KANSAS CITY, KAN—United States U-23 national team head coach Andi Herzog addressed the media on Wednesday ahead of the upcoming Olympic qualifying tournament, appearing upbeat and confident but cognizant of the fact that the first game of the tournament against Canada will be important for setting the tone.

The last U.S. U-23 team, of course, failed to qualify for the 2012 Olympics, and this year Jurgen Klinsmann has stressed that qualification for Rio de Janeiro is a major priority for U.S. Soccer in 2015.

“Like in every tournament, the first game is huge, because if you win the game and you have a really good game, the whole group gets a lot of confidence, it’s better for the team spirit, it makes it much easier for the next couple of games,” Herzog said. “So we have to be focused right from the beginning to start with a great energy.”

Other highlights from Herzog’s press conference Wednesday:

Taking Advantage of Playing at Home 

The U-23s have played challenging opponents throughout much of 2014 and 2015, but Herzog and U.S. Soccer are expecting more now with the tournament being played at home. Unlike the recent friendly against a strong English team, where the U.S. was defending most of the second half and had limited chances to score, Herzog anticipates a much more eager and assertive U.S. team this month.

“If you want to be a really, really good team, you have to have a bunch of different variations,” Herzog said. “You have to play against better teams. You have to do a good job against better teams and maybe hit them on counterattacks.

“But right here, we are playing in the U.S., and I expect my team to have a good control of the game, dictate the rhythm of the game, especially in the midfield, and create some chances. We have some quality players with pace and speed up front. So I expect a lot. Maybe sometimes mistakes can happen, but I think overall, right from the beginning, we should have a very good team that is able to deal with different tactical situations on the field.” 

Trapp, Miazga Singled Out for Accolades

Herzog was full of praise for both Columbus Crew midfielder Wil Trapp and New York Red Bulls central defender Matt Miazga.

Trapp has missed a significant portion of 2015 with a head injury and concussion symptoms and a head injury, so he wasn’t able to play with the under Herzog until the recent camp in England. But the defensive midfielder has still spent considerable time with U.S. youth national teams in the past, playing and a big role of the 2013 U-20 World Cup team, so he is familiar with many of the players in this U-23 group.

“With him it was an advantage because he was already part of the men’s national team in the January camp,” Herzog said of Trapp. “He embraced me. He was one of the youngest players, but his personality and his skill—I already knew he was a very good player. … He’s one of my key players in this group, of course.”

Miazga, meanwhile, was one of the best central defenders at the entire 2015 U-20 World Cup and has kept up that form with a very good summer for the Red Bulls. Miazga is likely to start again in central defense with Tottenham’s Cameron Carter-Vickers, 17, the youngest player on the team.

While Herzog was full of praise for Carter-Vickers, Herzog hinted that he was going to be demanding a lot from Miazga, who he predicted will make a quick rise to the full national team sooner rather than later.

“Of course his physical play, his size, his power — but for his power he’s very mobile, that’s what I like. He’s very good with his feet. I think he is one of most talented center backs in the U.S., and hopefully he’ll have a great qualification and has a future in the men’s national team in the next couple of months, not years,” Herzog said. “That’s what he has to prove, because he’s playing a big part in one of the best teams in the league, for the New York Red Bulls.

“So I expect him to be a key player, very vocal, in the back line. For him it should be an advantage that he’s already a starting player in MLS, so he competes with the best players in North America.”

Rough Year for Julian Green

One player notably absent from the team is 2014 World Cup attacker Julian Green—whom many expected to be a big part of the U-23 team by now, if not the full national team. And yet, with both sides set to play in crucial games this month, Green is on neither.

Green was on the U-23 team over the summer for the Toulon Tournament, but while players like Jordan Morris and Cody Cropper joined the full national team for friendlies after Toulon, Green did not. He has had no international involvement at either level since.

In 2014-15, Green went on loan from Bayern Munich to Hamburg, a move that proved a disaster as he played only 114 minutes all season. This summer, he did not go on loan, now dedicated full-time to Bayern Munich’s fourth-division U-23 team.

Herzog lamented Green’s situation, saying he hoped it would improve, but he also expressed his belief that it is not in Green’s best interests to remain with Bayern Munich’s reserves much longer.

“When we decided to bring him into the World Cup, he was one of the most talented young players in Germany,” Herzog said. “But afterward, when he started his first game with the men’s national team, he dislocated his shoulder, so he started off with a lot of injuries. Then he made a loan deal to Hamburg, and we all thought it was good because he can break through and have a starting spot. But overall the past year was very, very hard for him. I don’t want to say anything positive or negative about him because now we have to support him and give him all the support that he gets back into the best shape he can play.

“It was difficult for him to adjust to the Hamburg style, but overall I don’t think it’s good if he plays too long in the fourth league in Germany,” Herzog continued. “So we were expecting a little bit more, but he still young and for sure will have a great future.”

Optimism Over Zelalem’s Loan to Rangers

While Julian Green’s loan to Hamburg was a failure, the complete opposite can be said for Gedion Zelalem’s loan to Rangers.

Stuck behind some of the world’s best players at Arsenal, Zelalem joined Rangers in August in an effort to help the troubled club return to the top flight in Scotland, and so far it has been a major success. With Zelalem cementing a place in the starting lineup, Rangers is currently in first place by nine points—with a perfect record through eight games.

“For every young player, the most important thing is to play and get starting time,” Herzog said. “It was not easy to get a starting job at Arsenal because with his style of play, they already have four or five world-class players at his position.

“I think it’s good that he made the loan deal to Glasgow Rangers. On one side, he’s fighting for promotion to bring Rangers back into the top league in Scotland. On the other side, it’s a tough league with a lot of hard-working players, a lot of battles, and that’s what he had to improve a little bit, the physical play. He’s a very good creative player, but his style of play in the second level in Scotland, I think it would be very good for his personality and improvement.”

Variety of Formations and Styles Will Be Key 

On the current U.S. team, nearly every midfielder is more comfortable playing centrally than on the wings. It’s a problem not just limited to the U-23s, either, with the senior team having much the same issue.

Herzog, though, believes that the key will be chemistry among the players and the ability to have them step out of their comfort zone and be effective out wide even when it is not their main position.  So far, he is pleased with how his group has stepped forward in this regard 

“In the last camps, we had a lot of very good players in central midfield,” Herzog said. “We [didn’t] have a lot of wide players. That’s the same in this roster, but we found a way to create strength through the midfield with our passing game and our technical game. At the end, we have two, three players who are able to play wide if we need some width in the game. So we can deal with every situation.”

Senior-Team Development Is the Goal

Finally, Herzog stressed that his primary job is not to win the Olympic tournament but to prepare this team to transition quickly to the full national team. In that regard, the last U.S. team to play in the Olympics, in 2008, was incredibly successful, featuring the likes of Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, Charlie Davies, Maurice Edu, Stuart Holden, Michael Orozco, and Benny Feilhaber.

So, with the U-23s representing the highest youth level in the U.S. setup, Herzog sees this team as a crucial tool.

“For every athlete, the Olympics is something special,” he said. “Especially for the U.S., the Olympic Games are very, very special. It’s a big stage for our young players to show the rest of the world that the U.S. has very talented young players. Hopefully they will show it afterward for the full national team.

“The most important thing for a youth national team is to get out of it a couple of players who can make the next step to the men’s national team so that they have a bigger roster and can rely on very talented players.”