The U.S. men’s national team finds itself in a strange position heading into the first-ever Continental Clásico on Wednesday (10:00pm Eastern, HBO Max, TBS, Telemundo, Universo and Peacock).
The USMNT will play Mexico outside of a FIFA international window, which means both an unusual roster and a limited time to get prepared. Hudson’s squad all had club games this past weekend, and will head back for weekend fixtures in MLS, Liga MX, and the USL Championship.
“It’s been such a short camp,” Hudson told reporters in a Tuesday press conference. “We’ve been here for two days. There’s not been a lot of training, yesterday was a walk-through. So there’s not been a huge amount of opportunity to do things together or for the guys to do things together.”
Hudson said that the USMNT’s January camp — which included 13 players on the roster for Wednesday’s clash with El Tri — is going to have to play a role in the group’s coordination given that the team’s time in Arizona will not consist of any full-fledged, high-intensity training sessions.
“We’ve had the majority of these guys in January. So, it was great to see them back then, and we had more time together,” said Hudson. “We’re fortunate, we got a really good group of people, and we have good senior players that we know will always try and do their best for the team and for the new players coming in.”
Despite the perception that this version of the USMNT is a sort of “B-team” without its European-based players, Hudson said the goal in camp is always the same.
“We have a really strong player pool, and I would say for every single time we get together, players need to prove and perform to make sure that they’re in the next camp. So, this is no different,” said Hudson.
USMNT could make ‘one or two changes’
The flip side of the equation is that it’s still USMNT vs. Mexico, and as such, both teams will be looking to get a win.
While Hudson acknowledged that “it’s tough to to make too many changes” given the lack of time to train on any new wrinkles, he said that the USMNT can still adapt in pursuit of a victory.
“I think Gregg [Berhalter] did a good job here, really, really clear [formation], playing 4-3-3. We’ve changed it slightly,” said Hudson. “I think the good thing about this team is that they’re quite used to a little bit of flexibility… I think the players are experienced enough and have trained enough with us to know that we can still talk about things and do things, and they can still execute it.”
From the USMNT side, that means “one or two [changes]” to their approach, adjustments made with the hope of not giving away too much ahead of June’s more high-profile CONCACAF Nations League semifinal. Balancing a desire to keep some aces up their sleeve for that match while still maintaining a mental edge in the series seems to be the idea at the moment.
For Hudson, that means keeping standards high regardless of the Continental Clásico’s newness, the lack of practice time, or the strangeness of the fixture date.
“The bottom line for us is that we have a group of players going out tomorrow really representing the badge, giving everything they got, making the fans proud.”
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