a bit at this point in the cycle. where you go awry is this is 80-90% a first choice team for march. mostly the usual suspects with a sprinkling of some noobs. i count 3-4 guys who weren’t either on last year’s team, competing for it to the end, or played in january. so that’s how many “trialists” there are, and they have to fight for time against the first choice. so you’re playing soccer games more than you’re trying out new things. that encourages continuity and complacency.
i personally would prefer to learn right now about booth, reynolds, etc. more than relearn what i think of christian. as it stands maybe i see them for 10-90′.
the game you play is you want jedi and dest playing all the time then tell me when i’m like how about reynolds, well, but he hasn’t played. now is your chance for that to happen. otherwise you have put your thumb on the scales. i should then judge you even more harshly by if jedi and dest who you gave all the time, get torched by holland. either pick exactly the right people, or share out the time at first and make people win the jobs. why do we do this at keeper and no place else.
“i personally would prefer to learn right now about booth, reynolds, etc. more than relearn what i think of christian. as it stands maybe i see them for 10-90′.”
I don’t mind seeing them now but I can’t take it seriously.
I’m more concerned with how they look when we are heading into picking the Copa America team or the 2026 World Cup. That’s when it matters.
see i am on your team on this. historically some key USMNT guys would play as few as 8-10 games a year. i think this changed with landon — who could get called all the time — but most of his career (and NT game travel) was domestic and he also between the euro-loans and endless caps burned out earlier than one might have expected for someone so fit and relatively injury free, and then didn’t make 2014. we seem eager to have pulisic show up and then look exhausted for reasons beyond me. money. win at all costs. something like that.
i don’t think the fanboys think about rest. i kind of wonder how many really played at a high level because i would get banged up over a season. i think maybe it’s a capitalist work ethic thing. they are willing to leave a player to work with their club but not to put his feet up in a recliner, despite yakking obliviously about our injury count. where does it come from? hmmm maybe playing twice a week then being capped all the time then some bad luck. so maybe give them a day off occasionally, or even let some skip summer tournaments.
last point, the system is dysfunctional and they don’t look that much like they have ever played together before, despite a whole cycle of this stuff. for all the “gelling” obsession it doesn’t look well oiled. but we don’t see a lot of tricks, flicks, and clairvoyance. which to me if they don’t have incredible rapport aka “gel” then maybe it’s about coaching or selection and less about sheer amount of time together. i always thought gel and clairvoyance generally stemmed from selecting players good at combining and passing in tight spaces. that it’s a selectable skill and not just a product of experience together.
I thought Tillman would be next in line.
Tillman is injured, that’s why Tillman, CCV, and Adam’s were not called up.
He scored for Rangers yesterday but recently returned from an injury that caused him to miss three games. I suspect Rangers didn’t release him for this reason.
Jason, they can’t refuse to release him. However, it was probably negotiated for him to not be called up. Another injury and he will be though.
Yeah as Jason said just returned off the bench yesterday after a month out. He’s scored in his last 4 matches across all comps but Rangers likely asked for him to be left to recover. Of course Mihailovic, Pulisic, Booth, Zendajas, and maybe Reyna have missed matches in the last month due to injury/fitness, Weah was the one that was healthy. Djordje was unlucky not to get a look last summer with an untimely injury probably deserves this opportunity.
And Richards as you mentioned the other day. Apparently his back is still not 100%.
dude you can only turn down a call if he’s injured now. more likely we left him off based on him being fresh off hurt. personally i have found our occasional penchant for calling hurt players for friendlies, or even summer tournaments like adams, silly. not worth the risk.
Good to see you back. I took a break myself.