Pre-match: January 2025 Camp & Friendlies v Venezuela (Jan 18) and Costa Rica (Jan 22)

Bad luck for him but on the other hand many would've been quite annoyed if he played ahead of Freese

TEAM NEWS: #USMNT goalkeeper Drake Callender is experiencing a minor muscle issue and has rejoined Inter Miami for further evaluation and treatment. pic.twitter.com/5fx56oqTSE

— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) January 16, 2025

 

Of the keepers in this camp, I think he's probably the one I least expected to make an appearance in these next two games.

 

I was thinking in terms of compared to their MLS peers, as in Miazga, isn’t getting much more than a Polish guy with the same CV in MLS. You’re probably right about the global market.

 

Who is the Polish guy?

 

Indeed. At the start of the 2022 season, Jesus Ferreira signed a Dp contract to ~2 million guaranteed. That season he had 24 goal contributions in MLS. Finished tied for fourth in the league on goals.

If he was a 22 year old Colombian, as opposed to a 22 year old Colombian-American, would anybody think twice about him being on that DP contract?

No.........................

Not all of the high=salary domestic guys live up to the money. But then again, neither do the foreign guys. Lorenzo Insigne was getting paid $15.4 million for his 10 goal contributions up in Toronto.

 

It's tough to tell because "fitness" out of context in American English refers to stuff like performance on the beep test but in British English, whose terminology has a tendency to bleed into soccer contexts in the US, it can also mean injury recovery.

 

They are interrupting their club pre-season 4 weeks ahead of kickoff. I'm not sure what sort of shape players are meant to be in 4 weeks ahead of the first game of the season. Even for the first couple of competitive games you probably don't want to be 100% or you'll end up burning out midway through the season.

If Poch wants them to be 100% fit for Venezuela then they'll have to rest and recover afterwards when they get back to their clubs.

This is why clubs resent international callups. It completely messes up their preparation, training and/or recovery.

 

Here's how it was worded in the goalcom article.

Ferreira is departing camp so that he can return to full fitness ahead of the 2025 campaign with the Seattle Sounders after he was evaluated in his initial medical, while Neal is experiencing a "minor issue" and left to join CF Montreal in their Florida training camp. Callender, meanwhile, experienced a minor muscle issue resulting in his return to Inter Miami.

So there was something about that "initial medical" that made the staff feel like they didn't want to push him. That sounds like some type of injury issue. Maybe it wasn't really an injury, but injury prevention. Maybe he's not 100% recovered from the muscle injuries he was suffering at the end of the FCD season.

It doesn't say "Pochettino evaluated the guys in training, and Jesus Ferreira wasn't fit enough for his liking."

 

I guess people can choose to believe anything they want (even flat earth conspiracies) but all the actual evidence suggests that there is some very real and not made up fitness issue with Ferreira, and that's what Jeremiah Oshan who covers the Sounders is also reporting...

Got a bit of an update on Jesús Ferreira. It’s apparently a fitness issue, not an injury one. Ferreira basically wasn’t game-fit, which isn’t a huge shock given that he last played 90 mins on Oct. 2. He’s apparently joining Sounders on Friday.

— Jeremiah Oshan (@JeremiahOshan) January 16, 2025

 

Matt Miazga but he chose Poland.

 

None of these players are game fit.

 

Luna is more than ready

Luna’s new look 🌝 pic.twitter.com/ZkWaudoucs

— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) January 17, 2025

 

Game fit? "Two weeks of training behind us. We're ready to play."

Two weeks of training behind us. We're ready to play.

— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) January 17, 2025

Poch on Eneli

Pochettino on Emeka Eneli

“Good player, very nice, very energetic. He’s a midfielder that we are going to use. Happy with him.” pic.twitter.com/CFhpssnUUu

— Caleb Turner (@calebturner23) January 17, 2025

 

Eneli is one almost none of us were considering.
That's what a coach with fresh eyeballs on a pool can do for you............................

 

May 15 2024:

(but yeah zero reps because not everyone knows ball)

 

Interesting how many guys still fall through the cracks... and Agyemang is one of the guys in camp many of us are more eager to see at the international level. Just in recent years we've had guys like Wondo... Matt Turner is pretty much the consensus #1 GK. Max Arfsten on this roster also came out of nowhere and is quite interesting... hell Canada's Bombito is considered by some the best CB in the region.

Patrick Agyemang never played for an MLS academy. At 18, he played college soccer with Eastern Connecticut University, a division III school.

