Gregg Berhalter released the 26-man roster for the 1st window of world cup qualifying today.
GOALKEEPERS (3): Ethan Horvath (Nottingham Forest/ENG; 7/0), Zack Steffen (Manchester City/ENG; 23/0), Matt Turner (New England Revolution; 7/0)
DEFENDERS (10): George Bello (Atlanta United; 3/0), John Brooks (Wolfsburg/GER; 43/3), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona/ESP; 11/1), Mark McKenzie (Genk/BEL; 6/0), Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG; 45/1), Antonee Robinson (Fulham/ENG; 12/0), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United; 9/3), James Sands (New York City FC; 6/0), DeAndre Yedlin (Galatasaray/TUR; 64/0), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC; 17/2)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Kellyn Acosta (Colorado Rapids; 37/2), Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig/GER; 14/1), Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy; 29/7), Weston McKennie (Juventus/ITA; 24/7), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders; 25/0)
FORWARDS (8): Brenden Aaronson (RB Salzburg/AUT; 7/3), Konrad de la Fuente (Olympique Marseille/FRA; 1/0), Jordan Pefok (BSC Young Boys/SUI; 6/1), Ricardo Pepi (FC Dallas; 0/0), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea/ENG; 38/16), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund/GER; 8/4), Josh Sargent (Norwich City/ENG; 16/5), Tim Weah (Lille/FRA; 13/1)
Comments
One key thing to note the Premier league guys may not be able to be on the roster unless the issue with UK govt and FIFA gets resolved due to quarantine rules in the UK. YEsterday PL clubs voted unanimously to not allow players in red code countries to travel abroad for international breaks which would be the US. Hopefully FIFA can find a resolution as so many south american countries would be thrown into chaos for WC qualifying.
Yeah luckily from what I can find, this doesn't affect the USMNT this window because neither El Salvador nor Honduras are on the red list. Brazil is probably screwed if it's not resolved.
FIFA came out in a letter and said that the clubs and leagues could face sanctions for refusing to release players since it's an international window. Of course the European clubs and leagues didn't like to hear that...
My thoughts so far:
Julian Green over either Lleget or Roldan. Would've liked to see Williamson but since we didn't bring a lot of "true" midfielders, it makes sense. Would have liked to see another mid instead of a defender, but it makes sense if we're playing a 3-4-3 and/or we play Reyna (or Aaronson) centrally like we should have done from day 1.
Fine with the GKs - I think Turner and Steffen split the 3 matches. Defenders look fine. Forward group is going to be filthy; just need Sargent or somebody to step up and be the central striker we've been missing.
Agreed agreed and agreed
Turner killed it at the MLS all-star game last night. Two save during pks. I honestly think he has a shot at playing more than Steffen.
I have to give GGG credit for getting results this summer because ultimately a manager is judged by his results. But he's really stubborn when it comes to making changes with "his guys" - see Lleget, Ream, Roldan. I don't think he moves on from Steffen, which is fine since he's serviceable. But Turner is easily our best shot-stopper and arguably could be starting for a big 5 European league club if he were to move across the pond.
But the knock against him has been his distribution from the back, though I don't think Steffen provides enough of an advantage there to make him a better overall keeper. Personally, I think the credit Steffen gets for his distribution is overblown, and he seems to be good for one mental lapse every game or two. Also think we lose to Qatar if Steffen is in goal instead of Turner.
I know a lot people are upset about those three being included. But honestly, there's not a lot of choices when you think about the reasons other players were left off.
Berhalter did not bring any European based players who played at the GC - there was simply not enough time between the end of the tournament and now for them to get reintegrated with their teams and play matches before this window. This is why players like Cannon and Hoppe were not called. This is also why Julian Green would not have been called if he came to the GC, but it's just been a while since he was in this team as well.
He did not call players who may be getting transferred soon or who recently transferred. This eliminates players like Chris Richards, Busio, Hoppe (again).
When you start going down the list of players who were eliminated by these criteria and consider that you need some players in the squad with a decent amount of international experience, it makes a lot of sense that Roldan and Ream are called. Ream is basically a coach at this point, and Roldan is actually playing very well in MLS. Lletget is a good player. I don't understand why people hate on him so much
Also, GGGs comments about GKs seemed to indicate they are going to be rotating, so he seems to at least be giving Turner the opportunity to win the job long term.
I think Lleget is a solid MLS player - but he's just average as an attacking midfielder. 11 yanks did a data-driven analysis of his game (starts around the 45:00 minute mark), and while I think he undersells the things Lleget does (he completely ignores the percentile comparison, which I think is better than looking at the raw numbers), he's very average for what you'd want from the position.
