Meet The USMNT December Camp Newcomers
Jonathan Gómez Committed To USA?!
The next window of World Cup qualifying matches for the US will see the red-white-and-blue facing El Salvador, Canada, & Honduras, but before then we do have a match this month!
Welcome to the December camp which will be featuring mainly domestic players, and some new faces. So today let’s discuss some USMNT camp newcomers.
There are seven new faces looking to make their debut for the United States Men’s National team on December 18th vs. Bosnia Herzegovina. Some players we’ve spoken about before here on State Of Soccer and others well I had to do some more research.
So today lets quickly profile each player, their play style, current club, and what we can expect from them in this December camp. Let’s first start off with arguably the most exciting name on the list, Jonathan Gomez.
Gomez is arguably the most anticipated player on this roster because he still has to decide whether he wants to represent the US or Mexico. Now don’t get too excited this inclusion does not cap-tie him the US, but it certainly could be a move in the right direction. The 18 year old was the USL young player of the year and the left-back is about to be called into Real Sociedad’s B squad. This call-up could come before the Bosnia-Herzegovina match but like all of you, I am hoping that we get to see Jonathan play.
Another defender on this list is Kevin Paredes. Paredes has been mainly featuring as a wing back for DC United. An 18 year old that spent the majority of his youth career as a winger still has a lot to prove defensively. With 41 caps for D.C. United he was a constant starter this past season, and I am hoping that Kevin can prove me wrong when it comes to his 1v.1. defending. Paredes has some experience suiting up for the U.S. having represented the U.S. U-17 Men’s National Team on three occasions, recording a goal and an assist. I think it is unlikely that we see Kevin receive playing time in this upcoming friendly, but it will be good for Berhalter to get some time with the young dynamic defender. A player that could truly be a utility man for the U.S. if he was to eventually break through with the premier senior team in the future.
The youngest player on this list is Kobi Henry…and I’m a little disappointed that Shaq Moore wasn’t called in…because then we would have like Shaq & Kobe…I tried.
Kobi Henry is young. He’s only 17 years old and there really ins’t a whole lot out there on him. We did see him the Revelations Cup. His physicality and size is there for a young center back, but there is tons of room for improvement in terms of distribution with his feet. Kobi has played for the U.S. youth U17 & U20 teams. The 2021 USL Champion with Orange County SC saw intermittent playing time this season in the USL but give his size & ceiling, he may be worth a call-up into this December camp.
Now moving on we do have two new faces at the goalkeeper position. We will first star with one who isn’t as well know…the back up Sporting KC, John Pulskamp. John is 20 years old and had only made 6 appearances this year for Sports KC. A former member of the LA Galaxy Academy…the Californian will be the 3rd goalkeeper in this roster. John only has one cap for U.S. at the youth levels with the U-20 team, but I still have no problem with this call-up. As we all know the U.S. as always has a deep pool of goalkeeper talent, but given how fluid things are with this position guys like Matt Turner made their USMNT debut only this year at 26…it is important to constantly scout in all corners of U.S. soccer for talent.
A goalkeeper that I am personally very excited to see play that is if Berhalter decides to give him some time behind Matt Turner, is Gabriel Slonina. Slonina like Kobi Henry is only 17 years old. The talented ‘keeper for the Chicago Fire…a team that is currently in shambles…a club that let’s face it…you can’t even find when you look it up on Google!
Anyways…for Slonina…this is a power move by the U.S. He has been approached by Poland, so let’s see how he fits in at the December camp.
Next we have Taylor Booth. The versatile Booth has competed for the Under-15, U-16, U-17, U-18 and U-19 sides the past five years. That includes two appearances in the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup in India. Booth is also very versatile having played all over the midfield and at right back. I feel that sometimes Booth gets overlooked, but we are talking about a player that has featured in a cup match for Bayern Munich. Now this was in a 12-0 thrashing of Bremer SV…but he’s still at a top club. He has played mainly for Bayern Munich II & has additionally gone on loan at St. Polten in the Austrian Bundesliga. The Utah native is someone that I am really excited to see. Fingers crossed that he makes an appearance in the upcoming friendly.
Last but certainly not least we have the soon to be Red Bull Leipzig commit, a player that is only 18 years of age, an attacking midfielder who has a lot of promise, Caden Clark.
Clark believe it or not has yet to make his senior debut for the U.S. The young Red Bull didn’t have his best season & of course spent some time out of the game with an appendectomy, but all that being said…could be the most talented player in this December roster. This season with the New York Red Bulls he finished with with four goals and five assists in 17 starts, 24 appearances and 1,509 minutes.
Set to join former Red Bulls and current USMNT midfielder Tyler Adams at Leipzig, I am sure new manager…Domenico Tedesco….will be checking in on Caden’s play.
So that does it for this episode. If you are as excited as me to see these players suit up for the USMNT then make sure to hit like, subscribe, and stay tuned for next week’s episode. We have some big changes coming along here at State Of Soccer…so if you’ve been with me since the beginning then I want to thank you again…and for any new readers, welcome aboard!
As always this is Brian McDonough with State Of Soccer signing off, so you are now free to support your local clubs, and GO USMNT!