The USMNT is back! After being unceremoniously bounced from the World Cup Mauricio Pochettino has called up 28 players for four friendlies. The team has a new look with eight teenagers on the roster and no Christian Pulisic and no Weston McKennie. The goal for the team is clear – be better at soccer. There’s talk of making a run in the World Cup in 2030 or the Copa America or the yoots proving something in the Olympics. Neat, maybe they can do it. This is a team with a core of players who won the most
games in a post-1990 World Cup, including an elimination game, a solid accomplishment that somehow feels underwhelming.
Luckily, there are a bunch of teenagers who will solve all the problems the team has and by the time 2030 rolls around the depth chart will be 5 deep at every position playing in top 5 leagues, with an identity and style of play that it can consistently exhibit and some version of American chaos ball that will baffle opponents and not even Spain will be able to bore the Stars and Stripes to death before pretty easily winning the World Cup. All the while, Poch’s aloof stance with players where he doesn’t talk to them much outside of international windows will create a positive locker-room atmosphere and the team will have the mentality of a champion. Right?
Depth chart, supposedly
Until then, there have been new players called up and the depth chart is up for review. Here is how things stand.
Striker: Guy on the outs with his club (not called up); guy killing it sometimes in an 8thish tier league; guys who were great in the Championship but when it comes to making a jump into the Premier League… well it’s a big jump; YOOTS!
Attackers: Guy who was supposed to save everything and had one pretty good World Cup and half of a pretty good game in a World Cup (not called up); free kick specialist ; player reviving his career in Germany again France now; yoots in the Premier League and Bundesliga; teenage boy in MLS; guys breaking through in the Championship; that other guy, the one in LigaMX; Tim Weah.
No. 8: Weston McKennie (not called in); guys breaking through in the Championship; one of the guys who might be better suited as a no. 6.
No. 6: Tyler Adams closely followed up by the most important position on the roster – Tyler Adams’ backup who has either really played well in Spain but struggled with the national team or is the guy who suddenly remembered to play soccer in Italy; don’t forget the guy who is impressive in Ligue 1 but missed the World Cup due to injury; a handful of guys in the Championship or equivalent leagues who aren’t going to keep up with someone like Jude Bellingham.
Left back: One of the best left backs in the world maybe one time who will be 32 in four years; teenagers in lower European leagues/MLS or an adult breaking through in the Championship or someone in Austria or someplace.
Center back: Player capable of being excellent in a decent Premier League team; nobody; all of the positive vibes possible being directed at a dual national who is 19; guys who can play centrally but usually are out wide followed by five or six options that produce a level of discomfort when on the team sheet.
Right back: 21 year old breaking into La Liga; aforementioned out of position winger or Joe Scally; Tim Weah; probably one of the attackers who makes his way down the pitch.
Goalkeeper: Are you serious?
Scouting report, I guess
This is a team that is capable of playing fun attacking soccer with serious liabilities in defense and really until someone steps up in goal that is a position that is a liability for the team up and down the depth chart. Mentally, they lag behind American teams of the past with less talent, much less talent, and play like they’re waiting for something to go wrong in big games which inevitably leads to something going wrong in big games. There is a lack of grit and fight and attitude that saw the team fall apart against Belgium in the World Cup and in friendlies against Belgium, Portugal, and Germany before the tournament. When will America produce the next Kyle Beckerman?
There has been much talk of Poch taking this team to another level or building something and yet the gulf between making a World Cup quarter final, much less a semi-final is substantial. A lot can happen in four years but the clearest answer, and most unsatisfying one because it is so far out of anyone’s control, is that the team needs better players. The younger ones on the roster will need to make substantial steps forward which has happened but not translated to success against top teams for this generation. Maybe Cavan Sullivan will be the world class player so badly yearned for, but if what’s behind him is largely the same, and if the five inches between the players’ ears doesn’t catch up to their predecessors, four years from now… well, we know what the question will be.
What are we doing? Still.
The classic USMNT question. Poch showed that who he was as a manager leading up to the World Cup with this team is exactly who he was as a manager in the World Cup and he was brought back to keep being that manager. The players showed the same thing for that matter too and many of them will be in the picture with the national team for the next four years. It has been over a decade since the team brought everything together and beat a top 10 FIFA ranked side – and they did it in a friendly. By 2030 the hyped up yoots will have been alive longer than that drought.
This feels very familiar. Following 2017, the team was going into the 2022 World Cup cycle with a new group of hyped up teens with potential to be world class that was creating an identity and needing a new mentality. In the third World Cup cycle since asking what are we doing, the answers are still elusive. Yet, this group has a way to put an end to all that and the work can start now to find a simple way to take a step forward: beat a top 10 team. That said, simple isn’t easy.
