Josh Sargent and Haji Wright are both riding strong runs of form into the September international break but only one will have a U.S. men’s national team opportunity that month.
Sargent scored twice for Norwich City on Saturday in a 2-0 EFL Championship victory over Blackburn Rovers. The USMNT forward now has six goals on the season for the Canaries, giving him a contribution in every match for Norwich City this summer.
Sargent propelled Norwich City in front in the 45th minute from the penalty spot, making it 1-0 from Ewood Park.
After fending off second-half pressure from Rovers, Norwich City would cap the win in second-half stoppage time. Sargent’s right-footed strike nestled into the top-right corner, making it 2-0 on the afternoon.
It marked Sargent’s first multi-goal performance of the new campaign and gave Norwich City its second league win.
As for Wright and Coventry City, they grinded out a 2-2 road draw at Oxford United.
Wright’s left-footed shot in the 12th minute opened the scoring in Oxford, but would not be the only goal of the match.
Will Lankshear drew the hosts level seven minutes later before Victor Torp’s free kick gave Frank Lampard’s men a 2-1 halftime lead.
Cameron Brannagan’s free kick with 15 minutes to play gave Oxford United a share of the spoils as Coventry City had to settle for one point.
Despite Wright scoring his fifth goal of the season in all competitions, the 27-year-old was not called in for September’s USMNT matches.
The Sky Blues sit fifth in the league table after four matches.
here’s the deal. for years now it’s this same argument. he is in a first division. or he is scoring goals in a second division. ergo he will be a stud for the NT. we call him in. nothing happens. i don’t mean “nothing” rhetorically. i mean zero goals in 16+ caps. since 2019. he was The Guy at the world cup and nothing. he got plenty of copa america time and nothing.
do you understand how many strikers we have gone through since 2019 who managed something? like that dates back to zardes, jozy, soto, nico, pefok, dike, ferreira, pepi, balogun, white, agyemang. i am sure i missed some.
all of them have goals since he last managed. that 2019 team is like a previous generation. like we still hadn’t qualified back to a world cup. that’s how long ago.
this is a bad penny that about every US coach drops then the next one picks back up. i am not alone on this. this is analytics and anecdote have taken over and we can’t take no for an answer. there have been other US club stars who didn’t translate. wondo had the league goals record for a bit and his legacy will be missing the sitter against belgium. the undersized target twellman couldn’t do anything outside of a january game.
sorry but the deal is historically US teams were faster to catch on, or less obsessed with decontextualized club stats while ignoring NT stats.
the oft-maligned gio reyna has 8 goals (and 5 assists) in 32 caps, for a goal every 4 games. and he’s playing a supporting wing or 10 or 6 type role.
sargent has 5 goals (1 assist) in 28 caps for a goal every 5.6 games.
also, far be it from me to bring up the utter mediocrity of the early GB 2019 unit he was one of the faces off, 2nd in gold cup, still second rate. they started competing for first when richards, balo, pepi, and reyna pushed into the lineup. the spine evolved, adams was sometimes healthy, and the thing improved.
maybe we can have LDLT out there with him as a passing 6. we can make this thing really “hum.” let’s see how many second rate guys we can field and get this back to 2019 standards.
What’s the scoring rate for strikers when Pulisic and Reyna are playing as wings? It’s better than 0 but not very good. Berhalter pretty much just wanted the striker to occupy the CBs to let those two stars score. Four of Reyna’s assists came after moving deeper, his only as a W was a corner kick to Weston in NL. You might have to get to Pepi vs Grenada under Hudson but I think Gio actually played as a 10 instead of a wing that game, I guess Haji in WC but it was pretty much desperation get numbers forward at that point. Only 1 of Ferreira’s goals came with either Pulisic or Reyna on the field. His one goal with Pulisic on the field came off a deflected shot by Arriola who was playing for Reyna but it was so bad they gave Arriola an assist for it because it rolled so weakly to him. Strikers just didn’t score with Pulisic and Reyna as wings. Sargent did score against Panama in March it wasn’t his fault Weah was offside, so he can score when he has opportunities.
