USMNT January Camp: Six Notable Snubs
Nov 1, 2014; Columbus, OH, USA; Columbus Crew midfielder Wil Trapp (20) tackles New England Revolution midfielder/forward Lee Nguyen (24) in the game at Crew Stadium. New England Revolution beat the Columbus Crew by the score of 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
Today US Soccer announced the roster for the upcoming January camp and friendlies against Chile and Panama and it included 28 players, some veterans but a lot of youngsters. The full roster can be viewed HERE. As you can see, there are a lot of familiar faces in this camp, most likely there to mentor the younger call ups.
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22 of the 28 players called up are based with MLS teams which is always expected for the January camp. MLS is in their offseason while most leagues are entering the second halves of their season and sometimes cannot afford to give players up for nearly a whole month.
Before we take a look at some of the players that are not in this camp that really should have been, let’s take a look at the roster. Jon Kempin and Alex Bono were both shocks at goalkeeper. It was revealed earlier that Hamid was left off due to an injury so likely one of these two were added in place of Hamid.
Two defenders (Birnbaum and Dean) were drafted in the 1st round of the MLS draft in 2014. Jones returns as a defender (which he should not by the way, but that is a different story), and it is interesting that DC United midfielder, Perry Kitchen, is listed as a defender as well.
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Players like Brek Shea and Chris Wondolowski somehow made the camp, even though neither should have, especially Shea who has gone 2 years without doing anything to warrant a call up. Baxter Colburn has more about Wondolowski and Shea HERE.
Both Akindele and Zardes will get their chance to impress as well after being called up for the January camp. Most of this camp consists of players that will play a big part on the Olympic team in 2016 as well as veterans to mentor these younger players.
It’ll be a fun camp to see the future of the USMNT, but with a roster comes some snubs and here I will look 5 players who I believe should have been called up.