Top Stories

Pulisic, Sargent, Weah headline USMNT roster for November friendlies

1 Shares

After missing most of the 2018 international slate, Christian Pulisic headlines the U.S. Men’s National Team roster for the November friendlies against England and Italy.

Pulisic. who has one appearance for the USMNT in 2018, is joined by a collection of young talent that’s made its mark throughout the last year, including Josh Sargent, Timothy Weah and Tyler Adams.

The majority of the roster for the November 15 meeting with England and November 20 clash with Italy has been called in recently, as interim manager Dave Sarachan sets a foundation for the next head coach.

Six of the players on the 23-man roster are currently alive in the Major League Soccer postseason. Adams, Wil Trapp, Brad Guzan, Zack Steffen, Jorge Villafana, Darlington Nagbe and Aaron Long could be forced to balance international duty with conference final preparations next week.

Nagbe and Villafana are two of the returning faces for the November friendlies, while Fulham’s Luca de la Torre is back after earning his first cap in June against the Republic of Ireland.

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan, Ethan Horvath, Zack Steffen

Defenders: John Brooks, Reggie Cannon, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Aaron Long, Matt Miazga, Shaq Moore, Antonee Robinson, Jorge Villafana, DeAndre Yedlin, Walker Zimmerman

Midfielders: Kellyn Acosta, Tyler Adams, Luca de la Torre, Marky Delgado,  Romain Gall, Julian Green, Sebastian Lletget, Weston McKennie, Darlington Nagbe, Christian Pulisic, Kenny Saief, Wil Trapp, Tim Weah

Forwards: Josh Sargent, Bobby Wood

Comments

  1. I don’t want Bradley called in and I think that they gave him his curtain call last exhibition games, but I don’t get the hatred.
    He made some great plays at big moments and helped the nat team out a lot.
    .
    Did it end well? No, but don’t be bitter about one player that was part of a team failure over many games. ( I am still, so this comment is for me too ) And definitely don’t hate him. He gave it his all most of the time like we all wish we could get an opportunity to.

    Reply
    • Good perspective. I’d echo pretty much all of it. If I must speculate, I’d say that barring a voluntary retirement, I’d be very surprised if that’s the last time we see him in a USMNT jersey, for better or worse. On over/under basis, I’d say he gets 5-10 more caps, probably entirely against CONCACAF opposition in early phase WCQ and Gold Cup. But I really don’t care if it’s zero, and I really don’t care if it’s more. Just as long as he isn’t somebody we are building around, I’d defer to the judgement of the new coach.

      Reply
  2. Why delaTorre and not Hyndman (actually playing on a UK first team), Manneh, Canouse, Amon, Ariyibi, Holmes, Morales, Parks, Payne, Sabbi, K. Scott, Balogun, Lankford, Sabanadzovic?

    People are kind of pulling the “ok come up with someone” lame internet game. I can do this all day. If you are just pulling a U20 there are U20s with more career traction, or who looked better on that team. There are also other players getting more time and showing on club teams.

    When you are literally platoon player on a reserve team for an iffy EPL promotion team sitting dead last, maybe you haven’t done crap yet to earn MNT. There are kids actually playing well in MLS, Eng. Champ., Scotland, Holland, rest of Europe. Why him? That’s why I say it’s some sort of pecking order obsession. He liked him a couple of years ago and so he reaches down into this list and plucks him out first. Otherwise with this list it makes no sense.

    Reply
    • Amon U20s (likely), Manneh struggled for time in mls, Mexico, and Swiss, Canouse a DM not a AM, Ariyibi plays less than DLT in lower U23 league, Holmes returning from injury, Morales lots of caps, parks benched by his U23 team, Payne no record of him playing anywhere this season, Sabbi just back from injury, Scott Telstar has League matches during camp, Balogun is with England this break, Langford hasn’t played since September injury?, the Bosnian kid plays in Bosnia I guess is that better than English reserve league? It’s a lot harder when you actually look at situations instead of listing names.

