Adu, Szetela called in to camp for USA vs. Switzerland

The U.S. national team could have a distinctively young feel to it when it faces Switzerland in a friendly in Basel on Oct. 17th. U.S. Under-20 national team stars Freddy Adu, Danny Szetela, Sal Zizzo and Chris Seitz have all been called in for the training camp ahead of the senior national team's friendly against the Swiss.

The U.S. Soccer Federation is expected to release the camp roster on Tuesday but the Herald News/SBI has learned the names of 11 of the players selected to the roster for the camp in Switzerland. The roster should have its share of veterans, with Steve Cherundolo and Eddie Lewis among the players identified by SBI, but it will be loaded with players in the under-23 age range.

The four Under-20 standouts aren't the only new faces in the fold. Here are some of the other players who have been called in for the Switzerland match:

• Freddy Adu
• Michael Bradley
• Steve Cherundolo
• Maurice Edu
• Benny Feilhaber
• Marcus Hahnemann
• Tally Hall
• Eddie Lewis
• Chris Seitz
• Danny Szetela
• Sal Zizzo

Why the youth movement? U.S. head coach Bob Bradley and assistant coach Peter Nowak are clearly using this camp and the Switzerland match to take a look at players who figure to play key roles on the U.S. Olympic qualifying team in 2008. Again, these are players who will be in camp. It doesn't mean they will be in uniform for the friendly.

There is also the matter of the MLS schedule. There are still five teams fighting for two playoff spots so Bradley had to consider not only those five teams but also those team's opponents. That is why you won't be seeing Jozy Altidore or Landon Donovan (whose teams play each other the day after the US-Swiss friendly).

Then you have some European-based players carrying injuries, such as Tim Howard, DaMarcus Beasley, Josh Wolff and Bobby Convey. I also wonder if we will see Howard in a U.S. uniform again before next year's World Cup qualifying campaign. After all, you just know Everton wasn't crazy about Howard not only getting injured in a friendly, but staying in the Brazil friendly with a hand injury that forced him to miss a handful of Everton matches.

Expect a solid foundation of veterans to make up the majority of the starting lineup. Here is one crack at the lineup (Keep in mind I don't have the roster so some of these players may not even make the trip):

---------Dempsey-------Twellman------------

Lewis-------------------------------------Zizzo

-------------Feilhaber---Bradley--------------

Pearce-----------------------------Cherundolo

-----------Bocanegra---Onyewu--------------

------------------Hahnemann-----------------

So where are the young players? You don't expect them to step right in and start, do you? The importance of their call-ins has more to do with exposing them to the national team set-up than actually playing. What better environment to test the youngsters than against established national team players?

You should expect to see some of them get time. Adu, for one, has to be a good bet to see minutes. I know I have Zizzo in my projected lineup but that could just as easily wind up being Lee Nguyen if he gets the call.

What do you think of seeing all these youngsters called in? Share your thoughts below.

Comments

[Katatonia]

boner

[Tony M]

How long before someone posts that Bradley shouldn't care about the MLS playoff races, that beating Switzerland is more important?

[Lawrence]

i hope this project works. I think Adu should get significant time, to be honest I would rather he play withdrawn striker than Twellman up top. But whatever, in Bob we Trust.

[dave b]

i agree with katatonia, i am liking bradleys call ups and he is doing a great job of getting a feel for the entire player pool and getting younger players involved with the senior team. boner indeed.

[toucan]

I had to look up Tally Hall.
I wonder how Edu will fair against the rest of the fellas...

[Lawrence]

Ives is guessing that Twellman will be on there. I don't think you will see any MLSers from any of the teams except for maybe Clark and teams that aren't playoff possibilities. i.e. Beckerman, Edu, Findley.

To be honest, I'm going to be a little annoyed if Charlie Davies keeps getting called in a Findley keeps getting shuned.

[Lawrence]

Big Q: does Edu play Oct 13 vs LA?

[nutmegger]

After the U20 performance last summer in Canada, I am excited for the upcoming Olympics to see what the young'uns can do. Glad to see the training is beginning now.

[Amit]

Why don't we send Jon Conway also. He'll probably be on the bench so Pavon can score on a header directly at Waterreus anyway.

[Edward]

"Big Q: does Edu play Oct 13 vs LA?

Posted by: Lawrence | October 08, 2007 at 08:55 PM"

If it means LA has an easier road to the playoffs, wouldn't be surprised if Edu was over the Atlantic as we speak.

[Phillip]

I hope that Johann Smith is included in the roster.

[Aristotle]

I wonder how many more losses we will have before pressure is brought to bear to actually win a game again?

It's great to give the talent pool a thorough once over to see what we have to work with and get some young players some experience, but the USMNT has a real problem when it comes to beating opponents on foreign soil. This important issue has been brought up many times in the past for good reason. Often you hear that it's hard to get a game with an opponent on foreign soil. So it just makes me wonder if maybe when we do get games on foreign soil we should take them very seriously. Why not experiment with the lineup in the other games? We already wasted a valuable opportunity in the Copa America to show we can win games that matter on foreign soil, and we may also have insulted the the tournament enough that we may not get invited back next time. That would be a big loss.

I understand the need to build a team and look at players but it has to have it's limits. What sense does it make to say that it's hard to schedule quality games on foreign soil and then almost every time we do, we experiment with the lineup and give young players a chance.

I KNOW IT'S PROBABLY NOT TRUE but it's tempting sometimes to think that maybe this experimentation helps provide an excuse for yet another loss on foreign soil.