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I think Pepi and Balo are better when healthy but both of their health was in question when the roster was made. Pepi did not look at full strength on Saturday.
You’re going to probably read that as a slam on Reyna but it’s not. As soon as Reyna moved central and/or deeper he started assisting. I really think the game plan was for Reyna and Pulisic to shoot and the strikers to occupy defenders.
Sunderland with a deadline day bid for Sargent will Sargent and Norwich agree terms?
Staying in Norwich, at least until January.
With how well Schmetzer has done with Seattle I wouldn’t be surprised to see his name high on the USMNT coaches list for the 2030 cycle.
Well Ten Hag didnt last long. Looks like Tillman will have a new coach.
Leverkusen lost their amazing manager and two of the best players in Europe and have replaced them with What?
At least we can be sure that Malik is going to get lots of use. They are going to need him
Looks like the USMNT isn’t the only team run by people with delusional expectations.
There’s got to be more to this story for that quick of a trigger on the ten Haag era.
JR,
Ten Hag was a compromise choice. They wanted Fabregas but that fell through. It feels like not everyone there is on the same page.
Supposedly Terzic is being lined up. Good thing Gio isn’t there.
Balo with his first goal of the season. Hopefully this jump starts him again.
Pukstas with his 2nd and 3rd of the season. Looks like he’ll stay with Split at least until January.
Good to see Pukstas playing well again.
Looks like he has been playing CAM this season instead of an 8.
2tone: he’s been freed from “Gattuso Ball”. The MaxSport YouTube channel has extended highlights of Split each week. Last year it looked like basketball just end. Pukstas was often playing deeper and tasked with just trying to hit the attackers immediately. The new manager seems to want to build more and Roksas is now back playing as a 10/second striker. Both his goals came challenging for lofted crosses into the box.
i like pukstas but he has the same question as mckennie or tillman, what is his position on an adult soccer field. he can head for goals but he’s 5’11”. and he can finish chances in the box. second striker is one way to go about it.
IV: he certainly looks more lively in the second striker role. His first goal Saturday he just slid in between two CBs and played it in off his foot. The second one again the CBs again just forget about him/ misread the cross and he has an unmarked header. I’m not sure those “level up” as you say but he does just have a knack for finding space in the box so perhaps it does.
Musah to Atalanta, loan with buy option total value around 25 million. Fabrizio Romano has said “here we go”
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Explain to me again that there is no health concern about Gio when Musah goes for 25 million, Weah for 15 million and Reyna for 3.5 plus another 4 in add ons?
Good for him. They are an excellent club and he hasn’t been playing that much at Milan. I wonder about AC Milan. They hardly used Musah, and didn’t get that much out of Reijnders who is now playing regularly, it seems, for Man City. They got rid of both Okafors, Theo Hernandez, Kal;ullu and in their first game I didn’t see Leao. And the result of all their shuffling? They lost their first game to Cremonese, which I think was just promoted.
JR,
Of course there are health concerns.
It should be clear to everyone that Gio is damaged goods. The question is how damaged? Is this fixable? I don’t know. 3.5 is a lot less that 40-25 million but it is still not money you just want to throw away.
I’m not the mindreading, medically transcendent savant and football genius that some are but what it looks like to me is Gio has filled out quite a bit since he broke in and made all kinds of waves.
Look at the most recent picture of him in a BVB strip and then compare it to a picture from when he was serving them up for Erland. He used to look like a colt now he looks like a Budweiser draft horse.
He’s bigger and wider. Does that translate to slower? I don’t know.
Now Vacqui, we were told by a certain someone that there is nothing wrong with him and it is just internet warriors that are causing his managers not to play him and sporting directors not to pay for his services.
JR,
I don’t know about how the politics in select teams, colleges or high school soccer teams work.
But at the Bundesliga level I’m certain that if a manager felt that Player X was the difference between winning or losing , or even just gave the team a better chance at winning, no matter the politics, they would play them and work out the personal stuff later, after they win. In Germany, they don’t care if you are a huge dick, if you can make a difference you’re playing. There is too much on the line for it to be otherwise.
BVB was pretty pretty competitive in a number of competitions the last couple of seasons.
