USA U-23 coach Porter will try to mold the youngsters for the senior team



Celeb Porter (Akron coach) will guide the U-23 USA team for the March Tournament



U-23 CONCACAF Championship

This Championship will take place in the States again. Group A (USA, Canada, El Salvador and Cuba) will play in Tennessee. Group B will play at the Home Depot Center (Mexico, Honduras, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago). Only the top 2 teams will quality for the Olympics. The final will be in the beautiful Livestrong Stadium in Kansas City.

The USA is taking the U-23 Championship very serious. There is a new coach who was just hires in October. Akron head coach Caleb Porter is the new U-23 USA head coach. He was picked because of the program he created at Akron University. Porter has proven he can work with and mold this age group. Porter will also work closely with USA head coach  Jurgen Klinsmann to get players ready for the senior team. Klinsmann has already announced that he has a list of players at each position. This list is always changing the debt of each position. Klinsmann has stated that he expects 6 to 7 players from the U-23 team to make the USA World Cup roster in 2014. There are 2 U-23 players in Breck Shea and Agudelo who have played regularly for the senior team. I believe Klinsmann will want these experienced players participating in the qualifying and Olympics. This age group will soon be taking over for the senior players at one time or another. These experienced players will help the younger players and they will be building continuity with each other once they graduate to the senior team.

The tournament is in March and the January camp is already finished. Porter will have another camp in February. Then Porter will play a few friendlies against Central American clubs in March to get his team in top form before the qualifying games in March. “While time isn’t on their side, Porter said he’s explained the next steps to the group and is planning on holding a few more camps prior to the March qualification tournament.

“The next camp, we’ll start to hone in on a little bit more on the pool, but it doesn’t mean if we don’t invite a guy to the next camp that he’s out of the mix,” Porter said. “That’s certainly one of the things we’ll tell the guys. Everybody needs to be ready, everybody needs to continue to work hard, we’re going to continue to watch and monitor all the players with their clubs.”

That next camp is tentatively scheduled to start the second week of January in Los Angeles and will last 10 days. At the end of that stretch, a trip to Central America is in the works to play a pair of friendlies as the preparations for March continue.”

It is rumored to have the U-23 team play the top clubs in Costa Rica, being Saprissa and Alajuelense and a third club unknown at this time. These games will really get the lads good playing time in a real competitive match. This U-23 team will be well prepared for this qualifying tournament that they are hosting.

Remember Honduras beat the yanks in the States 4 years ago to win the U-23 Championship. I do not have to mention what a thorn in the side Mexico has been to the USA at all international levels. My yanks will be facing one of these formidable teams in the semi-finals.