ORLANDO, Fla.- Brek Shea has a few things he would like to get off his chest at the moment, and they all start – and end – with frustration.
The Orlando City left back will be just another interested spectator tonight, June 7, when the US men's national team faces its potentially make-or-break Copa America showdown with Costa Rica (8 pm ET, FS1, UniMás, UDN).
He admits it has been tough to sit and watch when he had high hopes of being part of Jurgen Klinsmann’s squad. And he has plenty of teammates and coaches who are genuinely surprised he is still in Orlando with them for training, instead of in Chicago with the USMNT.
But Shea insists he still hopes to be cheering a US victory against the Ticos. “It’s obviously tough for me personally,” he said. “But I’m still a good teammate, still supporting the team, and I’m hoping they do well."
There is no doubt the 26-year-old from College Station, Texas, is still anxious to add to his 34 appearances (and four goals) for the national team. But he;s also aware of the fact his form has been in and out in recent games.
“I just need to play good,” he acknowledged. “If he [Klinsmann] calls on me, I’m definitely ready to go. But [otherwise], I don’t know. I think you have good games and bad games; I had some games that were up to my standards and some that weren’t, but that’s life.”
Shea certainly started the season well, with an assist and a highlight-reel goal in the first four games. But then he picked up a retrospective red, missed a game, and struggled through Orlando’s drought of no wins in six outings.
Things seemed to come to a head in City’s much-needed 2-1 win at home to Montreal on May 21. Having learned he'd been omitted from the US squad for Copa, he picked up his fourth yellow card of the season in what amounted to a personal feud with the Impact’s Johan Venegas.
“In everything you do, you get frustrated sometimes,” Shea said. “In that game, a few things happened and I got frustrated. But it’s done, it was just a game. In general, things have frustrated me, so I’m just trying to go out and play tough and try to make a statement.”
With two full weeks between games, Orlando were able to give their players a break last week, and Shea insisted it had been a handy way to recharge the batteries.
“I just took some times with friends and family. It was good to get away for a little while,” he said. “Now it’s back to work.
“Now we can work a bit harder and do more stuff, and that benefits us having that time off in mid-season. We had a few injuries and a few people that were just a bit beat up, so it’s good to have that extra time to get fit or just to work on a few things.”
Shea is certainly keeping a close eye on Copa events, and was delighted for Vancouver’s Panamanian star Blas Perez and his two goals in Panama's Monday night win over Bolivia at Camping World Stadium.
“Blas is a good friend of mine so I’m very happy for him. I’m sure we’ll be speaking about his performance," Shea said. But he says his main focus now is on next week’s intra-state US Open Cup clash with Jacksonville on Wednesday, June 15 (7 pm ET). That's followed, then, by two big home games in successive weeks against San Jose on Saturday, June 18 (7:30 pm ET, MLS LIVE) and Toronto on Saturday, June 25 (7:30 pm ET, MLS LIVE).
“Every home game is a huge game just now,” he said. “The last week [before the break] we had three games and I think we built on each game. Hopefully we can now build [further] on those.”
