The United States Men’s National Team will no longer gather in January as they have done in much of the past two decades. According to a report by Paul Tenorio of The Athletic, U.S. Soccer has said that
their annual January Camp will not be held ahead of next summer’s World Cup.
The rationale behind the canceling of their annual January Camp was to give Major League Soccer clubs the ability to have their players available for all of their preseason ahead of the start of the MLS season in February. MLS clubs had long preferred to keep their players, and as the annual January Camp occurs outside of a FIFA international window, several players had their call-ups rejected by their clubs.
January Camp also served as an evaluation camp for mostly MLS-based players. A long list of players who have been on World Cup rosters or become mainstays on the national team got their start with the USMNT during a January Camp. Tenorio reported that US Soccer felt a USMNT camp in January wasn’t as necessary this year with so many of the top players identified for contention for the 2026 World Cup roster. And, with the MLS regular season ending in October, many players were not yet in the peak shape necessary to play 1-2 friendlies and be healthy for the start of their season.
Paul Tenorio also reports that the annual camp will return, but in a different month: December. The camp would resume in December 2026, with future camps also being held in the month of December. With MLS considering switching their schedule to a fall-spring format, the camp could eventually fall during the league’s winter break. That would ensure more players are in peak fitness to compete, and it could line up with other leagues that have extended winter breaks, like Liga MX or the Bundesliga. That opens up more players for selection, even though the camp would once again take place outside a traditional FIFA international window. Club teams would still be able to deny call-ups as a result, but US Soccer hopes the change in the camp’s timing would make clubs more likely to release their players for it.
“This adjustment is designed to preserve the developmental and evaluative benefits of the camp while alleviating scheduling strain on clubs and players,” US Soccer vice president of sporting Oguchi Onyewu said to The Athletic on the annual camp moving to December. “The December period offers a more balanced window that minimizes conflicts with pre-season preparation, aligns more effectively with player recovery cycles, and continues to provide our national team coaches a valuable opportunity to assess and integrate domestic-based talent.”
There will be some additional challenges that come into play with the new December Camp. January Camp for a long time was held in Southern California, allowing the team to practice in nice weather while much of the country endured winter. They also had more access to stadiums, moving in future years to places like Florida, Tennessee, and Texas. Moving to December may allow most of the MLS stadiums to be available, but other stadiums like indoor football stadiums may still be in use by the NFL or for college bowl games.
It will also put more of a strain on fans who wish to attend these matches with the holidays making travel more hectic and more expensive, and as the weather gets colder, it narrows the places where the team could play without risking weather-related injuries to players. Still, it seems to be the better option for US Soccer getting some of the players they wish to evaluate during the next cycle into USMNT camp.
For the MLS-based players who are fighting for spots on the 2026 World Cup roster, many of them probably hoped for a January Camp to get an extra opportunity to showcase their talents to USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino and the staff in a camp that would exclude almost all of the European-based player pool. US Soccer feels that the lone window for the USMNT in 2026 before the World Cup roster is named – March 23-31 – plus club play will be what they need to make those final decisions about who will make the final roster when it’s named in May.