      Reply
      • This is easily pulled apart. (1) Some of these are AMs, some are DMs, and Sarachan has called so many of both that I can swap one for the other in my selection without trouble. Plus I have both in my list. So it’s covered. (2) EPL reserves is ok but Bundesliga U23 is not, even if the other player has first team experience. Gotcha. (3) Overliberal use of “coming off injury” even if Holmes for example is not just playing but did so well Lampard raved. (4) If we were calling some of these kids they might not be in an England youth camp. And Scott in particular would have to be released for an international date. (5) So there’s really maybe one or two in there where they are unwise and then the rest it’s this sort of nitpick commentary or outright performance snark when the player in question is EPL reserves picking up cobwebs, and after Amon I’d rather be seeing with my own two eyes instead of playing a self serving pre-judgment game that could be understood as in defense of calling up a rather unimpressive U20 who has been capped and made no impression, and who hasn’t even made his first team at the worst side in the EPL. Just so we are clear…..

      • Clubs must be notified weeks in advance, well before they are announced. So when guys haven’t played for injury you aren’t going to call them even if they are expected back in time in case they don’t. Telstar would have to release him, but it is bad form to demand a player for a friendly if they are in season. Interesting that you rate Scott who has two goals for Telstar after being loaned by an English side but this summer criticized Nova for almost getting Telstar promoted while being loaned by an English side. Balogun isn’t coming at this time, there is no need to file a switch when he still has many options with England. If we were 12 months out from Qatar and he had no English chance maybe. De La Torre did have a goal and two assists in a Leauge Cup match against Millwall so its not like he’s done nothing.

    • The idea that any coach won’t “play favorites” doesn’t hold any water. Player evaluation is completely subjective. People have opinions and select based on their opinions. The team is not selected by robots or the old BCS.

      Reply
      • I understand playing favorites. I don’t understand calling up the same non-veteran players over and over, particularly if results are meh and at some spots like DM, LB (really most of the backline), GK, we in fact need some fresh ideas, or at least to exhaust the pool before we just circle back round to Villafana and Robinson without them having to grow one bit.

    • I do wonder how much of this has to do with the quality of opposition we are facing. If we start throwing unknown Bosnian kids vs England and Italy it could get very ugly. Thats really not beneficial to anyone.

      Reply
      • Ronaldinho — Yeah I think if there’s any consensus, it’s that nothing about our scheduling has made any sense given our situation. Seems like the only justification for the choice of opposition was money, which is of course ironic given “healthy finances” was supposedly only thing US Soccer had going for it after the WCQ failure. Hard to know who to blame for this…. scheduling has typically been shrouded in mystery, but probably Dan Quinn was the genius here. Which begs the question, whose responsibility will this be going forward? Earnie? Cordeiro? Mystery guy?

    • Imperative Voice has already written D e La Torre off because he hasn’t become an EPL player at age 20 not impressed him in his 13 not 5 minute cameo against Ireland.

      Reply
      • I haven’t written him off, I just don’t see the point of his selection over others. I didn’t think he was some great outstanding U20 star. He isn’t on his club’s first team. No, you tell me what the heck vaulted him ahead of people who starred at U20 or U17, or who play for a first team as adults now?

  3. I know this whole cycle is supposed to be about developing options and depth and all that, but I have just been waiting to see a game with Sargent, Pulisic, Weah, Adams, Mckennie, and (I wasn’t as much in his camp before I saw him play live) Acosta in the same starting 11. These guys are a cut above athletically and technically. Acosta vs Peru: Even though he didn’t have his best performance, he covered so much ground – and made passing options very difficult for the opponent – that’s what Adams and McKennie do as well. Sargent is great, and Weah brings all the intangibles. I know I’m supposed to be in “options” mode, but I just really want to see them play together. Hope they are all healthy for next two games.

    Reply
  4. I have no favorite players at this point and want the new manager to pick them for me. Then I want to see what he does with the favorite players he picks. This is the reason I think we should have a new manager by now. We are wasting valuable game experience on players that might not be a favorite of the new guy.