After 40 g/a in 39 games, he transferred to Rhode Island University at 20.

He turned pro at 22 and now at 24, he got called up to USMNT. pic.twitter.com/C5wG3RTR36

— Anthony (@AnthonyKyaw) January 18, 2025

 

Poch spoke about the quality of the players in camp, and specifically said their set piece training session was the best he’s seen since he’s been in charge.
To me, this points to a McGlynn start. That’s where he’s special and maybe the best we have there, Euros included.

 

US Soccer seems to be pushing back against the idea that January camp is irrelevant. I don't know how anyone can really even criticize it, it's basically free roulette wheel spins and it's not like there's anything better we could be doing at this time of year. Sorry if you would rather not be working Jurgen but that's why we are paying you. Even if you're a complete Eurosnob, a good number of our players are going to come out of MLS like Tyler Adams and will probably make their debuts in a January camp. There are always some guys on the roster that are not really worth taking a look at, but hopefully we see less of that in the future given how new half the teams in MLS still are. Of course the USMNT coach has to actually be paying attention. Many were speculating that not a lot of care was taken when selecting the back end of this roster and Poch's facial expression when asked about Indiana Vassilev (one of the many WTF selections) supports that.


https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...slate-with-january-friendly-against-venezuela

Since the beginning of the 2002 World Cup cycle, 30 men who earned their first or second senior cap during a January/winter camp went on to make a World Cup roster. Seventeen of those 30 made the World Cup squad at the end of the same cycle. Among the 26 players who went to Qatar in 2022, nine won their first or second cap at a January camp.​

 

Hoping for:
Freese; Arfsten, Robinson, Zimmerman, Jones; Eneli, McGlynn, Luna; Clark, Agyemang, Gutierrez

Expecting:
Steffen; Jones, Robinson, Ream, Moore; Eneli, Cremaschi, McGlynn; Luna, White, Miljevic

 

He started Miljevic and Cremaschi as I predicted LOL

How long until we see guys moving to Argentina to get Poch's attention... Alan Sonora call up?

Also US Soccer HATES Diego Luna
No Freese
No Eneli as DM lol

Our first starting XI of 2025 🇺🇸

— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) January 18, 2025

 

I like what Poch is doing. From the US Soccer site it says pre game 2;30 and kick off at 3 East.

LINEUP NOTES
USMNT vs. Venezuela
International Friendly
Jan. 18, 2025
Chase Stadium; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Pre-Game Coverage: 2:30 p.m. ET; TNT, Telemundo, Universo, Max, Peacock
Kickoff: 3 p.m. ET; TNT, Telemundo, Universo, Max, Peacock, Fütbol de Primera Radio
Social Media: @USMNT on X and Instagram; U.S. Soccer on Facebook, The U.S. Soccer App

Today’s USMNT Starting XI vs. Venezuela: 1-Patrick Schulte; 18-Shaq Moore, 20-George Campbell, 12-Miles Robinson (Capt.), 15-Max Arfsten; 6-Benjamin Cremaschi, 16-Jack McGlynn; 23-Caden Clark, 11-Matko Miljevic, 17-Brian Gutiérrez; 7-Patrick Agyemang

Substitutes: 21-Matt Freese, 22-Zack Steffen, 3-Walker Zimmerman, 5-DeJuan Jones, 8-Brian White, 10-Diego Luna, 13-Tim Ream, 14-Emeka Eneli, 19-Indiana Vassilev

 

@xbhaskarx I think the idea with Luna is put him on when they see how things are going - I mean it must be hard to scout the opposition for this window. There's another game in this window as well. Main thing is he finally got a call up.

 

The NT having and continuing to have players who began or are in MLS isn't a reason to have or not have this camp. This camp isn't the NT and shouldn't be conflated with the NT. It's JV to a varsity.

The NT prospects/players from MLS should be included in actual NT camps. Actually I think our program has historically been too slow incorporating MLS players into the NT because they have this stupid idea the process should begin first with Jan camp like it's the proving grounds to get a NT call up which is absurd- so everything gets delayed. It's this weird "we can always take a look in Jan" which provides a safety cushion which in practice is a negative. For those who are legitimately on the NT program cusp.

That btw doesn't mean don't have this camp.

 

Luna is not everyone's taste I guess. I hope he gets a look.

 

I’d have predicted all of Luna, Eneli, and Ream to start. 50/50 on Freese. But I honestly have been paying only peripheral attention. Can anyone comment on what Poch might be up to here? Or if my prediction was just off base?