All I am saying is shouldn't we get as many quality games as possible on foreign soil and make a serious attempt to win them so that the team can build confidence and get rid of the "we can't win on foreign soil" boogeyman before another world cup rolls around? I know we have LOTS of time before the next world cup but the time to play a lot of games on foreign soil and take them seriously seems like it is never going to arrive.

[Lawrence]

Word, I am excited to see new blood get called in, but I was expecting us to go for blood this time.

I don't count experimentation as an excuse this time, a lose to the land of chocolate is failure to me.

[GoRB]

I agree Aristotle

[Tony M]

Aristole:

Pressure will be applied when the games actually mean something. Which is as it should be.

[James]

Who the hell is Tally Hall??? Am I stupid for not knowing this??

[andy b.]

Aristotle-- while I totally agree that the big problem for the US these days is the "foreign soil boogeyman"-- hope you trademarked that-- I disagree that it means we should be calling in the vets. I think it means we should be calling in these newbies who may have a shot at making the next WC roster, or at least playing in the Olympics (as Ives suggests this roster is about). It's THOSE guys who we need to have getting the tough overseas game experiences. It's not like playing more quality overseas games is going to cure LD (I'm a big fan, I swear, but...) of his maddening propensity to disappear on foreign soil at this point. He's had those games, and he's either going to get over it, or he ain't... he and other guys with similar issues aren't going to 'work through it' at this point. Glad the newbies are going to get a chance to be tested YOUNG in those situations.

[onionsack]

Never heard of Tally Hall either, probably someone Bob knows personally.

[Phillip]

Tally Hall plays in the Danish Superliga with Esbjerg fB.

He was taken in the MLS Superdraft by the Galaxy, but chose to go to Europe.

[Joamiq]

Whoa, radical. I love it.

[Murphy]

who is tally hall?

[andy b.]

Wow, Phillip bringing the knowledge. I'm a pretty regular follower of US guys abroad and I had no idea. Tally Hall, huh?

[emanon]

more info re Hall

Age: 22 (5/12/85)
Position: GK
College: San Diego State

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_Hall_%28soccer%29

[Tom]

Aristotle -

Listen to some of the fine posts. Blame our boy BA for not scheduling enough foreign matches and hiding in his cocoon here over the years. It has helped build this "bogeyman" you speak of.

As for winning on foreign soil? The more we play, and the more we acclimate, the better it will be in time.

Just a thought. Has a Euro team ever won the WC outside of Europe? How have the good, not the elite teams fared and looked? Not all that great my friend. Point? It isn't easy to play away from your comfort zone, for anyone, outside of a very few. The next 2 cups will not be in Europe, and I am glad we are taking the opposite approach from our "genuis" BA (that's pure sarcasm there folks).

Instead of trying to look good, covering ones rep by playing weak squads, and trying to prove ourselves during the 4 years leading up to the cup in frieldlies ...

... do what it takes to peak at the freaking WC! The thing that the general public cares about the most in the US. How about that? You can't expect the lack of prep/scouting by our opponents, the miracle of all of our key players being uninjured, and the fairly large amount of good fortune we had at WC2002 to come together very often. We were good, but got quite a few breaks if you have any ability to look at that cup realistically...and we still only won 2 actual matches! One versus Mexico to boot - think about it. Not disparaging our team. Just think about it. That's all.

You get better...truely better, by scheduling tough matches, and putting players out there , and let them play. You see who can hack the speed of play, both physically and mentally. There is no better way to find out.

After the BA era of hiding, playing defensively and relying on the same players over and over again (BA's boys,) I am happy we are stepping out and taking the next step. This is how it's done.

You want to get to the next level. Gotta step out of the comfort zone, challenge different players, especially young ones, and see what they can do. We will be a lot better off during the next several years because of it.....I guarantee you. Not just 2010, but through 2014 and beyond as our talent base grows and matures.

Then again, would you hide your team from real comp for years, allow insane over hype of the team, and individual player ability, and allow the media to gush over your own "genuis"? Only then you find out that when push came to shove your team wasn't as good as made out, some players were way over hyped, or past their sell date, teams actually scouted and prepared for you instead of ignoring you as a joke, you didn't get a lot of the breaks to go your way, whether on the field or injuries, and you look like we did in 2006?

Answer yourself that question.

Want to grow up into a real soccer nation that can regularly get results anywhere? Gonna have to take some lumps and not hide my friend.

May be a bit frustrating, but as a US fan of over 40 years I can honestly say I am happy we are doing this.

Note - I am not convinced by BB, just as I knew BA wasn't a genuis and is clearly tactically limted, but I appreciate the direction.

Do you think Klinnsy would have called up the old players? Do you think he would have gotten different results with a lot of the young players?

Also, the Copa is not going to turn the US down and they knew the circumstances beforehand. Don't be fooled. The Copa has plenty of worse "black eyes" that have come from their own memebers over the last 15 years. A lot worse. Also, how can you take a tourney seriously that had the playoff format they had? Made MLS look normal. Chill on that my friend. It takes time to get to where you want to be. Sorry, nothing will change that. This is a positive step in that process.

[MattM]

I disagree with the those who want to go for the kill in these friendly matches. What have we learned if we win big (or win at all) against a decent European team using our very best players? How much more could we learn if we get some significant playing time for a young, relatively inexperienced player, even if he has a shaky start? We'd find out if he has composure. We'd find out if he can play at this level. We'd find out if he can play with more experienced teammates.

True, you don't get the same insight if you throw 11 newbies onto the field, but bringing in two or three could be very educational for everyone.

I'm glad USSF has stepped up and made some matches against significantly tougher opposition. It'll be far better preparation for the WCQ campaign than playing against Bermuda or El Salvador.