    Reply
  5. Really, simply picking the “best” players is not rocket science. The professional teams have already done most of the work. The US is not blessed with a large number of starting players from Bayern, Madrid, Barcelona, ManU, Liverpool, Chelsea, etc. Going down to the sort of next level starting players in LaLiga, Premiership, Bundesliga, Seri A, still gets only a small number of players.

    Which players might eventually be good enough to play in a top league. There is no way a couple friendlies will help sort that out. In short it does not matter which players Sarachan calls up.

    What does matter is how the players selected will play together and that cannot be settled until a coach is named to take care if it until 2022.

    All the rest is just pissing moaning about how someone’s favorite player is being overlooked or why someone’s favorite whipping boy was included.

    Reply
    • I think the issue is with so many guys spread across leagues of differing abilities it’s hard for people to know who is best. How do you compare Gooch in League 1 to Gall in Sweden and Arriola in MLS? It’s hard to see a lot of these guys play without a huge cable budget so people want to see them all in one place. The result is often I guess there is a reason that they are on the U23s or in Norway, but this next guy I’ve only seen YouTube highlights of from three years ago when he was 14 is way better than Jozy. I’ve been a JV basketball coach for quite awhile I’m seldom wrong with what JV players in my league will contribute in varsity. This idea that Sarachan his staff and Stewart and his staff need to see guys in friendlies to see if they can play is kind of silly. They don’t need to have a “tryout” camp. They have a pretty good grasp of who can play or not.

      Reply
      • When I say tryouts I mean we call them in for a pair of games and see what they have. A truly experimental call sheet is basically a try out. Throw them out there, see what they do. The reason I don’t like settling so fast is it basically short circuits the process of earning a spot. No one else gets a chance, and sometimes we get the wrong person.

        I could understand the fairly settled attitude from a winning, qualified, veteran team. This is currently a mediocre, problematic in some areas, missed Russia, bunch of kids. I think they need time to objectively sort out who are the right ones to improve our chances to then win as we rebuild.

    • Dennis
      That is a very simplistic comment.
      .
      Not shocking at all that you left MLS off the list of league A first, league B second, etc.
      .
      I guess Zach Steffen didn’t make the cut….bizarre, I thought he was a ‘bet the mortgage’ player to make the team, even start.

      Reply
  6. I really don’t understand calling in MLS players during the playoffs? Sure it is an off week but is it worth it when most of them with will see token minutes. Hopefully, token in the sense that clubs release them with the understanding their players will see 45 minutes max. Why do the players and clubs allow the hassle of traveling when the USMNT already have an understanding of what most the call ups bring to the team. It is not like a player is going to have a break out match in friendly after playing regularly in MLS
    The plus for called up players is the pay out! I know for the women’s team it is a big part of individual income and often surpasses what they make professionally with club teams

    Reply
    • Put that together with 2- and 5-sub games, and a few other things. People are trying to restrain the Sarachan bashing but I think this is one of the worst coaches we’ve had in decades. Not in the snob sense of Europe vs MLS but in the objective literally clueless sense. Who calls MLS now, particularly playoff teams.

      I say that but now that I look back to 2017 he called several MLS for Portugal. Maybe it was that we were so happy to see Arena gone and start over but the beefing was less last time. Now I think more people are paying attention.

      Reply
      • The Sarachan bashing remains over-the-top and weird. If anything, it’s the USSF you should be bashing for leaving a guy with no long-term mandate in charge for so long. It could’ve been so much worse (for example, many temp guys might simply have run out the existing vets from the 2016 cycle while keeping the seat warm). Sarachan was given a terrible hand and did better than most expected, while blooding a nice number of guys who look like they will be the spine of the team going forward. If all you learned about was Antonee Robinson, I feel sorry for you. If it cheers you up, we have a guy named Josh Sargent you should really check out….

      • Sarachan has not been handed anything difficult. He’s been handed a team in rebuilding which in many sectors has little expectations, and where with age and such we’d expect experiments. He is then being praised for a fairly conservative version of experimentation.

