USMNT camp call-ups to keep an eye on: Small-sided games, big-picture thoughts
Talking over the January Camp with the Scuffed gang
Always a pleasure to talk soccer with Belz and the gang over at Scuffed, who continue to do a great job of covering the USMNT. They’re also restructuring their USWNT coverage, which has been invaluable over the past few years.
Here’s the show from Thursday, which was a roster breakdown disguised as a small-sided team draft of camp participants between me, Belz and Watke:
We touched on it a bit, in the show itself, that this roster is not exactly chock full of guys who have a legitimate shot to crack the 2026 World Cup team (aside from veterans like Tim Ream, Miles Robinson and Walker Zimmerman – though, sorry Watke, Walker will not be making it at center forward). It’s an experimental camp filled with guys who, for the most part, are in the “prove it” stage of their career, and I suspect that most of them will prove to be good players who are not quite good enough to beat out the incumbents for playing time in meaningful games.
That said, I wanted to give you a handful of these guys I’m keeping a close eye upon over the next month (and beyond) because I think they have the chance to develop into significant USMNT players:
Matt Freese, GK, NYCFC: The easiest choice. Freese is in his prime at age 26, just turned in a Goalkeeper of the Year-caliber season, and plays what has become a position of need for the US. I think he’s pretty easily the best American ‘keeper who actually plays games right now, and if that is still the case in 10 months, 1) Matt Turner’s got to fire his agent, and 2) I think Freese becomes something close to the presumptive starter for the World Cup.
What to focus on: Does his exceptional shot-stopping continue?
Emeka Eneli, DM/RB, RSL: I wrote about how I think Eneli could help the US, more as a right back than at d-mid, in both my recent piece for MLSsoccer.com and (kind of) in my previous USMNT piece on this blog.
Click that MLSsoccer link if you want the scouting blurb.
What to focus on: Can he hit progressive passes in rhythm?
Patrick Agyemang, FW, Charlotte: I don’t think No. 9 is particularly a position of need, but if Pat’s off-ball work continues to improve, he has tools – size, agility, on-ball skill – that are impossible to ignore.
What to focus on: Can his off-ball work translate to danger for a 60% possession team as well as it did for a 40% possession team?
Diego Luna, AM/LW, RSL: There was a 1000% chance that Belz was going to pick Luna first overall in our draft, and I’ve got no quibbles with that. Luna, among domestic players, has special skills in the final third, and is already creating a compendium of big-game moments in his young career. Add in his improved conditioning and defense (he’s actually an asset defensively, which I never saw coming), and there’s reason to be high on him.
What to focus on: His dribbling. While his underlying numbers on FBRef are middling (37th percentile in progressive carries among 10s and wingers, 61st percentile in dribble success rate), the more granular data from American Soccer Analysis matches better with my eye test, in that, in terms of adding value, it has him as a bottom 10 dribbler in the entire league among 10s and wingers with over 1500 minutes.
The short version is that he rarely completes 1v1s in high-leverage spots, and too often loses the ball in dangerous positions. He still tries stuff, and I don’t want him to stop. But it’s, uh, not great so far.
This speaks to what Belz and I were trying to get at in our discussion, and my concern for Luna as he jumps levels. He was god-tier at eliminating defenders off the dribble and completing plays in USL, but in MLS… well, even as he broke out last season, all year long he had just two key passes following a successful 1v1. That’s not the profile of a guy who can unlock a defense on his own.
Luna’s shown enough other facets to his game for me to think that he has other pathways to becoming a useful USMNT player, but when we’re wishcasting him into the 2026 roster, I think a lot of folks see him as a lesser Gio Reyna or – gods be good – an American Ødegaard (in style, not level).
I’m here to tell you that’s not what he’s showing so far in MLS. He’s much more of a Malik Tillman-esque “interprets the game at a high level and is good on the ball in those spaces” attacker than someone who tilts the field all by himself.
Maybe that changes. I’ll be watching this month, and all year, and hoping it does.