Even if Gio and Cole had both killed Terzic’s dog he would have found a way to use them if he thought that they would have made a difference.
V: I would agree, but there is a caveat even in Germany if they pay bigger money for someone at your position they’ll give that person more opportunities. I think after the WC Dortmund knew Gio wanted out but couldn’t ever get the value they wanted, but that then drove the value lower because he never played.
JR,
All I know is I can’t wait for the credible tell all book. More than any other top 5 league team I can think of, BVB seem genuinely torn between their selling identity, their development identity and their winning silverware identity.
Love to be a fly on the wall if/when they have full staff meetings.
Josh Sargent, our Harry Kane in the making.
He will continue to improve with time, like a fine wine.
I want to see him score in a USMNT uniform.
Like that!
I tell you, anyone who thinks Josh Sargent should not be on the men’s team, due to his lack of past scoring, really ought to have their head examined. This is our best pure striker. Probably the best we’ve ever had. Yet, there are knuckleheads in the fanbase, who have other opinions, as uneducated as they are.
Until he scores consistently for the US team, he isnt our best pure goal scorer. That is Pepi.
What we have here is a clash of philosophy.
Some fans think you get one shot at the USMNT and , if you fail, fuck you, go to outer darkness and never darken my door again.
If you come back those fans will cite some lousy game you had in 2018, 6 years ago and say it is somehow more relevant than any improvement with your club because club form is irrelevant as it relates to the USMNT.
Josh started at Werder Bremen in 2018. He was used as a #9 intermittently then and the coaching staff there were awful. When he unbelievably, was bought by Norwich he apprenticed behind Pukki. When Pukki eventually moved on to Pochettino’s favorite league, Josh finally started playing the #9 full time and has been in double figures every year since.
I look at that and see a player who has developed and grown and is actually starting to hit his peak. In other words Norwich taught him how to play his position.
How does that relate to the USMNT?
Well for most of his time the USMNT has sucked at forward, Pepi aside, and not just because of him. Josh has not scored for the USMNT since the pandemic hit us. So there is a need.
Can the USMNT afford to ignore Josh? Or should they just count on Pepi coming back from serious knee surgery?
One difference between Ricardo and Josh? Josh has been a fulltime player for most of his career while Pepi has largely been a super sub at PSV. At the World Cup I use Pepi as a super sub because he has proven that that is what he does best.
The argument I always love to hear is that Championship defenses suck so Josh has an easy time scoring.. Which means Haji, Dike, Patrick should also be ignored and Aidan Morris, obviously a lousy defender, should also be discounted.
In the 2024-2025 the Championship averaged 2.45 goals per game scored.
In the 2024-2025 the EPL averaged 2.93 goals per game scored.
If the Championship defenders suck I guess EPL defenders suck worse
Is Josh good enough to be called in?
You tell me.
good stuff Vacqui, thank you. Josh works hard out there, I’d bet it’s an extension of his ideas of life in general, and he keeps maturing, seems to have that drive to keep getting better.
hey 2tone, I can see the point certainly about his production for the USMNT, not discounting it
JR
The best. most reliable scorer on this team remains CP. He’s the one that opposition managers look to stop.
I don’t know what Pochettino is looking for exactly but they just need more help from other forwards in creating more opportunities or by scoring themselves. For example, Patrick and Luna seem capable of creating more chances for CP, Weah and Pepi . If that happens then our opponents will have more to worry about.
As a 17 year-old, Sargent started for the US U-20 WC team which made it to the quarterfinals. He had 4 goals and 1 assist in the 5 games they played in Korea. (Only one of those goals, the opening goal, came in the 6-0 walloping of New Zealand.) Sure, it is not the full national team, but …
Progress is almost always uneven and he faced high expectations which probably did not help. I am glad to see the 25 y.o. is now performing like was expected. Right now, I think he should not go to another team. If he does not score in the first few games he risks being relegated to the bench.
Korea’s and Japans defense will be a good test for him against better defending. I guess we’ll see what the future brings.