        Difficult to me is Arena trying to turn around a team that blows its first two qualifiers. Nothing counts right now. All Sarachan has to do is push the program slightly forward and identify some good players for the next coach.

      • “All Sarachan has to do is push the program slightly forward and identify some good players for the next coach”. He did. I’d happily bet money at least 5 guys who got their first caps under Sarachan start matches in WCQ. Done and done.
        ***********************************************
        This glorified game of “go fish” you are advocating is a waste. Starting a team of 11 uncapped fringe prospects from the lower divisions of wherever against a team like Brazil or Colombia is an utterly worthless exercise. You will not get 11 fresh data points. Only thing you’ll learn is what those 11 guys look like chasing the ball for 90 minutes, and occasionally picking it out of the net. They’d make your boy Antonee look like Phillip Lahm. Throwing a bunch of crap at the wall and seeing what sticks has never been the blueprint for successful teams.

      • Gomer: what you’re missing is you can’t play soccer with 5 people. we need to find more good people. any cavalry coming to rescue us right now — except for perhaps Frei or AJ — is likely the kids. so if you’re saying we have 5 guys — i’d say more like 3 world class, but ok — then you still have work to do by your own admission.

        and to me to put in 13 months and identify “5 players” on a team basically rebuilding from scratch is pretty pathetic. it reflects his conservatism and willingness to settle on players like trapp who don’t have to earn it.

    • I agree that calling up players from teams who are still in the play-offs is troubling. The MLS teams with games on Sunday would see some players (most often important players) planning to get on a plane shortly after the game, arrive in England Monday morning and expected to start training with the national team. If their team is eliminated, OK, but if not they would be risking returning from national team duty tired or possibly injured.

      It would be better to explicitly say that players from teams still in contention would not be expected to join up with the nats in England.

      Reply
      • Re: MLS Playoffs guys. I suspect you’ll see those guys drop out of the side real quick after Sunday. Not only is the fatigue/injury risk too high, there is actually a serious conflict-of-interest question that would come up if a guy like Berhalter/Vermes was named USMNT coach.

      • After Gomer made his comments yesterday I realized there are 28 players on the roster. At most five would still be in the playoffs because Columbus and RBNY play each other.

    • Agreed,
      These guys are trying to win championships as one the most valuable players on their team. That is priceless experience, these friendlies aren’t worthless, but they are pretty close in some instances like playing 5 minutes in a game that was already decided.

      Reply
  7. Keeper is pecking order malarkey. Same three as last time, but I don’t think the 2 and 3 would be a very heavy consensus. In plain English, if you asked the average devoted fan who to back up Steffen, it wouldn’t necessarily be Guzan and Horvath. I might indulge him that once as giving them a run out. But he’s literally settled on keepers who aren’t standouts and worse haven’t had to prove themselves for the Nats.

    Which gets at another question which is why Steffen-in-playoffs is even there. We know what we have there. He likely consumes 90-135 minutes of keeping time. What we don’t know is who the second and third choice should be. These games should really be devoted, for these purposes, to sorting that out. Steffen should be left home and we should have been rotating quality keepers in to see who earns the right to support him.

    Reply
  8. The backline selections, at least the reflexive ones, are a joke. Did he watch the last two games? Or last several? It’s superficially ok from a pecking order perspective but I thought the pecking order was pretty well exposed last pair. And yet Brooks Robinson Yedlin Miazga again. Did we play two games in October? Did the coach watch them?

    Reply
  9. I think the mid choices save de la Torre (where did that come from) are solid, but I didn’t think solid was the point here. I was surprised, particularly considering a friendly set mid playoffs, that we didn’t call in a bunch of early season Euro prospects. I’m also surprised that when DM is kind of meh that we weren’t more adventurous.

    Reply
  10. I am befuddled by the extent of continuity for a team with mediocre field results and a few specific problem areas. Put differently, we aren’t winning them all, and areas like back, DM, and backup keeper look iffy. I think a new coach with a set style will improve results, but I don’t get calling up the same people when we’re not winning and there is this level of debate over who should be starting where, suggesting quite a few have either had nightmares or not really stood out at an international level.

