Portland Timbers’ Darlington Nagbe’s name made a return to the U.S. Men’s National Team roster this week as new U.S. head coach Bruce Arena called up the midfielder to the annual January camp.
After receiving his first national team call up in late 2015 for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Nagbe was part of last year’s January camp under then-head coach Jurgen Klinsmann. He proceeded to make eight appearances in 2016 including scoring his first international goal—a 90th minute game-winner in a friendly against Ecuador in May—and was a part of the national team that took fourth place at the 2016 Copa America Centenario.
Though Nagbe was not part of the November qualifiers against Mexico and Costa Rica just prior to Klinsmann’s dismissal, Arena said in interviews upon taking over the head coaching duties that he was keen to bring Nagbe back and reiterated that sentiment in a Facebook Live Q&A yesterday hosted by U.S. Soccer.
“Obviously, I know Darlington from Major League Soccer and the many games he played against the Galaxy,” the former LA head coach said.
Nagbe, who is second on the Timbers career assists list (24), third in goals (24) and the leader in games played (187), brings a versatility in the midfield that Arena plans to explore during the camp as they’ll play two friendlies against Serbia on Jan. 29 (1pm PT, ESPN2) and Jamaica on Feb. 3 (4pm PT, FS1).
“I think he’s a very talented player and he’s comfortable playing in a variety of positions,” said Arena. “He can play as a seven, 11, a 10 and even an eight. We’re going to look at him in camp as a starting point probably out wide, but obviously be aware of the fact that he can play inside as well.”
With no points earned in the first two games of the hexagonal CONCACAF portion of the World Cup qualifiers, the camp as a whole will be essential to evaluate 32 players ahead of the next key round of games in March against Honduras and Panama.
“We think it’s a real important camp, and obviously there’s some new faces that we haven’t seen for a while and we want to see if there’s any faces that can break in and make our team stronger,” said Arena.
An emphasis on creativity in the midfield is another area that Arena is also looking to expand upon with the team this winter and Nagbe, who was among MLS’ most accurate passers in 2016 completing 89.89 per cent of his passes—is a player that Arena believes can be an important contributor as a creative midfielder.
“In this camp, I think we’ve brought in a couple of players who can fill that role and Darlington Nagbe is one of them,” he said.
