As the US move forward from a disappointing autumn, it’s time to ask what role the veterans and old guard will have as the program attempts to rebuild its culture.
By Sanjay Sujanthakumar
The USMNT ended 2018 with a Eurotrip that erased prior optimism about the state of the program. An awkward year under interim coach Dave Sarachan concluded unsurprisingly, with two defeats to sides with superior talent and stability at manager. As seen in previous autumn matches, the US defended desperately, couldn’t press effectively or keep the ball and control the game, and predictably lost. Both England, who are enviably poised to contend for continental and global glory for the next decade, and Italy, who like the US are rebuilding after missing the World Cup, dominated the young Americans, from both a possession and chances-created standpoint. The youngest starting lineup in the MNT’s modern history didn’t come close to playing on the front foot during 90 minutes against the Azzurri’s kids, and disappointment with recent performances has again forced a reckoning about how Gregg Berhalter should assemble his squad once he’s finally named Sarachan’s successor.
The reaction to the team’s regression has been a call for stability and long-term change.
In twelve games, Sarachan handed 23 players their debuts for what has basically been a U23 team due to a generational gap in the pool. Facing Brazil, France, Colombia, England Italy has been a baptism of fire. Now the transition seems over, and there’s clearly a need for the continuity that fosters cohesion, and yet the question remains: with who?
The fans and media are frustrated. As Paul Tenorio wrote for The Athletic, “The international stage cannot be a training ground for young prospects, no matter how much potential they may have. If you’re not playing for your club’s first team, you shouldn’t be playing for the national team. Period… Weah and Sargent need first-team minutes… there should be a certain prestige that comes with a national team call-up… as this team moves into games that count, that attitude has to change. Those young call-ups must be the exceptions, not the rules.” MLS analyst Matt Doyle, sharing this sentiment, said, “If you’re not playing for your club team, you’re not (going to) play for the national team… I don’t care Matt Miazga… if you can’t get on the field in France, you’re not going to play… I don’t care how good you are, Josh Sargent, if you can’t get on the field for Werder Bremen… start holding people accountable like that, that’s how you change the culture, because it’s been scattershot since 2011. There has not been any accountability from the top down, and there has to start being that from within the locker room, and I think that the players would respond to that.”
Arena and Klinsmann were generally cautious with young players
Accountability was an issue under both Jurgen Klinsmann and Bruce Arena, but with a few notable exceptions, it rarely affected how they selected their squads. Sure, Klinsmann inexplicably brought Julian Green to Brazil instead of Landon Donovan and raised eyebrows when he called up Miguel Ibarra from the NASL, Stanford sophomore Jordan Morris, and persisted (successfully) with Bobby Wood. But he still relied on veterans, especially from MLS – his “givers” like Kyle Beckerman, Graham Zusi, and Chris Wondolowski – who were playing regularly.
Although Klinsmann was “thrilled” by Matt Miazga’s “courageous” move to Chelsea in January 2016, Miazga only made two appearances for the Blues before he was loaned to Vitesse for the following season, when Klinsmann explained Miazga’s continued absence from the MNT in a Facebook Q&A. “Once he is in a starting position and he gets games week in, week out, hopefully we get him in the flow and then down the road he will be back with the senior national team. But this makes us very happy because he took that risk leaving his comfort zone and now trying to prove himself in a not so easy environment, so this is a good thing and we can’t wait until he starts games and then we’ll take it from there.”
A marvelous MLS player, Jurgen Klinsmann found little use for Darlington Nagbe as an international.
By the middle of his second cycle, Klinsmann was frank in his assessment of the pool. Miazga – nor an out of form Sounders rookie Jordan Morris – were picked for the Copa America that summer. Prior to that tournament, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the German lamented how young “talent is not there yet when it comes to the national team, when it gets to big tournaments, when it gets serious. We lost that generation that didn’t qualify for [the] London [Olympics]. What happened to the Bill Hamids, the Sean Johnsons, the Brek Sheas, the Mix Diskeruds?” According to Klinsmann, Emerson Hyndman “disappeared.” Klinsmann was criticized for this interview, but he was right. His candor tended to reflect his squad selection, with few exceptions. Klinsmann did usher Darlington Nagbe out of the player pool stage left late in his tenure due to what he perceived as a lack of “buy-in”, but that type of move for vague reasons was unusual for the typically blunt German-American.
Arena inherited this problem with the pool and conservatively constructed his squad, leaning on veterans and his domestic contingent who he had more time to work with in 2017 in January camp and the Gold Cup. Qualifying was a constraint, but Arena hasn’t historically been inclined to trust youngsters. Immediately following the decisive, qualifying-ending loss to Trinidad and Tobago, Arena – who has admitted his 2006 USMNT that couldn’t get out of its group in Germany needed to be younger – said, “If we had qualified for the World Cup, there needed to be a number of changes for a World Cup roster. We have some young, promising players that would have made a bid to be part of the World Cup in 2018.”
