By Sanjay Sujanthakumar
During the frustratingly prolonged transition period under Dave Sarachan, the debate about who deserved to wear the crest naturally accompanied the debut of 23 players for what often seemed a U23 team.
At times, I defended calling up the kids who weren’t playing for their club’s first team, namely Josh Sargent and Tim Weah. Sargent soon broke in for Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga and Weah, on loan from PSG, is shining for Celtic. The Gregg Berhalter era begins in earnest when he can work with Weah, Sargent, and the entirety of the pool for friendlies against Ecuador and Chile in less than a month. That’s when we’ll start to see how he plans to build this team, or rather, what he’s building it for.
In December on MLS Extra Time Radio, Berhalter basically answered this question in one word: Qatar. “I gotta be careful when I say this. I wouldn’t bring back a team of all veterans that can win the Gold Cup. We need to be developing players for 2022. That needs to happen. And we need a mix of players as well… you do need to have older players sharing their experiences with the younger players and leading the way and demonstrating what it means to wear the national team jersey. I think that’s really important. Our focus is on preparing a team for World Cup qualifying, and preparing a group for the World Cup.”
Berhalter’s comments make sense given changes to FIFA’s international calendar. The evolution of the calendar and its competitions has been brewing for years and now there are significant consequences for US Soccer. Concerns about the USMNT schedule and the caliber of the opponents they’ll face for current and future World Cup cycles finally crystallized at the USSF annual general meeting last weekend when federation President Carlos Cordeiro confirmed the already poorly-held secret that FIFA’s Confederations Cup is dead. That renders the Gold Cup a dead end to competitive games against any nation outside of Concacaf, compounded by the start of the Concacaf Nations League in the fall. It’s a tough blow for countries from less capable confederations: chances to play big, competitive matches against the giants of Europe and CONMEBOL were rare; eliminating the Confederations Cup makes the path to big competitive games even narrower. Considering UEFA’s version of a Nations League is well underway, and coupling that with the reality that CONMEBOL qualifying is already a marathon, the US is left with little opportunity for big games outside of World Cups.
This “lack of big game” problem is also compounded by World Cup expansion. The US won’t need to qualify in 2026, and even when they do need to qualify again in 2030, qualifying from Concacaf will be even easier with the looming expansion of the World Cup field to 48 teams (which could happen as soon as 2022). As a result, until a quadrennial combined Copa America becomes the norm or a Global Nations League materializes, the USMNT will suffer from both competitive and friendly match malnutrition.
That unfortunate situation only reinforces Berhalter’s focus on 2022, even if it’s still a 32 team tournament and qualifying remains the same for one last cycle. But in addition to leaning on the kids, Berhalter can take advantage of this Concacaf captivity for a calendar by cap-tying the best dual-national prospects as early as possible. This isn’t compromising the establishment of a meritocratic culture. This is a pragmatic and necessary approach to winning the commitment of players eligible to represent other countries (primarily speaking, Mexico). Some will inevitably be lost, but the American men’s program cannot afford to bleed its youth national team gems due to a perceived lack of attention and appreciation of their ascendance with their club until it’s too late. Today, there are three, 18-year-old dual national MNT prospects in particular who must be cap tied this summer: Alex Mendez, Richie Ledezma, and Sergino Dest.**
After leading the U20s to a Concacaf Championship title in November, when he was awarded the tournament’s Golden Ball for his midfield magic, Mendez was named US Soccer’s Male Young Player of the Year. Recently, U20 coach Tab Ramos has been raving about Mendez, telling Paul Tenorio of The Athletic, “When I watch him play, I’m thinking, wow, this kid is American? How is that possible? This is Riquelme. I see some of the signings in MLS that come from South America, $10-15 million, and I’m thinking let’s turn around and say Alex was born in Buenos Aires and let’s put a price tag on Alex. He’s worth every bit of $15 million.”
The Galaxy academy product made six appearances for their USL outfit last year and signed with SC Freiburg in Germany in September. He’s currently with Freiburg’s U19s, but in an interview with Brian Sciaretta, Ramos said Mendez may be ready for the USMNT “in the next few months.”
On Extra Time Radio, Matt Doyle of MLS Soccer asked Berhalter if Weah and Sargent, who jumped from the youth national teams to the senior team before cracking their their club’s first team, were exceptions, or if Mendez could be next in line.
“Could we see Alex Mendez playing for you before he’s actually playing for Freiburg, or is this something that only happened with those two guys and we won’t see much of in the future?” Berhalter said, “I don’t think there’s any rule. I’ve thought about guys from the Under 20s, maybe bringing them into the national team, give them that experience of what it’s like to be with the men. But I also think there is a side, and players know this, where you have to earn it. If you’re not playing for a team, if you never played for a team, is that really earning it? But then, from your standpoint you’d say, if they’ve performed at a level for the United States, so that’s how they earned it. And that could be. That could very well be the case. But I think there has to be something where guys have to earn national team call ups.”
Mendez could make his Bundesliga debut before the end of the season, but expect him to emphatically “earn it” – if he hasn’t already – at the U20 World Cup kicking off in late May. Joining Mendez in the midfield in Poland will be fellow Mexican-American Richie Ledezma. The Real Salt Lake academy product made five appearances for their USL side last year and officially signed with PSV Eindhoven in January. According to his father, he had an offer from Barcelona. His father is also open regarding his preference for Richie’s international future. “I would like to see him playing in the Mexico national team, but I will always respect the choice my son makes.” Ledezma isn’t the only dual national at a big Eredivisie club who USMNT fans will be monitoring with excitement, yet anxiety about their allegiance.
Right back Sergino Dest signed his first professional contract with Ajax in December. Like GM Earnie Stewart, Dest was born to an American father and Dutch mother and raised in the Netherlands. Dest is a regular for Jong Ajax, the reserve team in the second division. In an interview with Adam Belz on the Scuffed podcast, Dest said, “I hope to break in to the first team this season, to get a debut.” His stock is set to continue rising at the U20 World Cup for the US. But when asked about interest from the Dutch federation, Dest said, “I’m just waiting and I will see what I’m doing. I don’t know yet.”
Stewart and Berhalter can’t wait until this trio emerges for their first teams to steer them to the USMNT. While I doubt neither Mendez, Ledezma, nor Dest will be in the XI for the Gold Cup semifinal in July, it’s imperative they’re at least cap tied during the group stage, after which squad changes are allowed and they can be replaced. This isn’t radical, it’s sensible. If you don’t believe Mendez, Ledezma, and Dest deserve to wear the crest yet, please read all the names on the rosters of previous January camps and JV Gold Cups.
In 2022, the American men will be aiming to win a World Cup knockout game for the first time in 20 years. That drought isn’t due to a corrosion of team culture attributable to the questionable commitment of dual nationals and coaches constantly cheapening the value of caps. The quality and depth for attacking soccer were lacking… until now. Dest said, “I think we just have a lot of guys, a lot of upcoming talents. They play the style of Europe, because everybody is going to Germany. Like almost everybody. And a lot of guys are just going to Europe, and then the style of the American national team is gonna change soon.” If Berhalter actually envisions this, it’s incumbent on him to cap-tie the kids – exceptions like these few – who could be capable of controlling the games that really matter.
** Editors Note: Another US dual-national is Atlanta United left back George Bello, who is eligible to play for both his birth country of Nigeria and the United States. Most indicators are that he is unlikely to play for Nigeria, though his family has not ruled the possibility out.
Sanjay Sujanthakumar is a contributing writer at The Yanks are Coming. He also coaches college club soccer at the University of Southern California. Follow him on Twitter @tha_Real_Kumar.