The U.S. men’s national team is continuing its preparation for the conclusion of the Concacaf Nations League tournament, but interim head coach B.J. Callaghan is already confident in his Gold Cup roster to get the job done later this summer.
Callaghan announced his 23-player final Gold Cup roster on Monday, providing several players with another opportunity to excel for the USMNT in a knockout competition. Several veteran pieces such as Matt Turner, Aaron Long, Jesus Ferreira, and Jordan Morris were all included in the roster while 11 players in total have Gold Cup experience under their belts.
With many of the European-based contingent receiving a short break before the start of their individual preseason camps, the focus will be on others to step up in a big way if the Americans want to repeat as tournament champions.
“It’s a roster that has a good mix of veteran players that have World Cup experience and younger players that have earned an opportunity to come into camp and represent the United States in the Gold Cup,” Callaghan said in a Q&A with U.S. Soccer following the roster release. “We’re trying to expose as many players as possible to tournament competition. Some have a lot of experiences that we continue to build on, while others are just starting out. In all cases it will be valuable for the group moving forward.
“Many of these players have performed well at their clubs as well as the previous opportunities that they’ve had when they’re in the national team environment,” he added. “This is a group that we have a lot of confidence in as we look to win another Gold Cup trophy.”
Out of the European-based players called in, several enjoyed positive seasons at club level to build off of in camp. Bryan Reynolds enjoyed a strong loan spell with Westerlo in the Belgian First Division while Djordje Mihialovic and Gabriel Slonina earned their first club experiences in the Netherlands and England respectively.
Gianluca Busio was in-and-out of the Venezia squad this season, but took another key step forward in his overall development.
Many MLS starters were also named to the USMNT roster including Brandon Vazquez, Julian Gressel, and John Tolkin, who all have enjoyed positive first halves in 2023. Others such as Jalen Neal and Cade Cowell will be hoping to make the most of the opportunity after graduating from the Under-20 team.
The USMNT will be joined by Jamaica, Nicaragua, and a preliminary round winner in Group A later this June, with hopes of rolling its way to the tournament final come July. Although the Americans’ schedule begins just six days after the Nations League Final, Callaghan remains confident in his squad’s ability to hit the ground running come June 24.
“Everything we’ve built over the last four years helps us and really comes together in a moment like this,” Callaghan said. “At the same time, even the younger players have been in our environment over the last couple of months and know what to expect. As long as we continue to keep things consistent then the expectation is that they will be able to pick up and gel as quickly as possible because they’re coming into a familiar environment and know the demands that are going to be placed on them.”
And apparently Crocker is now working full time for US, but still from his home in England.
i mean, he picked them, right?
Doug McIntyre at Fox reporting Crocker has spoken with 10 manager prospects. Including some from Europe and one from Central America. That has to be Hugo Perez right? Matarazzo apparently has been contacted but McIntyre wasn’t sure if he was included in the ten. We’re getting closer.
Is he planning to talk to more than just 10?
Hugo? That would be great. I also wonder if they are considering Christiansen of Panama.
In other news Dest is allegedly getting close to signing up with Union Berlin. So maybe they listened to Bobby Wood?
As I read it it sounded like he begged his source for anything he could print. So they gave him the least amount info possible as vaguely as possible.
Perez seems to me to have done an excellent job.
Another regional coach I really like is Canada’s Herdman. Don’t know if he is gettable, but I think he has gotten that team to overachieve.
i’d be curious if herdman’s son coming of age concretes him to canada — where he plays club — or shifts him to NZ — where his most recent YNT games were (we played his kid). i’d also think his fairly direct counter and speed style, while appealing to me (and fitting to the pool IMO), goes over like a lead balloon with the cult that seems to be setting our direction. herdman came off to me as sit back late, counter, and chances over possession. vs. the “english DNA” project that crocker was involved with before saints and here, described itself as about possession and winning the ball back early.
given the vibe i get from the potential list it might hurt herdman also that he’s never been an MLS coach, even though as canada NT coach that would be silly beyond obnoxiousness. he’d know us backwards and forwards.
while i am at it the cult might consider that crocker already pushed one of these national style projects on a historically superior team than us (england) and at 2022 the net result was a tepid tie when they played us then exiting a single round later than we did. we don’t come off like we either learned from GB’s cycle or that the last time crocker sold the same bill of goods they didn’t take over the world. i expect tweaking of what doesn’t really work as opposed to the overhaul this needs.
i have a feeling a chunk of the folks are gonna be trendy domestics and there might be some fudging of who is “american” vs. “candidates from France, Germany, Spain, Central America.” as such, you’r probably right that the last one is perez. at least one “from germany” may be matarazzo, yes. i could also see wagner and marsch if we’re going full fanboy. let’s just call the full list of americans fired from fashionable positions for losing a lot. to me the common thread on the whole list is how many teams they have lost at. i want a winner. that’s what we’re trying to do, right? win soccer games? against elite competition? hire someone who’s proven he can do that.
what does losing a lot in concacaf prove? about as good as ES can beat is panama. it’s prettier soccer than normal ES but i would argue ES over the past 40 years or so has had better teams than this competitively. “i like him because he made a bunch of central american lumberjacks prettier to watch” is not solving the “can we beat argentina” type concern. it bluntly makes me continue to wonder whether the priority is actually winning or instead aesthetics or picking snob favorites.