He's safe with the ball, which is a plus, but his biggest weakness is that he doesn't try to break lines with his passing and I don't think he offers much in the attack. Plus, he completely disappeared this summer in competitions. 6 starts in 8 games and only 1 assist (group stage of Gold Cup). I get he scored goals in the friendlies earlier this year, but I'm going to rate competitive performances much higher. Especially in the Gold Cup where he was one of the few senior guys on the squad with a ton of experience.
He's an average-to-above-average player at his position in MLS - I just don't rate him as highly as other players in the pool when it comes to playing against international competition.
That's fine, I'm not saying he's great and I don't rate him super highly either. But, he's a veteran locker room guy, Gregg trusts him to execute the gameplan, and as a player, he's fine. All I'm saying is, if anyone is expecting him to be left off of a WCQ roster, except for injury, they're going to be disappointed. There is no doubt in my mind he will be on every roster
Definitely thought it would make sense to take another midfielder instead of another center back, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Reyna, Aaronson, or Pulisic play centrally.
I think it probably makes sense to take Lleget/Roldan until Green gets a chance to come into a camp for some friendlies or qualifiers if we've already qualified.
I was listening to a podcast the other day that claimed GGG tried to call up Green for the Gold Cup, but his club declined to release him. Berhalter decided to defer to his club rather than pressing the issue. I think that if Green was in camp for the Gold Cup, he definitely makes the WCQ roster for this window. Berhalter definitely called up players he felt comfortable with; there are only 2 new faces to the roster that didn't get called up earlier this summer - Pepi and De La Fuente, and Pepi is definitely a unique situation. My best guess for De La Fuente is that Berhalter wanted another true winger since he's going to likely have to play Reyna/Aaronson centrally as CAMs.
In an ideal world, Fürth releases Green and Luca de la Torre doesn't reject the call up to the Gold Cup, and they're both in camp instead of Lleget and Roldan.
Yeah, I had seen/heard some of the same things. I think Pepi and De La Fuente have been to U.S. camps prior to this summer, so they're not being completely thrown into the mix out of nowhere.
I'm not too worried about having Lleget and Roldan instead of Green and de la Torre at this point, but I'd definitely like to see them get called into the squad before the World Cup.
De La Fuente is also probably in because Pulisic has covid right now so who knows if his match fitness is good enough to play all the games he would be available in.
Gonna be curious to see how much pitch time Pulisic sees for the USMNT with CL and Prem and quarantine rules...
also getting over covid i believe so not training. could see start one match and come off the bench the other two
I think Berhalter decides to pull a page from the NBA and do some load management with Pulisic. I think he's on the bench for the 1st match and then starts vs Canada since it's probably the toughest match of the 3 in this window. Especially since our depth at winger is ridiculous...
I, I believe, I believe that, I believe that we, I believe that we will, I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN😎🇺🇸🇺🇸
I wanted to see Daryl Dike get on this list.
Ehh, he was fine but largely overhyped. Plus whatever injury he may still be dealing with. He reminds me too much of Altidore up top... mostly cherry-picks and gets lazy or lost for large portions of the match. He is also a UVA guy so there is that.
I'm thinking in terms of squad construction. He gives us a unique option off the bench in a match where if we need something different to spark a late goal we bring a 220lb athletic freak on, even if it's mostly in a hail mary context.
I've seen that not getting called in was due to a combination of the shoulder, and his club situation being kind of up in the air.
Unpopular opinion - I think Zardes fits the super-sub #9 role perfectly. He's not an athletic freak but I'd hate to be a center back dealing with him pressing in the 80th minute.
I want him to play in Europe for a year before we call him up to the main team. He really needs to work on his dribble and footwork
Hoppe just out muscled on this list? Loved watching him play during the last tourney.
Probably. If I was the manager I would have Pulslic and Hoppe as the wingers and move Reyna to cam
Hoppe probably has a better chance to break into the line-up as the striker/center-forward, since that's primarily where he's played at the club level. I think he's also trying to change clubs, so that might have had an impact on getting called in this window.
Hoppe needs to stay central. Been linked with several Prem clubs, but more likely he goes to the Eredivisie. Wish Koln would buy him, since we need help up top, he wouldn't be too expensive, and it would get the club more exposure in the US to have an American
I just ran in there and starting shooting.gif
Reportedly working on a transfer - a lot of guys in that situation left of this squad. Wouldn't read anything into it
Excited to see what Pefok can do if he gets some run he played very well for Young Boys
I love reading these soccer threads cause everyone's vernacular and vocabulary are so different from the way they normally post in other threads. Fascinating stuff
What're you on about bruv? Everyone talks right proper in here
Innit??
Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
Surprised that Cobi Jones aint on the team anymore....
I was disappointed that Brek Shea was left out. Absolutely bonkers...
PEPIIIIIIIIIIII
It has been a while since I have seen a 26 man roster where I could keep most the names and feel comfortable. Good stuff.
How good is this team relative to the last USMNT cycle?
Night and day. We've replaced about 75-80% of the roster with younger guys who are proving themselves in better leagues in Europe instead of trying to make international-caliber players out of a MLS all-star team.
Might be a bit of hyperbole, but I think the 2022-2026 window could be our golden generation if things keep progressing at the rate they are now.
Around 2017 the USMNT was ranked between 23-35 in the FIFA rankings. We are currently 10th. If you put a lot of faith into those sort of things, well, there's an answer.
But to the eyeball test...
I think another sign of the quality of this team is that there are a bunch of guys that you absolutely have to start because they're way too talented to keep off the field. I tried a couple weeks ago to figure out what our best lineup would be in an absolute must-win game, and I've got 6/7 guys that have to be on the field in certain positions. Last cycle, we maybe had half that and Pulisic was really the only one that would cause a riot if he was left out.
We were starting Omar Gonzalez and Michael Bradley. I think Tim Howard started in Couva, even though that should have been Guzan's opportunity. Dempsey was at the end of his career, and coming back from a heart ailment, not even 100%. Bobby Wood was arguably our best striker in the cycle, and was always injured. He scored a game tying goal in Guatemala with 2 games to go. He also missed a sitter from Pulisic in Costa Rica that would have made it 1-1.
And we shoved Bruce Arena onto a pedestal, even though he was over a decade removed from the international game. Rightly so, he stated after his removal "MLS has made the rest of CONCACAF better." Yes, but he also miserably failed to find the right talent available to him 4 years ago.
Spot on. Jurgen Klinsmann wasn't the guy for the job (I think he would be a fantastic technical director), but one thing he saw ahead of most of the USMNT brass was that we needed to push people to play in Europe. The rest of CONCACAF saw MLS as their "European league" to sharpen their best players (with a couple of exceptions of guys that were good enough to play in Europe - Chicarito and Keylor Navas, for example); we needed to take the next step to stay ahead of the curve.
The players last cycle were nearing or already past the end of their usefulness to the USMNT. They weren't bad players, just not super talented, MLS-tested veterans with a few decent Euro based players in the mix. It was an aging squad that was on its way out and looking to have one last ride at the WC.
This cycle is full of extremely talented young players. There is very little international experience (yes that does matter, especially in CONCACAF) but once they get used to the intensity, the ceiling for this group is much higher. I'm not too worried because most of them play in big matches at decent sized clubs, so it's not like a totally foreign concept. But CONCACAF is a different style of play.
To answer your question, the best player on last cycles squad was a 17-year old Pulisic and it wasn't particularly close. At that time, he was probably about at the level of our 3rd or 4th choice winger for this cycle. And there are several other players in the squad who are high, high level talents like Pulisic this time around. This squad is immeasurably better
Musah is hurt correct? I think he's a future mainstay in midfield...very fluid and composed.
I think he just started back training after being injured for a couple weeks - so yes. Depending on formation, he's arguably a lock to start on the right side of midfield.
Yeah, he picked up a knee injury over the summer. He should be ready for the next camp
I'm pumped for some WC qualifiers. To bad they start at 10:30 at night.... Who schedules this shit???
the games starting after 10 are in central america, so mountain time zone. doubt those federations care about east coast USA viewership. there's also probably temperature considerations to be made
Yeah I'd rather play a game at 10 EST rather than have our players baking in the sun at 3-4pm local time like they've scheduled in the past.
This is the best Ive felt about the USMNT in so long and players like reyna killing it I'm so pumped. Getting Pepi on board is a big win as well
My buddy sent me this phenomenal write up on the USMNT roster from a Michigan blog. Was long but a great summary for me who hasn't kept up with every players journey and is a casual observer:
https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/ot-us-soccer-update-world-cup-qualifying-st...
Pulisic was seen training alone in Nashville today. Team has already left for El Salvador, so it looks like they're keeping him fresh for Canada. Not the worst idea