USMNT go young with Portugal friendly roster
Preparing for the future after their World Cup qualification failure, the USMNT called in a lot of youth for a November friendly.
USMNT interim coach Dave Sarachan will start the post-World Cup qualification healing process with a November international friendly in Portugal. This is where we find out more about the player pool’s depth and finally get to see the various hyped-up young players in international gear, in preparation for the 2022 World Cup cycle. There are no more competitive games for this squad until 2019, so they might as well try everything.
Sarachan revealed his 21-man roster for the match against Cristiano Ronaldo-less Portugal on Tuesday. MLS players currently involved in the playoffs (Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, Cristian Roldan, etc.) were excluded to keep them fresh for their clubs, and Christian Pulisic was left off to give him some much-needed rest.
The roster is diverse. It features both young and old — but mostly young — and it includes 12 foreign-based players, a departure from the must-win rosters that focused on MLS players. Some takeaways:
1. A first look at the future of USMNT goalkeeping
Tim Howard is, for all intents and purposes, done as U.S. goalkeeper after costly performances late in the Hex, and 33-year-old Brad Guzan is not a likely 2022 contributor, so for the first time since Howard secured the starting role in 2009, there’s a vacuum at keeper.
Three predictable faces were called in for an initial audition: Bill Hamid, the D.C. United Homegrown who recently signed with FC Midtjylland in Denmark; Ethan Horvath, currently in his first season with Belgian side Club Brugge; and Jesse Gonzalez, a 22-year-old FC Dallas Homegrown. Zack Steffen, a 22-year-old starter for Columbus Crew, would almost certainly have received a call had the Crew been eliminated from the playoffs.
Horvath, 22, has long been seen as the top USMNT goalkeeping prospect, although he has just one cap — an October 2016 clean sheet in Cuba. He has competition now from the three mentioned above as well as various MLS starters, including Seattle’s Stefan Frei, NYCFC’s Sean Johnson and Toronto’s Alex Bono.
2. A surprisingly veteran-laden defense
Seven defenders were called in to this roster. Just two can be considered younger, more experimental options.
Regular national team starters John Brooks and DeAndre Yedlin (both 24) received call-ups, alongside 30-year-old Tim Ream, 28-year-old left-back starter Jorge Villafana and 28-year-old full-back option Eric Lichaj. 22-year-old Matt Miazga, on loan from Chelsea in the Eredivisie, and 19-year-old Tottenham loanee Cameron Carter-Vickers are the only young and new faces, and Miazga isn’t really that new.
Brooks and Yedlin are pretty much penned-in starters in 2019, so their call-ups are understandable, and Ream (30, of Fulham) will be a good mentor for Miazga and Carter-Vickers. But Villafana and Lichaj are surprising, considering neither are otherworldly talented and both will be in their early 30s by 2022.
Many fans and observers would have liked to see guys like Justen Glad, Erik Palmer-Brown and Danilo Acosta. They’ll have to wait.
3. The center midfield of the future
The long-hyped core of central midfielders will get their first chances to impress in a U.S. shirt. 19-year-old Weston McKennie, impressing for Schalke in the Bundesliga, and 18-year-old Red Bulls star Tyler Adams will probably play minutes in Portugal. The other part of a potential-filled trio, Monterrey’s Jonathan Gonzalez, was left off as he prepares for the Liga MX playoffs.
Kellyn Acosta, still just 22, will join the midfield along with much-maligned No. 6 Danny Williams and young Sunderland attacker Lynden Gooch. Dynamic and versatile New England Revolution contributor Kelyn Rowe, who dominated the Gold Cup group stage in July, also got a call. Alejandro Bedoya is there as a mentor for these young guys.
Add in Roldan, Columbus’s Wil Trapp, and a myriad of other options and you’ve got a really good core in midfield going forward.
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4. Josh Sargent, high schooler and senior national team contributor
U-17 and U-20 standout Josh Sargent received his first USMNT call-up. He’s 17, and is not playing for a professional team yet because he’s not old enough.
Sargent will sign for Bundesliga club Werder Bremen on his 18th birthday (Feb. 20, 2018) and is currently playing for St. Louis Scott Gallagher Soccer Club, a development academy in St. Louis. In 2017, he became the first American to appear in both the U-20 and the U-17 World Cups in the same year since Freddy Adu.
5. Three MLS forwards get the call
The three other forwards Sarachan called in alongside Sargent have an average age of 26: Gold Cup star and Orlando City signing Dom Dwyer, Philadelphia No. 9 CJ Sapong, and long-time U.S. contributor Juan Agudelo, who’s still just 24. Bobby Wood, Paul Arriola and Jordan Morris were left off with fitness issues.
This group is older and more established than most other position groups on this roster, and it’s a bit surprising that two players who will be over 30 in 2022 received experimental call-ups.