Newcomers look to make good first impressions on US National team

By Ivan Yeo

For players such as Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones, its another way not just to stay on Jurgen Klinsmann’s radar for the US National team, but also to get in shape as another MLS season looms.

However for players such as Gyasi Zardes, Tesho Akindele, Julio Morales, just one saying comes to mind during these couple of weeks at the StubHub Center for the US National team training camps; First impressions are key. Zardes, Akindele and Morales are just a handful in a long list of players making their first trip to Los Angeles hoping that this year’s annual USMNT January camp is the springboard to many more appearances donning the United States shirt in the near future.

“All of them are doing really well,” Klinsmann said. “All of them are trying to impress, they’re trying to do the right things, they’re curious, they want to learn.”

Among the first timers in the USMNT camp were Marc Pelosi, midfielder for Liverpool, striker Bobby Wood of 1860 Munich, midfielder Miguel Ibarra of the NASL’s Minnesota United FC and Outside Back Oscar Sorto of the LA Galaxy, who was called up despite having yet to play a game for LA.

“You see the talent, you see ‘okay what are they still missing’ where they have to improve, but that’s just normal,” Klinsmann said. “Once you have the talent and once you have the willingness to learn and once you have the mentality to learn, to grind it and work hard, they will get better.”

Akindele’s future with the US National Team is the more intriguing storyline thus far. Born to a Nigerian father and a Canadian mother in Canada, Akindele moved with his family to the United States when he was eight years old and grew up and played his high school and college soccer in Colorado. Akindele was drafted by FC Dallas sixth overall in the 2014 MLS draft and his seven goals in 26 appearances earned him MLS rookie of the year honors. Akindele says he only plans on training with both the US and Canadian teams before having to make a desicion on which shirt he decides to put on.

“I’m not sure what the future really holds,” Akindele said of his plans. “I’m pretty undecided right now, I talked to both coaches from the US and Canada before coming to this camp and I kinda decided it would be a good idea to just come and train.”

Klinsmann is fully aware of the desicions that await players such as Akindele and also Morales, who is eligible for both the US and Mexico and has made unofficial appearences for El Tri. Nevertheless, Klinsmann remains optimistic that he can get both Akindele and Morales to represent the United States.

“We want to show them how it would be with us,” Klinsmann said of the dual-citizen players. “We obviously want to win them over, and we want them most of all to feel comfortable, that this is their team and their enviroment.”

The team’s first game of 2015 will be next Wednesday, which will be a doozy; a road match against Chile in Rancagua, which will be followed by a match against Panama on February 8 at the StubHub Center.