Jurgen Klinsmann has more surprises for USMNT's January camp roster

Nothing United States men's national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann does should really surprise us anymore. In the last year alone, he has called up a college player and another from the second-tier North American Soccer League. But on Friday, jaws dropped even further than biologists and respected surgeons the land over thought was possible, when the German announced his annual January camp roster.

As ever, he will assemble his domestic-based national teamers and those in their offseasons abroad. After 12 days of practice in Los Angeles, the team will travel to Chile for a friendly on January 28. Upon returning to California and some more practice, they close out camp with a second friendly, against Panama this time, on February 8.

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But none of that is what catches the eye. Rather, the eclectic mix of 28 players Klinsmann called up is. He retained just eight players from last year's January camp and a mere seven players on the roster played in last summer's World Cup. Half the players called in have never represented the USA, and a full 19 of them were born in the 1990s – including seven in 1993.

Sprinkled in with veteran stalwarts like Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones – still listed as a defender – and Clint Dempsey are some highly regarded prospects as well as little-known or totally unknown newcomers.

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Defenders Steve Birnbaum and Shane O'Neill have been on the serious USA fan's radar for a while, as have midfielders Perry Kitchen – also listed as a defender – Luis Gil, Dennis Flores, Marc Pelosi, Dillon Serna and Wil Trapp. Forwards Tesho Akindele, the 2014 MLS Rookie of the Year, and Gyasi Zardes, scorer of 16 regular season goals in MLS last year, were also due for a look.

But then there are those, like goalkeeper Alex Bono, defenders Christian Dean and Oscar Sorto, and forward Julio Morales, who are largely anonymous for their lack of exploits at senior-level professional soccer.

Klinsmann's reasoning for putting together such a haphazard roster is his desire to simultaneously prepare for the summer's senior team Gold Cup and the under-23's Olympic qualifying, for which a dozen players on the roster are eligible.

"When putting this roster together, a lot of different pieces kind of came together and came into place," he sort of explained. "One, we definitely want to have a competitive group together that plays two friendly games. … The other big thought was, ‘How can we continue building the Olympic team cycle early enough to build that group towards the Olympic team qualifiers by the end of the year?' That's kind of how we put the process together."

Alrighty, then.

Here is the roster in full:

Goalkeepers: Alex Bono (unattached), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire), Jon Kempin (Sporting Kansas City), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)

Defenders: Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), Steve Birnbaum (D.C. United), Christian Dean (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders FC), Jermaine Jones (New England Revolution), Perry Kitchen (D.C. United), Shane O'Neill (Colorado Rapids), Oscar Sorto (LA Galaxy)

Midfielders: Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Mix Diskerud (out of contract), Dennis Flores (Club Leon), Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake), Miguel Ibarra (Minnesota United FC), Lee Nguyen (New England Revolution), Marc Pelosi (Liverpool), Dillon Serna (Colorado Rapids), Brek Shea (Orlando City SC), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew SC)

Forwards: Tesho Akindele (FC Dallas), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Julio Morales (Tepic), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes), Bobby Wood (1860 Munich), Gyasi Zardes (LA Galaxy)