How hard have Mauricio Pochettino and his staff been working the US men’s national team over the early stages of the program’s January camp at Inter Miami’s training facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida?
Apparently, fitness and conditioning dominated the first week to such an extent that the group didn’t delve deep into tactical work until Monday or thereabouts.
“We haven't really done many sessions with tactics,” Real Salt Lake’s Emeka Eneli told reporters on Monday afternoon. “I guess today was kind of our first little session where we kind of did some buildout.
“It's definitely been hard sessions. Great group of guys here, great coaches, very hard sessions, intense sessions,” explained the 25-year-old midfielder. “Some double days here; double day today, just trained in the morning at around 11, and then we have another gym session at 5. So it is preseason as well, it's definitely getting our bodies, our minds ready for the long season.”
USMNT tradition
January camp has existed in one form or another, across several different leadership regimes, for most of the past three decades. That laborious aspect has always been central, a practical response to Major League Soccer’s original calendar running only from April to October, and one that’s continued even as MLS seasons expanded steadily in both directions over the years.
It’s a grind – a cherished honor of a grind that has sparked many a USMNT career.
“Obviously it's a time for fitness and pushing, and so that's going to strengthen bonds, too, when you're suffering next to a guy like Jack during the fitness,” said Walker Zimmerman with a smile as he fielded questions from media next to the Philadelphia Union’s Jack McGlynn on Monday. “So all of it's good, it's hard. It's how preseasons are supposed to be. But we're having a good time doing it together.
“We're doing a lot of boxes [small-sided drills] to start our training, moving into some possession, and then ultimately getting into the tactical stuff this week, whereas the first week was a little bit more fitness-focused: get your rhythm back, because you've been off for four to six weeks in most cases,” added the Nashville SC defender, experiencing his first camp under Pochettino.
“Now we're into the tactical stuff, and it's finally learning, how do we want to play when we have the ball? How do we want to play when we don't have the ball? And just trying to get on the same page.”
"It's a grind"
Any opportunity with their country’s national team has always been the holy grail for millions of players around the world. For some well-established US veterans, however, January camp hasn’t always inspired quite as much excitement as other call-ups.
“Bro, I hated those January camps,” USMNT and Seattle Sounders icon Clint Dempsey admitted in an episode of CBS’ “Kickin’ It” interview show featuring former head coach Jurgen Klinsmann earlier this year. “Fitness, man, it's just a lot of fitness, [under] all coaches.”
Like many rising stars over the decades, Dempsey got his international start via the winter gathering, back in 2005 under Bruce Arena after a head-turning rookie campaign with the New England Revolution, paving the way for his life-changing appearances at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The inescapable rigors of preseason conditioning hit differently when he was a star Designated Player in Seattle, even if it was useful work in the long run.
“Being 33 going to a January camp as opposed to 23 was like a different vibe. You're like, ‘oh no, we got to do this?’ – and beep tests and throwing up and all that kind of stuff. But it's a grind and it’s part of it,” he continued. “The positive side is it does make you better, to start the MLS season on a better note, because you're being pushed so much and it makes you sharp. But a little bit of you’s like, ‘oh f---, I don't want to do this.”
Learning opportunities
There’s no sign of hesitance from Tim Ream of Charlotte FC, who at 37 is the elder statesman of the current group as he takes part in his first January camp since 2011, when he was a New York Red Bull, soon to make a leap to English soccer, where he spent the ensuing 12-plus years.
His current US colleague Benja Cremaschi was age 5 at the time.
“I do think there's still value in a January camp,” said Ream. “We talk about my first one, and it felt like an opportunity to get in front of the national team coach, to put on the crest, to put on the training gear, and kind of gel with guys that you're going to potentially be coming through and potentially being involved in more national team camps going forward.
“For me, it's important for these guys to understand what the staff wants from them, not just here, but when they go back to their clubs. And I think this is a perfect opportunity to do that in a little bit of a different setting where there's not the super intense pressure of the first five days to get all the tactics down and be preparing for a game, right? We have an extended period that we can understand each other before then getting into the really deep tactical philosophies and all that.”
Even with Leo Messi and the rest of Inter Miami’s ‘Fab Four’ stars at his club, Cremaschi is picking up useful knowledge in this USMNT experience.
“The way they take care of their body, before training, after training, the way they train, the intensity that they put into every single minute of practice, the leadership that they show, always talking, always on people, and I think that's very important,” said the 19-year-old homegrown.
“Obviously Tim's played on the best level possible, in the Prem [English Premier League] and has played World Cups, has been at the top level. So I think me, as a young guy, I need to look up to him, learn and stay quiet, stay in the shadows, but to also just observe, learn and then just take it with me, hold it with me, and when it's my opportunity to show out, then I could use what I see, what I hear.”
Club commitments
Unlike back in the day, Ream and Cremaschi’s respective MLS teams have already convened their own preseason camps, which for some raises the question of whether the USMNT still need to be getting together this month. As January camp falls outside the FIFA calendar, clubs – particularly those involved in Concacaf Champions Cup – can and occasionally do decline call-ups to prioritize their own schedules, as the Sounders reportedly did this year in the case of Jackson Ragen.
The Colorado Rapids, another CCC participant, kick off their campaign one day before Seattle. Yet head coach Chris Armas, himself a USMNT alum, says he values what the camp provides for all parties, with Rapids goalkeeper Zack Steffen taking part this year.
“Any time these guys can get into that level, that environment, it's better for them, and it's better for us,” Armas told MLSsoccer.com on Friday. “Once we start thinking it's a few more days together for the Xs and Os – this is the big picture, I think we're missing it. Right now it's Zack, but any time these guys can get exposed to the next level, where things are moving faster, where the challenges are greater, believe me, it's a good thing. And then we manage when they come back to camp. And their dreams are my dreams, I tell you that.”
The pride and possibility of an international call retains its allure, and January campers tend to feel like they’ve got a leg up on their club colleagues when they return.
“It gives you almost a head start, right, to then go back into your club and you feel like you're sharp from day one,” said Ream. “The players will absolutely answer the call every single time and come in here to be able to put their crest on and work with whatever staff is here, especially the one we have now, and learn from them and take all of that back to back to their clubs, where then they can continue to grow and try to level up.”
