CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- U.S. national team coach Bruce Arena said he has no problem with defender Geoff Cameron's support of President Trump's controversial Jan. 27 immigration order, following the Americans' 1-0 friendly win over Jamaica here Friday night.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated on Thursday, the Stoke City veteran said he was in favor of a "temporary immigration pause" that bars some people from seven majority Muslim countries from entering the United States for 90 days.
Arena called the policy -- enforcement of which was halted by a federal judge on Friday -- sad, in an interview with the Washington Post this week. But Arena also supported Cameron's right to have his own take on the matter.
"He has a different political opinion," Arena said. "Have you been around the United States the last two years?"
Arena then asked rhetorically: "He has to agree with me politically?"
"He's wonderful," Arena said of Cameron, who visited with the U.S. team in Carson, California, last month while recovering from a knee injury that has prevented him from playing for English Premier League club Stoke City since October.
"He was in with us for a week during the camp. He came in from Stoke to have our doctors look at him. He's a terrific kid. He can have any kind of opinion he wishes to have politically."
Several of Cameron's U.S. teammates, including captain Michael Bradley, midfielders Alejandro Bedoya and Sacha Kljestan and defender Greg Garza, have been critical of the measure, which also bars refugees from any nation from entering the country for 120 days.
Midfielder Darlington Nagbe, who was admitted to the U.S. as a refugee from Liberia as a child, has also expressed his opposition to the executive order.
Arena is hoping Cameron will be available for next month's important World Cup qualifying games against Honduras and Panama, but the coach told ESPN FC on Thursday that he's not sure the 31-year-old will be fit in time. However, Arena is looking forward to working with the veteran whenever he returns.
"The soccer part [is where] we kind of have to be on the same page," Arena then joked.