“Camp Cupcake,” in general, is not held in high esteem in US soccer circles. Fans and media alike tend to complain that it’s pointless, the players called in are B/C team players, the games at the end are terrible, etc. Some of this is certainly true. Who can forget exciting results like US 0 – Canada 0 in January 2013? Crazy stuff.

On the other hand, below are the rosters from World Cup 2014 and “Camp Cupcake” 2014:

So, after looking at those lineups:

A) Holy crap. That January camp list is depressing. Remember Shane O’Neill? I was pumped about Luis Gil back then, too. I’d actually watch RSL games just to see him play.

~sigh~ Let’s move on.

B) There are 8 players in that January camp list that also made the World Cup squad and frankly there should have been 9 (still shaking my head about Klinsmann’s stupid drop-Donovan power move). You’re really telling me you wouldn’t rather have Landon Freakin’ Donovan as an option to start or bring off the bench instead of: Wondo, Green, Davis? I can’ talk about this…

Anyway, that is over 1/4 of the roster that eventually made the World Cup. What is the most common concern for Berhalter this year (and most national team coaches around the world)? Not enough time with players. It won’t always be this many (there were only 2 in 2010, 8 in 2006, etc.), but most countries around the world would love to have an extra 3 weeks to spend working on their system with even a portion of their full national team.

This year the players called into January camp that seem to have a reasonable chance of being part of the Gold Cup include: Zack Steffen, Kellyn Acosta, Paul Arriola, Michael Bradley, Reggie Cannon, Russell Canouse, Marky Delgado, Greg Garza, Sebastian Lletget (I need to watch more of this guy. Coaches seem to love him and I’ve barely seen him play.), Aaron Long, and Wil Trapp. That’s 11 players. They won’t all be on the team, but a few of them certainly will. How valuable could these 3 weeks be to the team come June when it’s time for the Gold Cup, or in March when Berhalter only has a few days of practice to work with? The USMNT does look like it’s trending toward Euro-based players again ~crosses fingers~ but there will always be some percentage of the national team pool that comes from *the MLS.

Additionally, the MLS offseason is much longer than is typical for the rest of the world. The last regular season game this year was on October 28th. Preseason for MLS teams starts towards the end of January. That means many MLS players will have close to three months off. The typical European schedule ends in May and preseason training starts back up again in July. The January camp gives US national team players a chance to get an extra three weeks of high-level training time.

All in all, it seems like a great chance for Gregg Berhalter to start working on his system with at least a portion of the full team and gives some unheralded players a chance to break through. It’s not perfect and I will certainly be complaining along with everyone else at the dreadful 0-0 draw with Panama that’s surely forthcoming, but “Camp Cupcake” is a built-in advantage for the American soccer calendar. We could use all of those we can get.

*cackles to self