    One thing people need to remember at this level is it’s not regular season MLS ball, we aren’t risking missing playoffs in friendlies. This is like preseason. The idea is to sort out who can contribute and maybe get a sense if certain starters don’t deserve it or certain prospects need to become regulars. For a team that missed qualifying and isn’t winning everything not nailed down, it’s odd our comfort level, settling on a fairly consistent team sheet.

    Reply
      • I couldn’t possibly have said the MLS playoffs bit before and the back/DM/keeper thing is a little more specific than “let’s experiment.” I think that’s an emerging specific area where the failure to keep options open and assess is potentially problematic in practice. ie, that if Robinson starts every game for a while and then you figure out he has serious issues, the air has been sucked out of LB to replace him. And then Sarachan is so dunderheaded that he brings back the equally problematic Villafana to be his challenger.

      • Seems like you have spent 10,000 words at this point trashing an interim coach that nobody here wants or expects to stay. What’s the point? Move on already.

      • What you’re missing is that in the spring it’s basically January camp, March friendlies, and then the May friendies may or may not be separate from June Gold Cup. The time to try out ideas is running out and Sarachan has fostered problem areas that his successor will be trying to figure out himself for the next year or more.

        For example, that there is basically little tape on anyone but Robinson playing LB will have ramifications going beyond Sarachan’s stay. It’s not bashing Sarachan for the sake of doing so, it’s concern about the broader implications for the team of his conservatism and stupidity. If other options at these positions are not tried now it will be more complicated to try them as time progresses.

      • And you’ve said that. Thousands of times. Seems like all you are doing is complaining and attempting to lay down markers so you can say “I told you so” anytime we lose for the next 8 years, as though anybody will remember or care. It’s tedious. Get some fresh material and quit your incessant whining.

      • I have a fair amount of material on a variety of subjects so the idea I need new material is self serving rubbish. I am not laying down markers, my thought process is don’t let go until it gets fixed. A fine example of this is we were supposed to have a new coach by November 1 and so a fair amount of people backed off. Do we have one? Keep the heat up. It may seem redundant to you but is it being fixed? Then we still need to talk about it. I’ll shut up when they fix it.

      • Well on this point I definitely agree. Scheduling was absurd and poorly thought through (at least if improving our team from a competitive standpoint was the goal… which I guess it probably wasn’t for whatever marketing genius happened to be in charge of this). You can’t trial players meaningfully against teams that are likely to rip you to shreds. Couple that with an interim coach, and you have a recipe for a wasted year.

    • If we had a coach, I would have expected the team to begin games with easier teams and build on that by implementing a certain style of play. See how pieces fit etc.
      I feel these past 12 months we just put people together and see if they can hang against tougher competition. No question the kids have the heart to make it a game but I don’t think they got much out of it in terms of team cohesiveness.

      Reply
      • I think it’s wasted time because the level of play exposed a lot of the players and the results were modest and I think in the end we learned very little definitive about the team. And like you’re saying, no system, no role players. So the new coach next year I will be curious if he literally starts over.

        I agree with you, calibrated games trialing players while we implement a system. These are teams you play with a drilled and gelled team of well identified players. These are final exams you take after doing your homework for a long time. This is you took your potentially gifted undergrad STEM student and dropped him in a CalTech PhD Astrophysics program. Any surprise all but a handful come out with question marks, so we wouldn’t even know who to start playing El Salvador in Gold Cup (so to speak), much less if we faced one of these buzzsaw schedule teams for real?

        Did it precisely backwards.

  11. So much for naming the manager by Nov. 1st. Did Stewart and Co. forget about the MLS playoffs? If Berhalter is the man, then why not say so months ago and explain Sarachan will coach the team through the end of the year since he is under contract (and JK too from buyout). People would moan and groan about lost time, etc. but I honestly think that would have gone over better than this ongoing charade, which is leaving so much uncertainty hanging over everything USMNT. I actually like Berhalter for the position, but the USSF has put him in a tough spot before he’s even started, and I think his chances of success have dropped. My big question is whether it was Berhalter who demanded he finish the season (understandable but many fans will find unacceptable), or was it USSF not wanting to pay 3 coaches at once? Again, a little transparency and a touch of positive PR from the USSF could have all but eliminated the confusion.

