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US men’s soccer gets to work with new interim coach BJ Callaghan

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US men’s soccer gets to work with new interim coach BJ Callaghan

CARSON — The U.S. men’s national soccer team opened training camp Monday for the CONCACAF Nations League semifinals with a another new man in charge.

It has been quite the revolving door of coaches since the program returned from the FIFA World Cup. Anthony Hudson replaced Gregg Berhalter as interim coach. Last week, B.J. Callaghan replaced Hudson under the interim tag.

“I don’t think it’s something that’s going to completely shock us or something we’re not going to be used to or never seen before,” U.S. midfielder Christian Pulisic said Monday at Dignity Health Sports Park. “We have a style of play that we’ve worked on for a long time, he’s not just going to go in and change everything. He’s going to have his little ideas, he’s going to speak with the team, we’re all going to give our input and we’re going to be in the best shape possible when the games come around.”

“It’s all come as a bit of a surprise for us. We’re dealing with it as best we can. We’ve spoken and given our input as much as we can. It’s not our job as players to appoint a manager or whatever the deal is, but we’re just here to come out and perform as best we can, no matter who the who coach is.”

Callaghan has been an assistant with the national team for the past four years. His first assignment is leading the team through camp and into the CONCACAF Nations League semifinals June 15 against Mexico in Las Vegas and into the final or third-place game June 18.

Later this month, Callaghan will lead the U.S. into the CONCACAF Gold Cup. These are both tournaments the U.S. won under Berhalter the last time they were played.

“You have to practice what you preach,” Callaghan said last week. “I know it does sound cliché, but in professional sports, a lot changes in a short amount of time. We constantly say, ‘Next man up, next man up.’ And at this point in time, my number was called, and I’m honored to have the opportunity to step up.

“One common theme that we continue to talk about, we continue to build upon, is the foundation of the culture that we’ve been building over the last four years. It’s really something special that we have. It’s something that we built intentionally about being all about the collective, having ownership.”

The U.S. will train at Dignity Health Sports Park until early next week before departing to Las Vegas for Nations League play. The following week, the U.S. will open Gold Cup play June 24.

“We have a nice summer ahead of us, with Nations League and Gold Cup, to try to continue to win tournaments in this region,” Pulisic said. “We want to be dominant on the field. I think we showed a lot of people around the world, especially in the World Cup, what we’re all about and we want to continue to grow as a team and once that next World Cup comes around to be able to challenge for that one.”

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