Porter preps U.S. men for Olympic qualifiers

U.S. U-23 men's national team coach Caleb Porter has 28 players in camp in Lakewood Ranch, Fla., preparing for Olympic qualifying in March.

“We have nearly 50 players we see as potential players for the group, realistically, who we feel are capable of contributing or deserve an opportunity to be looked at,” Porter said. “As we move into the New Year, we really want to key in on who’s going to help us so that we can start to build a cohesive group that understands the way we’re going to do things.”

Regarding developing a style of play and what can fans can expect to see on the field in terms of a formation, Porter said: “We’re going to start to give these messages: how we’re going to attack and defend, the philosophy behind it, the training activities that imprint it on the players and then the system. We’re not going to have four or five different systems that we’re throwing at the guys, we’re going to have a 4-3-3 and some variations within the 4-3-3 so they understand depending on the game and the personnel.

“If you look at the top clubs in the world, they always have a couple systems they utilize, and they have some adaptations on those systems. We want to introduce a 4-4-2 as well because it might make more sense in some games, and depending on what the personnel is like, to maybe play with two strikers instead of three or one."