    Reply
    • I don’t understand the sudden timidness when the past two full time coaches and GM were under contract someplace else when hired here. The guy even doing the hiring was under contract to Philly — and stayed so til August 1 — after our announcement. Setting aside the wisdom of that, I don’t get why it’s like, oh, we have to walk on egg shells, he has a contract.

      I mean, Columbus has bigger issues than if their coach skedaddles. Even if they stay in Ohio LAG will be sending out their tentacles his way.

      Reply
  12. Really wish Ernie would name new manager. We need to see what the roster would look like under new leadership. Hate that the decision is tied to MLS, we need our national team independent for so many obvious reasons.

    Reply
  13. Just name the new manager and be done with it. If it is Greg then his first opportunity will be Jan camp with nothing but MLS players which will limit the player pool that the US has right now. I believe Stewart is right for the job but this has been a rough year

    Reply
  14. Since his rookie season, Lletget has played in 65 MLS matches and scored 4 goals and 10 assists. He just turned 26, so by Qatar he’ll be 30. And honestly in his time with the Nats he had a good 130 minutes and great 18 before being injured.
    ————————————————————————————————
    Other American Midfielders in MLS over the last two years (approximate # of matches Lletget has played the last 3 seasons)
    Tyler Adams 2 goals 12 assists in 56 matches
    Marky Delgado 5 goals 7 assists in 59 matches
    Wil Trapp 1 goal 6 assists in 64 matches (very different role)
    Michael Bradley 0 goals 7 assists in 67 matches (very different role)
    Benny Feilhaber 8 goals 9 assists in 64 matches
    Kellyn Acosta 6 goals 7 assists in 48 matches
    Darlington Nagbe 3 goals 8 assists in 50 matches
    Sacha Kljestan 9 goals 24 assists in 65 matches
    Kyle Beckerman 5 goals 1 assist in 61 matches

    Reply
    • One (or should I say two) of the overlooked aspects of how this last cycle went were that Saief and Lletget emerged but were then hurt for the key qualifiers. The cycle maybe goes different if they are starting or at least available. Lletget is also 26 and younger than some of the options listed. More to the point, I think Lletget is there to fight for the DM job. I’m not sure how pertinent the production stats are then because his primary job would be breaking up plays. Saief in contrast is competing with the kids for attacking minutes. He looked very good in his debut but hasn’t impressed under Sarachan.

      Reply
  15. Outside of the Canouse and Zardes omission, I like the roster selection. Sarachan keeps bringing in a good mix of new talent and young talent, with De La Torre, Lletget, and Gall getting chances this time in November. Lletget has performed well before with the Nats, Gall performing well in Sweden, and De La Torre gaining traction in England. It is also good to see defenders from MLS who have performed well this season getting called in.

    Reply
    • de la Torre is playing reserve ball. That was just a coach exercising an obsession that hasn’t been extended beyond youth play. If you wanted to experiment there are other attacking players who have played well and progressed as adult pros.

      I thought it was a gutless play to win roster. There are a few positions like back and keeper where we really needed fresh ideas due to struggling players (Robinson, Yedlin, Miazga, Brooks). Those struggling players got called again.

      I also think that assuming we hold January camp calling in MLS players was a waste of time. This would have been better used trying out European prospects. Anyone MLS is probably beat up at this point and some of them are still in the playoffs and probably distracted.

      Basically an ad for why Sarachan was a bad choice.

      Reply
      • So De La Torre is a sign of Sarachan playing favorites but then you criticize the calling of Robinson or Villafana. Name another LB playing in a league anywhere?

  16. No Canouse a little disappointing. Could be he asked for rest a lot of two game weeks at the end for DCU. Also with Adams McKinnie and Acosta could be numbers game.
    ————————
    Villafana baffles me. I know we are shallow at LB, but you are going to ask him to fly from Portland to England and then Belgium back to West Coast and potentially play a playoff game? So then does he play the first game instead of Robinson in his home country?

