Camp Cupcake Gets More Yeast: the Method to the Madness?

(Apologies for the lack of activity this week. Things have been pretty brutal for yours truly, so USSD had to take a back seat. But the dust has finally settled, and I've got plenty to catch up on.)

For those who missed it last week, what has been rumored for a couple of weeks was finally confirmed: the USMNT will play not one, but two friendlies next month as a part of the annual January camp. They will take on Venezuela in Glendale, Arizona on the 21st before heading south to take on Panama on the 25th.

"USSD is back? YESSSSSS!"

It will be the first time since 2006, the final year of the Bruce Arena era, that the Yanks will play two January friendlies, with Bob Bradley opting for just one in each year of his tenure. So it's a not insignificant deviation for Jurgen Klinsmann, whose decision making has left USSD and many others scratching their heads more than a few times thus far.


But in this case, I find myself wondering if this was part of the method that was behind the madness all along. Maybe Klinsmann just wanted to wait for an opportunity to call in somebody like Omar Gonzalez or Mikkel Diskerud when he had not only the chance to see them in camp, but also a few matches in which he could test and evaluate them with extended minutes as well. Had either player (who aren't the only snubs of recent months, mind you, but just two of the more notable examples; don't think we forgot about you, Herc.) gotten called in to the senior team camps in October or November, minutes likely would have been hard to come by (for a variety of reasons). But in January, those two (and a couple of others based in MLS and Scandinavia) will get an extended look both in camp and, most importantly, in actual matches.

Why is having two friendlies a big deal, as opposed to the norm of just one? For starters, it never hurts to get a bigger sample size for observations (which I'll touch on later on). It's also a little bit of risk aversion; it takes just one play for a January friendly with an objective to turn into a wash. (I'm looking at you, 2010 January friendly v. Honduras. We went in hoping to see Robbie Findley's impact over a full 90, but a Jimmy Conrad red card early on derailed that.)

So maybe, just maybe, Klinsmann wanted to wait until January when he could give young, up-and-comers like Gonzalez and Diskerud both camp time and meaningful minutes for evaluation purposes.

Do I believe that? Eh, maybe to an extent. It hardly explains away plenty of the past decisions that were tough to understand (Sacha Kljestan is still wondering if Jurgen is even watching, while Robbie Rogers continues what must be a successful blackmail or bribery campaign to keep his spot in the squad, and Herculez Gomez still can't get any love in Mexico), and it flies in the face of some other actions (like calling Ream in). But hey, it would fit right in with some of the doublespeak and contradictory decisions we've seen to date, so maybe it is just par for the course.

I did say the method was for madness, after all. (Tongue-in-cheek, I promise)

Of course, I say a lot of this without being fully convinced myself, but it's certainly something to consider as we still search for an explanation as to why certain seemingly deserving players were not given an opportunity to strut their stuff during the most opportune time for experimentation, while others, seemingly part of what Klinsmann himself referred to as his "core group", were given multiple chances despite lackluster outings. Imperfect logic doesn't necessarily need a perfect explanation.

Past player selection snafus aside, it's again a commendable decision by Klinsmann and his staff to schedule two games this January. This- creating and utilizing opportunities to evaluate lots of talent within the player pool- is exactly the kind of thing that they should be doing ahead of World Cup qualifying and the true meat of the cycle.

Let's just hope that the players we've all been waiting to see actually get called in.