By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Jan 2, 2012) US Soccer Players -- National Team camp opens today in Phoenix, and with it a new set of expectations for the coaching staff. With head coach Jurgen Klinsmann stressing first choice since taking the job last summer, he gets his first look at a group he's calling "the next in line behind the established players."
Understudies, if you will. The same contrast we're used to seeing in January when Major League Soccer and Scandinavian based players have the availability for a multi-week camp. MLS is providing the entire goalkeeping pool, six of the seven defenders, five of the six midfielders, and all of the forwards. That gives this squad a median, what we're used to seeing in MLS.
Whether or not Klinsmann uses his weeks in training to play to that set of strengths or tries to do what he's done with his first choice squad is the major question for this camp. Are we seeing the latest group to undertake the Klinsmann challenge of a flowing team based around a strong attack, or is this an all-American version of the MLS All-Stars minus Landon Donovan? Klinsmann has ample time to figure that out, and what we see on June 21st could be noticeably different than last year's Chile friendly.
It's difficult not to speak in generalities here. Talking about depth is easy enough in theory, but making players conform to an existing system isn't. It takes more than commitment, and the level of difficulty has been hard enough for the first choice players. A look at the quotes coming out of the seven friendlies under Klinsmann's system talk about time and adjustments. Though the January camp gives Klinsmann more uninterrupted time with a group of players than he's had as United States coach, there's still that sizeable developmental issue.
January has always been tough for players looking to show they belong with a stronger squad. Playing well by making connections with the players around you only proves so much. So does trying to takeover a game on either end of the field. It all becomes relative to a scale that might not have a lot to do with first choice at full speed.
With that in mind, Klinsmann should expect to once again see his choices get examined, cross examined, and reexamined all over again. This is another moment where the public gets a chance to match expectation with what happens in a home and away scenario. In several instances, that hasn't been kind to Klinsmann and his plans. That's part of the job, and Klinsmann has plenty of time between now and the start of qualifying to work through numerous issues.
Some of them have only arisen through choices he's already made. The loudest are over adapting players to a system that in the opinion of some is simply too difficult to master quickly. He now has a January camp to show how his tactics can apply to a new group. Even given the challenge of turning mostly MLS players into a version of what he sees for the team he'll select for the later 2011 friendlies and into World Cup Qualifying, it's almost a fresh start. A chance at a quick retelling of the story he's been working on since August. There's value in that across the board, showing that his vision is replicable and that the first choice team is growing closer to putting his designs in play. After all, if that mainly MLS team can do it against the likes of Venezuela and Panama….
Klinsmann has taken risks in the last few months. He's stuck with a system that's meant for a greater level of opponent than CONCACAF provides. He's called in players that have surprised long time National Team followers, in part because some of them weren't in anybody's plans this time last year. Integrating the group has become a necessity, and again we can look at this camp as an opportunity for Klinsmann to do that all over again.
Still, he has an out like National Team coaches running January camps before him. This is a test model to see who might fit with the full team. The coach as talent evaluator as well as teasing out who can take that next step and hopefully add something. We've seen players in past Januaries make those decisions obvious, but that's not necessarily the Klinsmann way. His midfield especially has been a tweaking of what most coaches would probably take for granted.
Look at how Klinsmann reinserted Michael Bradley into the lineup, his use of wide midfielders, and trying to balance the attacking options with the ability to shore up the defense. Again we're talking in generalities, but the specific Klinsmann-isms are the guides for what he'll be looking for this month. Players that can fit his specific definition of understudy, pushing a group to produce options that fit his existing plans. All another aspect of his work in progress.
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