During last Sunday’s 3-2 win over Iceland, we saw the US national team debuts of four players: Kellyn Acosta, Ethan Finlay, Jerome Kiesewetter and Tony Tchani, fulfilling lifelong dreams of playing soccer at the international level.
Players making their international debuts during January camps has long been a tradition for the US national team, and one that is likely to continue on Friday when the US meet Canada at the StubHub Center (10:15 pm ET; FS1, UniMás, UDN in the US; TSN in Canada).
Six more players will have the opportunity to get their first caps on Friday night, all of whom are current MLS players: David Bingham, Eric Miller, Tim Parker, Matt Polster, Khiry Shelton, Brandon Vincent.
For some of these players, this could be the start of a long international career while others may never have a chance to put on the red, white and blue again.
Going back to 2007, there have been 36 players to make their debuts during the January camp. The success of those 36 players have varied widely.
Of that group, 13 have never pulled on a USA shirt again and some are out of soccer entirely. Players like Bryan Namoff, Jeff Parke and Jeremiah White are involved in this group.
Then there are others like Will Trapp, Matt Hedges and Perry Kitchen, who could end up with dozens of caps by the end of their careers.
Only 12 of the 36 players to make their debuts in January camp since 2007 have even reached 10 caps in their careers. But there are some big names in this group, many of whom are World Cup veterans.
Kyle Beckerman made his national team debut on January 20, 2007 and has gone on to register over 50 caps for the Stars & Stripes, including three starts in the 2014 World Cup.
Two Sporting Kansas City players made their debuts for the US in January camps, with Graham Zusi joining the team in 2012 and Matt Besler following him in 2013. Both would go on to make Jurgen Klinsmann’s 23-man roster for the 2014 World Cup.
Acosta, Finlay, Kiesewetter and Tchani could go on to be the next Beckerman or Besler or, if they get a little bit unlucky, they could be the next Jeremiah White. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Check out the full list of players to make their debuts in January camps below:
Players to make debuts in January camp since 2007 |
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Eric Alexander |
Kyle Beckerman |
Alejandro Bedoya |
Tony Beltran |
Matt Besler |
Steve Birnbaum |
Jonathan Bornstein |
Will Bruin |
Kenny Cooper |
AJ DeLaGarza |
Sean Franklin |
Luis Gil |
Clarence Goodson |
Joshua Gros |
Bill Hamid |
Matt Hedges |
Sean Johnson |
Perry Kitchen |
Jeff Larentowicz |
Zach Loyd |
Alfredo Morales |
Justin Morrow |
Bryan Namoff |
Jeff Parke |
Troy Perkins |
Eddie Robinson |
Robbie Rogers |
C.J. Sapong |
Wil Trapp |
Anthony Wallace |
Jeremiah White |
Chris Wingert |
Chris Wondolowski |
DeAndre Yedlin |
Gyasi Zardes |
Graham Zusi |