The U.S. Men’s National Team’s upcoming friendly against Switzerland will serve as preparation for the upcoming Concacaf Nations League, but will also present an opportunity for some players to try and impress USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter for the first time.
Julian Green, Matthew Hoppe, David Ochoa and Justin Che are among the 27 players called in for the USMNT’s friendly against Switzerland on May 30, a squad stacked with regular starters, along with the four aforementioned players, none of which are on the USMNT preliminary roster for the upcoming Nations League.
Weston McKennie, Gio Reyna, Sergiño Dest and John Brooks are among the regular starters included in the squad, which will be without Christian Pulisic and Zack Steffen, who will be with their respective teams preparing for the UEFA Champions League final on May 29.
For Green, the call-up is the first for him under Berhalter, with his last USMNT appearance coming in 2018. Yedlin makes his first appearance with the USMNT since November of 2019, when he played in Concacaf Nations League against Cuba.
Che, Hoppe and Ochoa join Leicester City goalkeeper Chituru Odunze as the four uncapped players in the group. Che is an FC Dallas academy product currently on loan with Bayern Munich, where he has impressed with the youth teams and Bayern’s reserve team, Bayern II. Hoppe broke through with the first team at Schalke in 2021, and although the club was relegated from the Bundesliga, the young forward emerged as a bright spot.
Green, Josh Sargent and Daryl Dike may wind up not being available for the camp due to potential scheduling conflicts. Green’s club, Gruether Fürth, could wind up playing in a Bundesliga promotion playoff, and could wind up facing Sargent’s Werder Bremen. Dike is on loan to English club Barnsley, which is currently in the semifinals of the English League Championship promotion playoffs.
Another player whose availability is in question is Tyler Adams, who is currently in the United States undergoing treatment for a recent back injury. His participation will hinge on how his recovery progresses, and the fact that both Kellyn Acosta and Jackson Yueill are on the roster to face Switzerland suggests Berhalter is preparing for the possibility of being without the RB Leipzig midfielder.
The USMNT squad will report to camp starting on Monday in Switzerland, where the group will undergo high-altitude training in preparation for the Concacaf Nations League semifinals, which take place in Denver.
The final USMNT roster for the Nations League will be announced on Monday.
Here is the roster for the USMNT friendly against Switzerland:
USMNT roster vs. Switzerland
(USMNT caps/goals)
GOALKEEPERS: Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge/BEL; 4/0), Chituru Odunze (Leicester City/ENG; 0/0), David Ochoa (Real Salt Lake; 0/0)
DEFENDERS: John Brooks (Wolfsburg/GER; 40/3), Reggie Cannon (Boavista/POR; 14/0), Justin Che (Bayern Munich/GER; 0/0), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona/ESP; 7/1), Mark McKenzie (Genk/BEL; 2/0), Matt Miazga (Anderlecht/BEL; 21/1), Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG; 42/1), Bryan Reynolds (Roma/ITA; 1/0), Antonee Robinson (Fulham/ENG; 10/0), DeAndre Yedlin (Galatasaray/TUR; 62/0)
MIDFIELDERS: Kellyn Acosta (Colorado Rapids; 27/2), Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig/GER; 12/1), Julian Green (Greuther Fürth/GER; 15/4), Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy; 20/6), Weston McKennie (Juventus/ITA; 21/6), Yunus Musah (Valencia/ESP; 4/0), Jackson Yueill (San Jose Earthquakes; 9/0)
FORWARDS: Brenden Aaronson (Red Bull Salzburg/AUT; 4/2), Daryl Dike (Barnsley/ENG; 2/0), Matthew Hoppe (Schalke/GER; 0/0), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund/GER; 4/2), Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen/GER; 13/5), Jordan Siebatcheu (Young Boys/SUI; 2/0), Tim Weah (Lille/FRA; 10/1)
Tyler Adams should have been rested for this game. Just read he just came back from injury and in USA for rehabilitation of the injury.
Happy to see the players left off the last roster get a shot, like Hoppe and Green and a nice chance to get Che recruited away from his other options.