I would still like for Wright to have been included on the roster.
to be fair, that’s a great finish. but as with many of his goals this season, this is him either being sent on a breakaway or being able to turn and face the defense, run at them,
i like his technical ability, liked him when he brought it in. but in an international situation he doesn’t get the ball like this, bunch of space, 1 on 1 defense, loose marking, etc. he is back to goal with a man planted on his back, and perhaps other parts of the defense collapsing on him. he doesn’t get open, disappears, doesn’t get these easy runs or breakaways, and for someone who plays like a target, is fairly slow to move for a wayward cross.
at least part of what this wanders toward is if you want sargent — and i am still not sure he’d work or be first choice — he needs to be used differently, fed the ball where he can face the defenders and dribble at them, and he needs precision support and service because he’s not fast enough to get to a ball not dropped on his feet.
you need to disassemble/look past “club form” and look at what does this guy offer us and will it work with our lineup and our level opponents.
personally when i watch this it underlines my belief in generally meh c’ship defenses. they have 2 defenders vs. sargent. why is that not closed down. defender is backpedalling away from a danger man around the top of the D.
Bro, keep trying to pedal your nonsensical BS…….to someone else. Even though my comments were sent in your direction
IV: I do kind of agree that the offense at least Berhalter’s version was not set up for Sargent. I think Gregg really just wanted his #9s to occupy the CBs to make space for Pulisic and Reyna. Reyna when he took on a deeper role found Wright and Balo, but Pulisic hasn’t really served any of the strikers. Ferreira’s big games all came without Pulisic and Reyna. I’m not sure we know what Poch wants from strikers given Agyemang has had so much time. Is that the kind of striker he wants or just what’s been available with Pepi and Balo injured?
D: it is not “nonsensical BS” to point out a striker last scored for the US 16 caps ago in 2019. that’s 16 straight caps we run him out and nothing happens. has a grand total of 5 goals in 28 caps. and that despite being given the prime supporting case in tournaments like the world cup and copa america.
i am not “selling something.” he got dropped by multiple US coaches for the same basic reasons i pointed out. the question is if he stays so.
dude has gotten like 10 “chances.”
i am also getting at a scouting/analytics double standard where we have guys who score almost every other cap or better whose precise opponents they scored on get nitpicked, while we call someone who hasn’t scored this decade over and over. as in they can’t score on any opponent to even split hairs about.
IV,
“D: it is not “nonsensical BS” to point out a striker last scored for the US 16 caps ago in 2019. that’s 16 straight caps we run him out and nothing happens. has a grand total of 5 goals in 28 caps. and that despite being given the prime supporting case in tournaments like the world cup and copa america.”
Nonsensical BS is your default setting.
Players do not perform in a vacuum. Who played with Josh on those teams? Josh scoring or not scoring is not entirely down to him.
Who was on those teams? Who managed those teams and set up how they attack?
The USMNT was averaging less than a goal a game in the games Josh played in.
”prime supporting case” ,yeah sure.
Year Number of Games USMNT played with Josh in the lineup
2021 8
2022 4
2024 4
2025 1
Year Goals Scored by USMNT in Josh’s games Josh Sargent caps
2021 8 8
2022 4 4
2024 0 2
2025 0 1
Up to 2021 Josh was not in good goalscoring form at Werder Bremen. He got better when he moved to Norwich. And he certainly was not in good scoring form for the USMNT then.
But bad as Josh was, it is interesting to note that the USMNT has scored 12 goals in the 15 games Josh has played since 2020.
They weren’t exactly blowing people away. And it wasn’t because the USMNT were counting on Josh scoring.
“i am not “selling something.” he got dropped by multiple US coaches for the same basic reasons i pointed out.” “the question is if he stays so.”
“dude has gotten like 10 “chances. …i am also getting at a scouting/analytics double standard where we have guys who score almost every other cap or better”
Who are those guys? Name them.
“whose precise opponents they scored on get nitpicked, while we call someone who hasn’t scored this decade over and over. as in they can’t score on any opponent to even split hairs about.”
You are always “selling” your “club form” metric.
Some here think your metric is BS.
The real “double standard” is you don’t consider:
1. Who the player scores against
2. What the circumstances were.
3. You operate as if we have an infinite number of strikers to try out.
That matters.
