Hairston gets big chance with U.S. national team

Marlon Hairston jumped up on the couch with excitement.

“Oh, let’s go!” he yelled. His dad, who had just gotten off work, ran into the room in his home in Mississippi.

“What’s up, man?” he asked. “What are you happy about?”

The Rapids winger/fullback had just gotten off the phone with his agent, who told Hairston he was being called up to the U.S. men’s national team for its January training camp.

“I told (my dad), and he was just as happy as I was,” Hairston said.

The 23-year-old speedster, entering his fifth year with the Rapids, will head to Carson, Calif., this week for his first senior national team camp — and possibly his first cap, against Bosnia on Jan. 28. The U.S. put together a youthful, 30-man squad as it looks ahead to the 2022 World Cup cycle after failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

Hairston remembers watching the United States’ loss at Trinidad and Tobago on TV with some Rapids teammates. The loss eliminated the U.S. from the World Cup.

“To see the Trinidad game go the way it did, it was kind of sad for myself and for Americans and American soccer as a whole,” Hairston said.

After the game, he remembers having U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard and Trinidad and Tobago defender Mekeil Williams return to the Rapids with vastly different moods, having been on different ends of the result.

“It was kind of awkward, honestly,” Hairston said.

The Jackson, Miss., native said he plans to reach out to Howard and teammate Dillon Serna — who was called into January camp previously to get some idea of what to expect at the camp.

“I just want to be able to give myself a good opportunity to go into camp and be able to show as much as I can to the coaching staff,” Hairston said.

Hairston has experience at the U.S. youth national team level he can draw on. He played for the U-20s, U-21s and the U-23 squad that tried to make the 2016 Olympics in Brazil and feels that experience will help him with the national team moving forward.

He was selected by the Rapids with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft out of Louisville and has made 80 league appearances (55 starts) with Colorado, scoring seven goals and adding 11 assists. Six of those goals and 10 of those assists have come in the last two years.

“We’re thrilled for Marlon,” Padraig Smith, Rapids sporting director, said in a statement. “He’s one of the real bright, young players in Major League Soccer, and we can’t wait to see what he’s capable on the international stage.”

Hairston was quick to credit much of his development to former Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni.

Mastroeni helped to convert Hairston from a midfielder to a fullback, where he could use his speed to join in the attack. Hairston said he hasn’t talked to the U.S. coaches yet about where they envision using him on the national team as they build toward 2022, but he was listed on the initial roster as a midfielder.