I don’t get the pushback on Hoppe and Green….If there were three US strikers coming of 20+ goal seasons in top 5 European leagues, I’m sure they’d get the nod and long shots like Hoppe could stay home. Since that’s not an option, why not broaden the pool and give me players a chance to perhaps impress?
personally i would have rested all the good players since the summer breaks are short during covid and we’ll be getting all the 3 game windows we can stand for a while for real. you can then try all the interesting players you like all summer. green and hoppe and everyone else can then get actual minutes to show their worth. way this sets up they sit behind dike and co. and maybe see a few minutes subbing the swiss game. i don’t think a few minutes at the end of the game help you see where they fit, it’s almost intended to confirm the starters should start. and then at back in particular i think the injury to long plus poor performance of others mean we badly need to be auditioning other options while we can, and these two tournaments are our only chance. i am concerned we will be schizo, good offense, poor defense.
Really hoping to get another good look at Green. Nobody’s really noticed but he’s quietly worked his way into being one of the better players in the B2 and quite a machine; he always had the skill, but he needed a little more lead in his butt and a little more toughness and maturity and frankly he needed to grow up a bit and he seems to have done that. You watch him play and he’s a very different creature than he was a few years back, far more businesslike, far more professional in his demeanor, and I think he’ll be on that plane to Qatar, personally. As many mids as we’re going to carry I find it hard to believe America has THAT many who are better than him.
I think this might signal he’ll be at the GC, this gives him a couple days with the team then get his rest in June before GC in July.
i think he’s a camp body for the swiss and not even on the NL provo list. i think the swiss practices will be almost like his games, and if the coach likes him he might get some sub minutes and GC consideration. if he doesn’t snow the coach in practice he goes right back away. this is just a chance.
personally i think any team leaving a player off with goals against france and belgium is goofy. that is taking “club form” way too seriously. ditto wood who is still absent. but wood won’t be playing for a new team until almost too late for this summer.
Vela scored against Italy and Netherlands and Chicharito scored against Netherlands, Spain, France, Argentina, Brazil, Italy and Portugal and Tata passed on them. So I guess Mexico is goofy!
your argument is lame. green is in his 20s and scored on france THIS CYCLE. wood is in his 20s and scored on colombia and ireland THIS CYCLE. that is not the same as 32 year old hernandez with 2 goals on OK teams this cycle, or 32 year old vela who last scored at the 2018 world cup. our options are younger and have more currently relevant production.
Green scoring against France was before Vela’s goal in WC and Wood’s goals were four months after and then he didn’t score in any competition for three years.
mckenzie and che would be interesting but will they even play. beyond that, the backline is pretty rote and dumb based on how his choices have performed. he may wish he spent the summer auditioning backs in these tournaments instead of handing the job to players who already lost games and cost him goals. this is where i get my theory that for a man obsessed with analytics GB oddly doesn’t care how his theory driven choices perform.
I appreciate much of your posts and some of the research I don’t have time to do, but the Berhalter hate is tiresome. Honestly I can’t think of a single proven 1st team pro that hasn’t been looked at or given a chance, and plenty of 2nd teamers and youth prospects have. Berhalter has yet to play a meaningful game against Mexico, and to my knowledge has never had the first team with all the stars together for a single game. There are only a handful of Guardiola/Tuchel level managers in the world and none of them are coming to coach the USMNT. How about we support the manager we have for this cycle and if he doesn’t get us to Qatar or loses badly to Mexico with our best team, then we begin lobbying for a change.
dude i can get a lot more specific. it’s not general “hate,” he just runs the team poorly in a long list of identifiable ways. for the purposes of the defense, sorry, but to me his recycling of ream brooks miazga is like arena getting stuck on besler cameron omar and co.
not sure what the heck you mean hasn’t played mexico, he has twice and lost. also lost to canada. if you look who played those games, miazga started the first mexico game we lost and ream started the canada game we lost. both couldn’t hold panama much less mexico. it’s not abstract “hate,” it’s we’ve tried his second choices and they didn’t work. i can’t see how miles or zimmmermann or richards or CCV or EPB must be worse. CCV started the mexico win and the france tie under sarachan and can’t get a sniff since. EPB plays in the same league we treat like makes aaronson a star.
fwiw as soon as NL starts we’re going to figure out real fast where we fit in the region. first choice team, no slouches among honduras, costa rica, and mexico for 3 games counting the friendly. my concern is whether this has evolved enough from 2019 to change the gold cup and nations league mediocrity. you can pretend i am being a coach hater but i’m not sure he’s kicked the ball down the field enough from those results. and i think we have some better talent than he’s picking, particularly at back.