    Reply
      • Yeah, I suppose you are right. It might be more fun to speculate who replaces each guy. I guess with 28 they just drop the guys still in.

    • Villafana to me displays a lack of ideas. Like Arena and Klinsi he is just chasing his tail and trying the same limited set of backs over and over. If you aren’t happy literally try out some new LBs.

      Reply
  17. No Arriola or Canouse? Both just exited playoffs after personal performances that were solid. Hope they get a nod in the New Year under new and improved management

    Reply
    • Arriola is disappearing. Amon, Weah, Green, there are a list of better options.

      Canouse is more interesting but there you get into Sarachan choosing comfort over experiment. In which case you better have identified the right security blankets already. I don’t think we actually know who the DMs should be. So just recycling the same names is a poor choice.

      Reply
    • The people getting called up while those who are left behind are is baffling. I say this with every new roster announcement. I’m well and truly over his tenure.

      Reply
  18. Zardes should be here; he is clearly our most in form striker at this time. Instead of a lot of MLS defenders, I think Alvarado should get another look as he has been a starting fixture for some time now in the Mexican league. I don’t understand what happened with Novakovich. He started the Duitch season with something like 4 goals in 8 games, and yet hasn’t gotten any real minutes for the US team. After his last US call up he hasn’t played much at all for his club team and now he isn’t even called in for the US. As for Gooch, he’s playing in the English 3rd division, below that of MLS quality. He needs to step up in class. Whiled I like the potential of EPB and Hyndman, they haven’t been playing much for their club teams.

    Reply
    • Re: Zardes. This becomes a lot easier to understand if we accept the assumption that Berhalter is signed up as USMNT head coach. If Columbus advances (and as coach, you’d think this is the message he is trying to convey), Zardes would almost certainly be immediately dropped from the USMNT squad. And if Columbus is eliminated, Zardes could similarly be added as a replacement for players who are left in the playoffs (can’t imagine any of these guys traveling abroad for a friendly). Either way, it makes no sense to call him up now.
      *************************************
      Big assumption, of course.

      Reply
      • Than why is Trapp on the roster. I’ve never been a fan of Trapp at the SR national team level. He’s fine against lower level competition, but is exposed against higher end competition. Would rather try Canouse or see Morales return as options for CDM than keep trotting out Trapp.

    • I agree with Delgado and forgot to mention this in my post. I don’t think he has yet to look good at the international level and he doesn’t really impress me when I see him play for Toronto. It would be nice if we actually had a national team coach to put together this roster. We’re getting to the point where we need to start integrating some veterans, like Altidore, with the youngsters. I think we’ve seen enough of some of the young players to figure out who we can count on in the near future and who doesn’t figure in our plans for the next year or so.

      Reply
      • Not sure what Altidore would bring to the forwards. Wood is not a newbie. Sargent is probably already playing at a higher level than Altidore. Don’t forget Altidore does take himself out of the game if it doesn’t go his way. Sargent is doing just fine and training with Bremen first team.

      • You really calling for Oozy who couldn’t get it together and score so we could qualify for the world cup no thanks I will leave it.

    • I think later on we may regret Sarachan’s vanilla, unexperimental lineups. He hasn’t locked down many of the dual national types out there. Nor has he been very effective at resolving emerging problem areas, backup keeper, DM, backline. Like Arena and Klinsi he seems scared to go beyond the obvious. Even if the obvious is Robinson or Villafana or Yedlin or the like having a nightmare, and then getting called back next time again.

      Reply
      • I agree that none of these guys are truly banging on the door for a call up, but figured with the European based games they would get another look. Also, when I see Delgado, De la Torre, Lletget I am not inspired either. Was not aware of the injury to Novakovich. overall no major surprises in the roster.

    • It’s easy to forget Gooch plays in the 3rd division, which is largely why he’s a regular starter. Novakovich is fighting off injury. Hyndman only recently saw good minutes so no need to bring him in right now.