Scoring on creampuffs matters because scoring on anyone matters.
However, if you can’t score when the opponents are a level or two better or when it is a competitive game and NOT a friendly, then your scoring ability is less valued.
People used to rag on Jozy because he scored so much on weakling teams.. But they forget Jozy also scored on big teams, when it mattered. (Spain 2009 Confederations Cup) However, the chances in the big games usually fell to LD or Clint because that was how the teams were set up to play.
You don’t think Josh deserves a shot even though his club form, as a striker, has clearly been steadily trending upward. He wasn’t good before for both club and country.
Ignoring the fact that he is better now is “nonsensical BS”.
Since at least 2020, the guy the USMNT looks to for scoring is CP. He needs some help.
He’s certainly our most complete one. I’ve referred to him a few times as “Diet Karim Benzema” and the two players really do have similar profiles. Will he ever reach that hallowed level? Probably not, but it’s worth noting Benzema is a guy who got steadily better well into his 30’s and it does seem like Sargent progresses steadily every year too.
He’s definitely outgrown the Championship.
haha Josh is a baller for sure, the best 9 ever idk but I get your point man. just needs to break through in the uniform
Sargent was the starting 9 at the 2022 WC. In the only truly meaningful game Poch has coached, Sargent started and played 68 minutes. I don’t think Poch thought Sargent found a way to help the team against Panama and was disappointed in his performance, but he probably doesn’t post on this site.
But I’m sure he comes here to read the comments and bases his decisions on our posts.
Tele,
Josh started vs Wales and hit the post.
He started vs. Iran but was subbed out at 77 minutes due to injury causing him to miss the Netherlands game. When he did play I thought he looked good but overall Qatar was an incomplete grade for him.
Whatever Pochettino thought of him in the past, it doesn’t matter.
Josh is here now and it is his chance to make his case.
V: such pot-stirring nonsense. no world cup team with a lick of sense has a striker who can barely score.
we had a grand total of 3 goals in 4 world cup games, 1 of which was by wright, a striker sub, and another which was a blood and guts play by pulisic in front of the net on a 50/50, which is normally a striker thing.
this has been my book on sargent at the NT. when we blow out cuba, he manages a single goal while mckennie has 4 goals picking up his garbage far post. he’s interesting facing goal ball to feet, but as a target guy with markers near him, he is slow and disappears, and you start seeing the wings getting the striker chances.
what is working in c’ship is a high opposing defensive line of slow defenders. he is faster than a lumbering c’ship centerback. or him being zonally unmarked, sits in the space, turns, faces, attacks, without getting tackled.
i don’t see good regional sides or most international teams being at a similar speed disadvantage or letting him do that. he will get crunched.
i think he’d be interesting as a technical wing sub or if we had a second striker who could sit off the target man in the gap.
i think some folks are in denial, he’s skilled but also a bit gawky. if you look at the guys who surpassed them, they are all more athletic, and some of them are in his neighborhood technically as well. and people ignore they are playing in ligue 1 or holland or the same c’ship he’s in.
IV,
You’re being really bitchy about this
You’ re making up a conflict where there is none.
CP is the scorer for this team. He is who they rely on and who the opposition will try to to shut down.
.
Everyone has Flo and Pepi as #1 and #2.
Josh is in line for #3 probably vs Haji.
If they have a 26 man lineup odds one of Josh/Haji and one of Patrick/Downs will go. If it gets tight, chances are Pochettino chooses between Haji/Josh and Patrick/Downs.
“i think some folks are in denial, he’s skilled but also a bit gawky. if you look at the guys who surpassed them, they are all more athletic, and some of them are in his neighborhood technically as well. and people ignore they are playing in ligue 1 or holland or the same c’ship he’s in.”
In case you were wondering where nonsensical came from, this is all irrelevant nonsensical bullshit. “Gawky” and “athletic” are subjective terms that have nothing to do with anything. Josh is ugly. So what?
That goal by Sargent was outrageously good. A real golazzo. I would like to see them together on the US team. Maybe some time.
Nice they are both on pace for record goal scoring this season.