Yep we will learn a lot more about everything after this next round of games. Personally, I think it’s a long shot that the young centerback prospects are ready to be international starters but with Long going down, I agree to try them out. I still think it will end up being Miazga with Brooks, probably some Ream.
Ultimately I can’t stand Ream’s name apparently in permanent marker when he put’s together rosters. Ream’s Old, Slow, doesn’t play for his club, and has consistently made blunders leading to chances and goals during his USMNT career. yes he is an above average passer, good in the locker room, and he is left footed. That shouldn’t be enough to overcome his obvious deficiencies.
the scheduling on this is idiotic. may has 30 days. if you play on the night of the 30th (swiss time) when are we flying out? the 1st? arriving june 1 or 2 jetlagged after flying 8 or so hours? play again on the 3rd at night? when your body is on european time.
bear in mind the 2nd-4th games are not east coast but mountain time. 8 hours is an underestimate on a flight to mountain time. and also like 1/3 of a planet away on time zones. to then play at altitude.
May has 31 days. Your point still stands, but it’s not quite as bad as you’re saying.
Fly from Switzerland to Denver on 5/31. It’s a long trip, but going east to west you’ll gain a half a day. They’ll have 2 and a half days to adjust before game day.
i think it’s pointlessly exhausting and surely he could have conducted his 3 game simulation with a domestic pre tournament game or just left it at the costa rica friendly after. typical pre Gold cup games are a week ahead of time. there are several european based players tired from long seasons and i think extra games and trips are just trying to run the team in the ground.
well…if we were not in covid protocol when the game was scheduled he could held a match in denver,,,but since we were, he’s doing the next best thing by getting some kind of altitude training (hopefully) in a country where covid will let it happen…..
the swiss game is close to sea level. the mountains are high but the ground below them is like 400 ft elevation or so. look up the elevation of st gallen. if you wanted real altitude work come back here and play more colorado or utah games. and most players are out of season abroad so we can bring them in when we want.
St. Gallen is 2000 feet up, that’s not going to prepare you much to play in Denver. But where are they training for the next 9 days?
US Soccer says only that they will be training in the Swiss Alps to acclimate to the elevation, and then head to St. Gallen on 5/29. Players are due on 5/23, so they’ll have 5-6 days at elevation before moving on to St. Gallen.
During the qualifying European players will play Saturday or Sunday, fly to North America and Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday. This camp players will play Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday. The schedule is pretty crazy but it mirrors exactly what the guys will have to do in Sep., Oct., Jan., and Mar.
you’re not considering whether taking two weeks of their summer break and running them into the ground to simulate the 3 game window experience is counterproductive to them being fresh when they have to do it on purpose.
i mean, do club teams run players through preseason stints of 3-4 games in short order to practice the experience? it’s like telling a marathon runner to run extra competitive marathons to prepare for a marathon. they actually tend to limit how many they do so they are fresh when they race. you’re neglecting the simulation is probably exhausting in a rare rest window. and we have players who when exhausted can look useless.
They actually do play their preseason matches on similar schedules to the year, usually a midweek and a weekend friendly. Sometimes they even have games on Friday and Sunday and guys will play 45 minutes each. Beyond that there is nothing in club play that is similar to what qualifying will be because of the travel from Europe.
hoppe is several months stale as a choice. on the whole he ended up with no G or A after January playing only as a “9” which is a production position, for a team that then got relegated. i then see no way he outfights the other options for NL. so is the deal GB has to bring him into a camp he can’t make to then permit himself to call him for GC later? i think he cooled off but even if you liked him, dude, just call him for GC. otherwise calling him as a 4th 9 for a single game — where he probably won’t play — is odd.
Hoppe scored last weekend.
And he had an assist.
i was unaware but are you seriously calling one game “form?” we’re calling someone who goes half a year between goals? it’s not as compelling as you think nor does it make him “hot.” i still think if dike and/or sargent can play he’s gone. he’s a contingency.
