United States - Denmark Preview
Klinsmann Eager to Assess Status of Full U.S. Roster
The 2015 Gold Cup is just a few short months away, adding a sense of urgency to the U.S. men's national team friendlies against Denmark and Switzerland. Brian Sciaretta is with the team in Aarhus.
AARHUS, Denmark—U.S. men's national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann will have his European-based players available to him for the first time in four months as the Americans take on Denmark Wednesday (3pm ET; ESPN2, UniMas, UDN) in this coastal town.
During the team’s January camp, the United States lost to Chile and defeated Panama but these upcoming friendlies should offer more insight into the state of the team. European and Mexican-based players such as John Brooks, Danny Williams, Aron Johannsson, Fabian Johnson, and Timothy Chandler—all absent earlier this year due to club obligations—will take part.
And with the 2015 Gold Cup fast approaching—and a a crucial spot in the 2017 Confederations Cup on the line during that tournament—Klinsmann is eager to assess the status of his non-MLS players.
“You want to see us now really zooming in and start to prepare toward this summer,” Klinsmann said. “We want to see some individual answers to maybe things that we have in the back of our minds. So we maybe now want to kind of speed it up a bit.”
Klinsmann added that he was very excited to get a close look at a few of his younger players as well as assess the abilities of the team’s two newcomers, Ventura Alvarado and William Yarbrough.
“We want to see on an individual side a lot of little things from players,” Klinsmann said. “We want to see where the youngsters are right now—like [DeAndre] Yedlin and Julian Green. Or like John Brooks, who seems to be very stabilized right now. "It’s exciting now for the first two days to have Ventura Alvarado and William Yarbrough in the group. So that’s two new faces that we want to integrate.”
The U.S. national team received a bit of bad news early in the camp as Clint Dempsey suffered a strained right hamstring. Although the injury is not believed to be serious, the captain was sent back to Seattle and will not take part in the friendlies.
“It’s a bummer for us,” Klinsmann said. “We wanted to see Jozy and Clint up front getting more time together and starting to combine. But when one player is not available, that’s a chance for another player coming in. That’s also exciting.”
One of the potential replacements for Dempsey could be Aron Johannsson, who was greeted with multiple media requests from local reporters. The former AGF Aarhus striker still has a huge following in the city where he starred before moving on to AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands.
Brian Sciaretta is an American Soccer Now columnist and an ASN 100 panelist. Follow him on Twitter.
Klinsmann added that he was very excited to get a close look at a few of his younger players as well as assess the abilities of the team’s two newcomers, Ventura Alvarado and William Yarbrough.
“We want to see on an individual side a lot of little things from players,” Klinsmann said. “We want to see where the youngsters are right now—like [DeAndre] Yedlin and Julian Green. Or like John Brooks, who seems to be very stabilized right now. "It’s exciting now for the first two days to have Ventura Alvarado and William Yarbrough in the group. So that’s two new faces that we want to integrate.”
The U.S. national team received a bit of bad news early in the camp as Clint Dempsey suffered a strained right hamstring. Although the injury is not believed to be serious, the captain was sent back to Seattle and will not take part in the friendlies.
“It’s a bummer for us,” Klinsmann said. “We wanted to see Jozy and Clint up front getting more time together and starting to combine. But when one player is not available, that’s a chance for another player coming in. That’s also exciting.”
One of the potential replacements for Dempsey could be Aron Johannsson, who was greeted with multiple media requests from local reporters. The former AGF Aarhus striker still has a huge following in the city where he starred before moving on to AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands.
Brian Sciaretta is an American Soccer Now columnist and an ASN 100 panelist. Follow him on Twitter.