This was both a refreshing and crushing admission. The reality is Arena could’ve attempted to integrate these players sooner – or at least called them up – to ensure the US was a part of the World Cup in the first place. Although a month after failing to qualify Bruce said Miazga would’ve started in Russia, Miazga wasn’t called up for the Hex at all and made just one appearance under Arena. Miazga was held out of action even as the manager had ushered Cameron to the bench for “chemistry” reasons– TYAC has learned from multiple sources that Cameron was disruptive to the dressing room, and the decision to include him on the roster given this was a divisive one.
Weston McKennie debuted for Schalke in May, and his first start came vs. Bayern Munich in September. By then, dual-national Jonathan Gonzalez was shining for Monterrey, and he’d finish the season in the Liga MX Apertura Best XI. There was no room for them on rosters for the final four qualifiers, and worse, Arena opted to exclude both from the Gold Cup, when he would have had an extended evaluation window to integrate the two into the senior squad. Christian Pulisic was the only midfielder called up for the last two matches of the Hex who wasn’t plying his trade in MLS, and he had been an established figure since making his debut over Labor Day weekend in 2017.
What role for the Veterans moving forward?
Aside from Pulisic, Wood, Nagbe, John Brooks, DeAndre Yedlin, Paul Arriola, Jozy Altidore, Jorge Villafaña, and maybe Michael Bradley, Fabian Johnson and Graham Zusi, there are no players who were part of the previous, ultimately disastrous cycle that could have a role in this one. There are barely any young Americans based in MLS – where we assume playing time to be more possible and stable than abroad – who are ready for the international level today and have a future with the MNT.
Zack Steffen is the No. 1 keeper, but appears headed back to Europe, this time to Manchester City. MLS Defender of the Year Aaron Long and his Red Bull center back partner Tim Parker will remain in the picture. Russell Canouse merits an audition in January camp after a magnificent season in the nation’s capital. But thus far, Cristian Roldan, Marky Delgado, and Kellyn Acosta haven’t convinced they belong in the XI to shore up the middle, despite multiple auditions. Tyler Adams and Walker Zimmerman are headed to Europe.
Should a veteran that plays be privileged over a big talent that doesn’t? Timothy Weah is a case study in that lingering question.
The significance of playing time is not symmetric in club soccer. It entirely depends on where you are, and while competition for minutes is more cutthroat in France and Germany for Weah and Sargent, respectively, their U17 World Cup teammate, the dynamic Andrew Carleton, is still buried on the bench by Atlanta United’s South American attacking stars.
Should a veteran that plays be privileged over a big talent that doesn’t? It’s a timeless question but one Berhalter will need to answer.
Last month, Doyle compared Weah to Landon Donovan on this assist that gave the US a brief lead over Colombia. Days later on ESPN, former USMNT striker Brian McBride heaped praise on Josh Sargent, who had the go-ahead goal vs. Peru. “If I am Werder Bremen, and I see this performance… I’m putting him in, why would I not? At least have him on the bench as an option. Physically he can handle it. His movement is excellent. I don’t understand the idea of, ‘yup, he’s young, we’ll bring him on’… seeing this game, I can’t imagine he’s not brought up.’” Bremen coach Florian Kohfeldt suggested he would be, but Sargent hasn’t made Bremen’s bench yet for the Bundesliga or DFB Pokal. While we definitely expect Bremen first-team opportunities for Sargent before his next chance to wear the crest in March, and anticipate PSG loaning out Weah in January, the general notion that you must be playing consistently for your club to be called up to the national team is still irreconcilable with the current pool.
When Tyler Adams moves to RB Leipzig, is his spot with the national team – it’s evidently massive for the present and future – really contingent on breaking into this top Bundesliga side upon arrival? Until he does, is Wil Trapp, Acosta, Delgado or Roldan supposed to start instead? Under what circumstances could you justify calling up Gyasi Zardes but not Sargent or Weah?
Form and fitness are obviously important factors, but so is maintaining a meritocracy. Caps ought to be earned, not given. It’s essential Berhalter grabs a program twisting in the wind and establishes this culture immediately. The international stage isn’t a training ground for youngsters. After captaining his country for the first time vs. Italy, Pulisic told reporters, “I don’t think it would be a bad idea [to bring in veterans],” he said. “I think some guys need the direction and [to] see where this team is going to go. Veteran guys can always help that.”
Josh Sargent is among the young stars who likely lead – and should have the chance to lead- as the program moves forward.
Establishing an accountable, winning culture again begins with the new manager
But the guidance will begin with Gregg Berhalter, and he’ll realize Weah and Sargent aren’t just exceptions. They’re exceptional talents already among the best American attacking options. It’d be absurd to ignore them altogether because of their ambition – especially considering the lingering lack of quality and depth in the pool – and this applies to Miazga and will to the plethora of European-based prospects such as Sebastian Soto, Luca de la Torre and Alex Mendez who will surface from the youth national teams. Even if the objectives entering 2019 are to win the Gold Cup and then prepare for World Cup qualifiers that’ll be around the corner – the latter is when it “gets serious” – the pool is still irreversibly imbalanced and begging for faith in kids who Berhalter can’t avoid calling up regardless of their club situations.
Sanjay Sujanthakumar is a coach and journalist based in California. He is writing specially for The Yanks Are Coming. Follow him on Twitter @the_Real_Kumar.