Since January, Hoppe has scored six Bundesliga goals on a garbage team that can barely maintain 35% possession. Sargent is in a similar situation. Dike looks very good for a team competing for promotion where he gets good service. I haven’t seen Hoppe play to be able to describe his style. This is why we play friendliest and have the meaningless Nations in Cup and Gold Cup. It’s all an audition for qualifying. You need two up top and right now the experiment should be how two of these three play with each other.
i wouldn’t mind if this was an audition, he just wouldn’t be top of even an audition list because he cooled off. i don’t think i’d mind the audition if it was more of a straight audition tournament. personally i think the best players should be rested and these two tournaments should be tryout camps while we have time. not just 10 minute cameos to get their first caps. how does green or hoppe look for 90. bringing them in to sit behind jordan is kind of a waste.
dike is the hot forward and i think people aren’t admitting hoppe’s real role here is not so much to play as a contingency if sargent and dike are busy. maybe to make an impression and get gold cup.
re hoppe, he scored 5 goals in 3 weeks in january. he then took 5 months to score another goal. i counted at some point and it has to have been like 10-15 games scoreless. so it’s like a MLS guy had a few goals start of the season and then hasn’t scored from april to august or september. to then say you’re being unfair to mr. 6 goals is goofy. he was stuck on 5 goals for MONTHS. at 6 goals for a season i am sure a long list have that kind of production. and he’s no longer the hot player to jump that queue.
Nothing like Wood going scoreless for 3 years.
Man, you have been hating on Hoppe since the start. Whats with you and Hoppe?
he would have been an interesting selection in january or march, when hot. by now we know with the benefit of hindsight he scored 6 goals in a season of soccer and there are several players capable of doing that. i don’t hate him. it’s more like i am bored with fanboys who ignore what happened between january and may, when he went ice cold.
acosta is goofy. i don’t get him on either this or the provo NL list. he has had some decent games but he had a lousy northern ireland game and we have so many other options. to me with this many options we should be moving past theories to who actually does play well. ie pick the ones who have good games.
So who’s your next in line for D-mid? MB90? Will Trapp? I’m holding judgment on Acosta until I see him in some games that matter. For the past four years, anytime there is a free kick near the goal, the entire team steps away and let’s him take it.
I’d rather have McKennie further up the field. Adams is our #1 D-mid when healthy. Now the audition is on to see who the back up will be.
i am not a fan of GB’s “passing 6” so neither yueill nor trapp. to me at the international level smart and savvy positioning is not enough. you need wheels and the willingness to tackle. i would either push mckennie back or my idea of a 6 would be someone more like holmes, johnny, or morales, who will all get stuck in and are capable of completing a pass as well. holmes is like forgotten.
Don’t get me wrong, I was an Acosta fan two years ago — thought he was hard done by when he disappeared — but when given a second chance he didn’t play well the past two friendlies and I’m about rewarding performance.
Curious as to why no CCV given CB issues.
Could be several reasons
1. He’s not as good with his feet as other CBs
2. There’s no dual national switch risk as there is with Che
3. Bournemouth maybe playing in the promotion final on the 29th.
postseason games didn’t stop GB rostering several other players as either NL provos or swiss game players with some cushion over 23 names. he simply favors ream miazga brooks which is put down the crack pipe thought process. che and mckennie are playing for the last CB slot unless someone is out, is the only room that he had for anyone like CCV. che is then a goofy choice because he’s not on the provo roster and the friendly can only be “morally binding.” so even if he plays he’s not locked. if you want him locked you take him to NL or GC.
i think if you actually watch the pool here defend you cease caring if he’s the smoothest attacker. he plays defense. or defense is swiss cheese. going through the motions of ream miazga is literally wasting time. like, let’s run omar out there, what bad could possibly happen of it……it’s just TnT……
Is Hoppe more of a CF / #9? Or a winger?
If a CF, then I count 4 on the roster (Sargent, Dike, Siebatcheu, and Hoppe) and only 3 wingers (Reyna, Aaaronson, and Weah)
That seems unbalanced
I thought green can play winger….
