Juergen Klinsmann is using this month's USA training camp and international friendly against Ukraine as a way to run a fine-toothed comb over his European-based players.
The German tactician has called up a 22-man roster to train in Frankfurt from Monday ahead of Wednesday's meeting with the Ukrainians in Cyprus with almost the entire list made up of players from European clubs.
Klinsmann admits it is a great opportunity for him to run the rule over players he does not get to see first-hand all that often in what is a major tune-up ahead of the 2014 World Cup.
"Having this Ukraine game is a huge opportunity, mainly for our European-based players," he told ussoccer.com.
"You want to give them a chance to show where they are at and what's going on in their specific situation. It's great to call in players like Oguchi Onyewu (Sheffield Wednesday), Will Packwood (Birmingham City) - his first time to come in - Tim Ream, who is playing consistently well at Bolton, Danny Williams, who has now kind of made his way through at Reading and playing week-in, week-out, and Juan Agudelo, who is now in Holland.
"It's a huge opportunity for all those guys to prove to us that they are eager and hungry to jump on the train to the World Cup. We will get a good picture of them over those couple of days, and therefore, we left almost all the MLS players back in the United States."
Of the camp and the Ukraine friendly, Klinsmann added: "It's difficult for us coaches to prepare everything for this summer's World Cup only having this game on March 5 before going into preparation camp.
"It's very little time to work with the players. Therefore, for the European-based players, in these three or four days we are together and the game against Ukraine, it's even more important they have a good showing.
"The coaching staff is doing a lot of scouting at their club teams. Whether it's going to visit guys in the Premiership and Championship in England, the Bundesliga, going to France to see Alejandro Bedoya these opportunities are very crucial to us."
