The first U.S. national team match of the year won't feature many familiar faces. In fact, there are no players who could be considered first-choice national team options. No, Saturday's friendly against Chile is instead about new faces and Bob Bradley's chance to see how a new crop of MLS players can measure up in what will be a first or second appearance for many of them.
So who will Bob Bradley start against Chile? Will MLS veterans like Jeff Larentowicz and Chris Wondolowski get the nod, or will Bradley turn to new faces like Juan Agudelo and Teal Bunbury to lead the charge?
Perhaps an even more intriguing question is just what formation Bob Bradley will trot out. Will he continue his recent fascination with a variation of a 4-2-3-1, or will he try a two-forward formation?
Here is the lineup we can see Bob Bradley trotting out against Chile on Saturday:
PROJECTED USMNT STARTING LINEUP vs. CHILE
——————–Bunbury—————–
Agudelo———–Diskerud———Bedoya
———Larentowicz—McCarty———–
Wallace—-Ream—–Gonzalez–Franklin
—————–Rimando——————–
Some thoughts on this squad:
Agudelo gets the nod over Brek Shea. Agudelo isn't a pure winger, but he has played wide for the Red Bulls and plays wide for the U.S. Under-20s in their 4-3-3. Sliding Bedoya centrally and putting Shea on the wing is another option, but we'll give Diskerud the nod here.
Now, if it's a 4-4-2, we could see this lineup:
———–Bunbury——-Agudelo———–
Shea————McCarty————Bedoya
—————-Larentowicz—————–
Wallace—-Ream—–Gonzalez–Franklin
—————–Rimando——————–
Dax McCarty gets the nod over Diskerud, though a good camp could push Diskerud into the lineup.
In both lineups, left back is a question mark. Anthony Wallace is the lone natural left back in the camp so we give him the nod, but it's a safe bet Bob Bradley will have a look at one of his many right back options on the left to see which of them can slot in and be comfortable on that side of the field.
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What do you think of the lineups above? Which of them would you prefer to see? What lineup would you like to see Bob Bradley use?
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