He plays more centrally for his club but Berhalter’s tucked in wingers fits better since he isn’t exceptionally fast.
josh sargent has the past couple years played perhaps 20% of the time wide for bremen, as well as one game as an AM. he has good feet and could probably deliver an accurate ball into the box. i think he’s been typecast and have advocated trying him as a wide sub when you want a technical option.
as far as we can tell from TM hoppe plays just the “9” the past two years as a schalke first teamer and developmental. however i would be curious if he could play wide as his sole gimmick seemed to be get to the offsides line and put on track spikes for a throughball.
dike and siebatcheu are both specialist “9” types, dike i think has 1 game wide i could find. i can’t see us taking 27 to the game so we may be planning on either an absence or a cut at 9 to get the numbers down.
i think you have it correctly diagnosed. i do bet green or sargent could play wide, as well as musah even plays there PREDOMINANTLY for club. but GB is probably oblivious of those, despite his supposed penchant for analytics (i found it interesting that a recent arena interview he was not glowing and promotional about his former assistant but instead seemingly dismissive of him being stuck back in coaching school and obsessed with analytics).
Hoppe was originally a midfielder when with LAG academy.I believe he made the switch after leaving there (he was behind Efra, Uly, Mendez). Schalke used a 4-2-3-1 early in the season and then switched to two CFs the last month or so. I think given his skill set he could play as a winger since Berhalter uses his wingers tucked in with the FBs giving the width. But honestly I tried to watch as little Schalke as possible so I don’t know for sure he could.
he plays forward like i did as a kid which is use your speed at the offsides line. almost every old goal i could find from january was him being played into space on a 2 on 1. his goals didn’t seem to be back to goal and turning someone or going in for target headers off crosses and corners. nor did he seem to be leaving the ball off for others to score. which sounds more like a winger. which is what i became.
Hoppe is 6’3” … But I haven’t seen him play (thanks for nothing, ESPN!) to know what his skills are at holding the ball. We know Sargent has good hold up play and presses hard defensively. Based on the most recent match report vs Swansea, Dike will stick his head in anywhere and will clearly battle, shake off tackles and take up space. Curious to see how they play with each other. Just glad Zardes is out of the mix.
with that height, maybe he can head a ball. but remember kenny cooper before you’re so sure. i am just going by i went back to watch his highlights and see how he scored and they were generally run of play passes, not headers.
zardes, roldan, johnson, and other MLS guys are on the NL provo roster. in johnson’s case i am sure he is the second keeper. so that makes it unclear what to make of zardes not playing. i think he comes in as the backup 9 whether we like it or not. i have people giving me grief over criticizing GB but just you watch how his full team looks for honduras and the next game. i think some people will be surprised.
No Chris Richards?
I thought he was injured
Interesting that Richards is not listed (he is slated to return from injury this weekend) while Adams who is out injured and back in the US is. I guess GB is being hopeful with Adams and not so for Richards.
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With Pulisic unavailble and very likely Adams, Dike, Sargent and Green not available as well, the US will be short of experienced attackers. That probably means Reyna and Weah are the most likely starters out wide with Siebatcheu in the middle. Maybe Yueill will slot into Adam’s spot at DM, that leaves Lletget, Musah and McKennie to start in the other 2 midfiled spots, athough McKennie could play DM instead of Yueill.
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CB without Long, it will likely be a Brooks and Miazga pairing at CB. At wide backs Dest and almost any of the other backs.
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Keeper, who knows?
my guess
Horvath
cannon brooks miazga dest
mckennie adams musah
aaronson sargent reyna
assuming full availability of the list — and this coach is bad at handling that
Brooks is a LCB, always has been. You’ve mentioned him TWICE above when dismissing GB’s roster choices as disappointing. I have to ask, since Brooks is by far and away our best CB and it’s not close, why you lump him in as retreads or players you’ve seen enough of that you clearly dislike, such as Miazga?
you ask why i would prefer we try others? it’s because if you run the numbers brooks ream miazga allow the most goals and associate with a lot of the losses this cycle. miazga in particular has been in like 6 games this cycle where we allowed 2 or more goals. it’s not abstracted, it’s not snobbery, it’s i watched the games and also ran the numbers. if you want defenders who stop people and win games it’s more like long (hurt), CCV, and zimmermann. i also think some of the kids are probably better but simply don’t even get to play.
i would expect horvath over the others because they are essentially youth players and horvath is capped and has been recently camped but not played. i am surprised no johnson but maybe he will join the team in the US and maybe this is the 3rd keeper mosh pit.
New today Richards will not play this weekend.