      Reply
    • I don’t know if I’d have called them specifically but this should have been a Euro heavy prospecting expedition. I am sure USSF’s England and Italy scheduling idiocy is involved in here someplace.

      Reply
      • I agree with your point about MLS based players. Not sure this is really the time for them when we have Euro based players who we could get a look at. January camp will provide several weeks for the new coach to get a very very close look at MLS candidates for the team. This is an easy opportunity to bring in more of our guys playing in Europe.

      • To me the new coach is the one who should be settling on players, implementing a system, and trying to win, at least eventually. To me Sarachan’s job should be to put a variety of people on tape for the new coach to decide from. If, as at a few positions, Sarachan gets obsessed drilling a dry well, he has settled on the wrong person for the new coach, and worse, put no one else on much tape. What can the new coach do, then, but literally start over at that position?

        I think MLS players are probably tired and the playoff ones distracted. Many of them have already had put up plenty of tape. It’s like calling up Pulisic in May. So run out the Europeans and maybe call MLS if you have no options at a position. The results have been sufficiently meh and the team has enough questionable spots where I don’t get settling into a comfortable set and switching over to playing to win so much. To me it’s re-creating the past 4 years where the team pretended it didn’t have problem spots, recycled the same names over and over, and played to win even as the results eroded, ie, they weren’t actually winning. It reminds me of my HS coach my senior year where we went deep in state and only lost 3 games but literally all to the same team, and our lineup barely changed each of those losses. Like definitional insanity.

      • I also don’t think people realize that it’s going to be very quick next year, January camp (if any), March friendlies, and then we may or may not have May games separate from Gold Cup. Then Gold Cup, LoN, and after that presumably into qualifying.

      • I don’t necessarily believe we need to chop and change every game like you are suggesting, but agree it seems like Sarachan has already settled on some guys. If he was the long term coach then thats fine, but as you pointed out, he is not. This is a really easy opportunity to get some fresh faces a look. It doesn’t make sense to ship over so many MLS guys after a long season (especially when they will get Jan camp opportunity)when there are plenty of options that can step into camp based in Europe. This roster really should be 3/4 Euro based at a minimum.

      • See the deal is that there should be no incumbency to concern about in terms of chop and change. Settling on players implies incumbency. I think these should be glorified tryouts and the best players from them earn their way onto next year’s more serious callups. That would emphasize actual performance. We instead seem focused on identifying the pecking order and then x% of the time Robinson, Yedlin, Miazga, Brooks, Trapp, don’t look like they should be incumbents. If you instead only retained the players who played well, this whole debate over just desserts goes away, we quit starting people because they are supposed to be impressive, we instead focus on who really looks good.

        I think the 23 man decisions should be next year. This year should be put on an Amon or Sargent or Steffen type performance and show me you belong on this team. I think if you enforced that kind of accountability, instead of pecking orders, the debates over Trapp and Co. would resolve themselves. You’d either get the high level of play called for or they’d start getting passed over.

      • Call in Euro heavy prospects, except not De La Torre because I saw him play once for 5 minutes and I wasn’t impressed

      • I’m assuming you mean dual national by “prospecting”. Dual nationals are unlikely to join so far from a World Cup, when they have three years to work themselves into a lineup in their home country. Also if you accept with the interim and the next guy doesn’t rate you you can be stuck if you had to file a switch. Despite this it was reported U S Soccer was reaching out to a couple players but we’re apparently turned down.

      • The real issue with the Open Tryout idea is that we really don’t have the depth of player pool to do that. We are going to see lots of re-treads, because we don’t have the numbers of qualified players to give opportunities to. I completely agree we have missed an opportunity to spread around the call ups (especially for these 2 games) but the chop and change really won’t work. If we made wholesale changes for every camp we would be seeing 2nd rate MLS guys get called in. Expanding the player pool is a great idea, but there has to be limits. Top guys in MLS, top young guys with potential to be contributors, established Euro guys. Anything beyond that is a wasted call up in my opinion

Leave a Reply to Quit Whining About Soccer in the US Cancel reply