“spain,” “france,” and to some extent “germany” give me some hope the search has been opened up to a more serious level of candidate. the first two i don’t know of anyone we have coaching there so by logic they aren’t “ours.” and he could be being less spinny than i think and he literally means german coaches. who knows. let’s see the end product.
to me the news isn’t shocking, he kind of said there’d be a first round around now and a second round later in the summer. the precise way it’s worded suggests roughly 60/40 or 50/50 domestic out of the 10 (“includes” 4 areas plus the US from 10 candidates). if some of the nominal “foreigners” are then hugo and matarazzo, if you wanted a good foreign coach, you might be concerned as that might mean as few as 2 outsiders.
a rumor that actually sounded decent and is not MLS-carousel was luis enrique, and he’s spanish which would fir the list. portugal/ mourinho was notably not listed. england/ gerrard was not mentioned. zidane declined. vermes ruled himself out. my guess a few from dolo marsch perez matarazzo vieria henry curtin GB schmetzer.
personally i think most of that list have NT assistant resumes and except enrique they haven’t run a NT and won anything. i don’t think very many off that list even won MLS yet (maybe seattle and LAFC). i am not one of those MLS conspiracists but we seem oddly focused on our domestic league when fewer and fewer players are from there. i get you want a coach familiar with the pool but we have 3 domestic league players even on the A team roster. as our domestic league it would be very easy to either scout or rapidly do homework on. spend a few days watching apple. go do a tour of MLS games. i’d kind of expect whoever coaches to be doing their own homework anyway.
Mourinho is a pipe dream. He wouldn’t want to coach the US. He’s never coached any national team. He doesn’t like young players, and he’s not a touchy feely culture guy (which everyone from Parlow-Cone down to the players has said culture/family/group guy is a must). His 7.5 million euro salary would also be pretty high. That would be 5 or 6 times JK or Gregg.
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Scaloni had been a manager for a grand total of 5 U20 matches including a 2-1 loss to India???????? Sometimes when the guy is the guy is right.
I don’t think you’re totally wrong with that. However, Viera or Henry are French even if they have MLS connections. Matarazzo has spent his entire adult life in Germany. He’s an outsider he’s never been in NT setup as a player or manager or been in MLS. Wagner has always lived and played in Europe so he’s got an American passport but he’s pretty German. I can’t think of anyone Spanish that would be an insider I guess Nico Estevez, but I haven’t heard him mentioned anywhere.
“bluntly makes me continue to wonder whether the priority is actually winning or instead aesthetics or picking snob favorites.”
Mr. Voice,
Name a guaranteed “proven winner” who is anywhere near being a realistic target for the USSF.
If you are a “guaranteed proven winner”, odds are you either:
• Have a better job
or
• Can get a better job than the USMNT.
The one thing the USMNT job has tons of potential.
Potential is a great thing, the sky is the bluest blue with an endless ceiling. Anything is possible.
On the other hand, potential is also code for” it’s there not there yet and may never be there”.
COMPARATIVELY LOW SALARY- Could the USSF come up with the money if it had a Zidane or that kind of candidate willing to sign on?
Absofuckinglutely.
But it’s clear they weren’t leaning that way and more to the point, raising that kind of money comes with a price.
And maybe those clowns don’t want to sell their souls just to please Mr. IV. A shock, I know, the world isn’t fair that way.
Unbelievably those USSF clowns seem to think they have a way to get things done without adhering to Imperative Voice principles.
LONG COMITTMENT- Three years is a long time in soccer. Two years might be more practical.
NATIONAL GAME vs CLUB GAME – a lot of the best managers prefer the different pace and style of the club game and won’t be available to the national team game until they get much further along in their career and even then… For a lot of other countries, the national team manager is just some guy. Usually, they are a guy in between jobs, or a newly retired players looking to make a name for themselves, or some old guy that IV would have euthanized a long time ago, looking to check off some bucket list item before they retire for good.
SKETCHY PLAYER POOL- As a unit they were very good at Qatar but individually, for all the hype, our best players are mostly fringe players on good clubs or good players on fringe clubs.
Our keeper is a reserve for Arsenal.
Dest is MIA for Milan.
Walker is MLS (a fatal disease around here),
Ream ( or he who shall not be named as you prefer) and Antonee play for a pleasant club where if you are a mediocre American you can aspire to play there since competition for places is not too tough,
Adams and Weston just got relegated with a pretty awful Leeds team,
Musah was up and down for Valencia that flirted with relegation for much of the season and finished 16th. Weah is a winger/ striker who can only get on the field for his club if he plays right wingback.
Josh, Pepi Ferreira, Pefok, Haji, impressed no one so we had to steal Flo to fill the #9 and he can’t even get called up by England a team you have already said is garbage
Pulisic is MIA for most of the season.
That’s a lot of potential, in every sense of the word.
We may have an overall more talented player pool than we have ever had but it hasn’t proved it on the field yet.
And the current player pool has no one better when it comes to playing for the USMNT, than the best versions of Kasey Keller, Brad Friedel, Tim Howard, Brad Guzan, Dolo, Boca, Claudio Reyna, Jon OBrien, Tom Dooley, Tony Sannah, DMB, Jermaine Jones, Stu Holden, Clint Mathis, Bobby Convey, Tab, Clint Dempsey, Fabian Johnson, Jozy, Brian McBride and LD.
There are guys presently in the player pool with the potential to better the guys I just listed but again, potential means you ain’t there yet. And you may never be.
My guess is that we wind up with someone who is looking to make a name for themselves. And that means you can rule out most of your guaranteed proven winners. I’ll bet this person might have even been fired by someone at one time.
Regardless I’m sure you’ should have enough there to piss all over them whoever it is.