Jurgen Klinsmann has named his roster for the upcoming decisive World Cup qualifiers.
Neil W. Blackmon
Jurgen Klinsmann has called in 26 players to represent the United States in two decisive World Cup qualifiers to be played over a five day period surrounding Labor Day weekend. As of writing, there has been one injury replacement as well, with New York Red Bulls midfielder Sacha Kljestan brought in to replace Hertha Berlin defender John Brooks. Brooks, perhaps the best American player at this past summer’s Copa América Centenario, will miss the qualifiers with a back injury.
The roster itself is Copa América heavy, with 18 of the 21 available players making the side, and the only omissions: Clint Dempsey, Gyasi Zardes and John Brooks, out with injuries.
Jurgen Klinsmann has indicated the Copa-heavy roster was by design.
“We definitely think that the group that got fourth in the Copa America deserves a certain priority going on to the next World Cup qualifiers because they did tremendously well in the Copa America,” Klinsmann told US Soccer. “It was an exciting tournament with great games. The whole group learned a lot, playing teams like Colombia, Ecuador and Argentina. This is a big stage, and they deserve to come back and confirm what they did in the tournament in these upcoming, very important World Cup qualifiers. We are preparing for these two games very seriously, with a lot of urgency because we want to finish off our group in first place if possible, and this group of players gets the chance to do that.”
The U.S. travels first to face St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Sept. 2 in (3:30 p.m. ET – beIN SPORT). Four days later, the MNT closes out Group C action against Trinidad & Tobago (8 p.m. ET– FS1, UniMas),
Our breakdown of the qualifying weekend can be read here.
The American roster is as follows:
U.S. ROSTER BY POSITION:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Middlesbrough), Ethan Horvath (Molde FC), Tim Howard (Colorado Rapids)
DEFENDERS (8): Kellyn Acosta (FC Dallas), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), Steve Birnbaum (D.C. United), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Omar Gonzalez (Pachuca), Fabian Johnson (Borussia Monchengladbach), Michael Orozco (Club Tijuana), DeAndre Yedlin (Newcastle United)
MIDFIELDERS (10): Paul Arriola (Club Tijuana), Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (Philadelphia Union), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Jermaine Jones (Colorado Rapids), Sacha Kljestan (New York Red Bulls) Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers), Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund), Caleb Stanko (FC Vaduz), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)
FORWARDS (5): Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders FC), Rubio Rubin (FC Utrecht), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes), Bobby Wood (Hamburg SV)
Here’s our breakdown by position:
GOALKEEPER:
Ethan Horvath is a bright young prospect, but Bill Hamid’s omission is a surprising one.
He’s the best shot stopper in the US pool, right now, which makes his omission all the more odd given that the strength of Brad Guzan, who started all but one game for the Yanks at the Copa América this summer, is shot-stopping.
Hamid has his weaknesses: positional issues often mean he’s forced into the spectacular save more often than he ought to be. But there’s a reasonable argument that he’s more steady than Brad Guzan these days.
Take this past week for example: Guzan was “okay” in his first start filling in for the injured Victor Valdés at Middlesbrough. He was then excoriated for being dire in the club’s English League Cup loss midweek before being very good in a shutout of West Brom Sunday. All in all, despite shot stopping ability, Guzan’s performance range is too wide to be entirely comfortable with him as your goalkeeper in the HEX. Why not give Bill Hamid- who has higher upside than Guzan- a chance to prove his worth? And why not at least give him a camp?
In our roster roundtable last week, the consensus was that should the US enter Jacksonville next Tuesday in a literal must draw or win (this likely only occurs if Guatemala beat Trinidad and Tobago in Port-of-Spain), the Americans should start Tim Howard.
Howard has big game resume and has been good since arriving in Colorado. He’s likely the player Klinsmann should start. It would be nice, however, to include Bill Hamid.
DEFENSE
In John Brooks and Geoff Cameron, the US appeared to have finally found a stable, long-term CB pairing with formidable defensive chops. Now John Brooks is out with a back ailment, and US fans are left wondering why they can’t have nice things.
Enter- or re-enter, if you will- Omar Gonzalez, playing the best soccer of his life for Pachuca, champions of Mexico. Cameron and Gonzalez have worked together with reasonable national team success before, and never with Gonzalez playing this type of soccer. Gonzalez also adds a dominant aerial presence that the US will need in Jacksonville, where longtime English Premier League and future Atlanta United forward Kenwyne Jones awaits.
Neither player have the raw athleticism of Brooks, which means if Kevin Molino breaks free in Jacksonville, there’s unlikely to be any hero tackle type plays like the one Brooks made at the Copa. But it is a quality starting duo and with Steve Birnbaum and Matt Besler in the mix, the US are as deep with options at CB as they’ve ever been.
The fullback position is still a question mark.
Presumably, DeAndre Yedlin, who has played very little live soccer since the Copa, will start on the right, though with Graham Zusi playing some right back for Sporting Kansas City, perhaps the US will also explore that option.
Fabian Johnson, fresh off a week where he shined as a winger in a 6-1 Borussia Monchengladbach Champions League win, is back on the team as the heir apparent at left back.
Many US fans and writers continue to insist that Johnson at LB is simply the best option for a team without many options.
They continue to be wrong.
Johnson is an elite winger in an elite league. The US does a disservice to its entire offensive attack when it positions Johnson, a mediocre to bad defender, at left back, sapping his energy and limiting his influence higher up the field. A simple call to one of the unflashy but steady American LB’s plying their trade in Mexico would solve that problem.
Kellyn Acosta, one of the best box-to-box midfield prospects the United States have produced in five years, is also in camp. He’s listed in defense, apparently another product of the Klinsmann school of playing out of position- or was that the Klinsmann school of “Anyone can play left back, so why not my best soccer player?”
Michael Orozco, forever a Klinsmann acolyte, adds versatility and depth.
An injury to John Brooks has given Sacha Kljestan a well-earned chance again with the USMNT.
MIDFIELDERS
The usual suspects, with the head-scratchers coming in the defensive midfield.
Kyle Beckerman was a loyal servant who played very well to little acclaim in the previous World Cup cycle, and then silenced the critics with a splendid World Cup. But his inclusion in this squad screams loyalty gone too far.
For one, even at his zenith, Beckerman struggled against pacier teams that force him to move a ton laterally and/or love to incut (see, Jamaica, every time). That problem has gotten worse, not better, and the Soca Warriors fit the bill of a team that can work Beckerman’s weakness.
Second, age won’t get any kinder. The US have struggled to find a functional MF combination(s) since the middle of the last qualifying cycle, and it’s time Klinsmann looked to craft solutions outside his comfort zone, to borrow his phrase.
https://twitter.com/shinguardian/status/769972127999090690
Two qualifiers that continue to highlight Beckerman’s weaknesses but otherwise are entirely winnable games are perfect environments to implement long-term change. It’s a shame Klinsmann isn’t seizing that opportunity.
The other defensive mid in camp is Caleb Stanko, a player who is on loan in Switzerland and currently (as of this weekend) doesn’t start. He impressed the US coaches in the camp prior to the Copa América and his inclusion is presumably a nod to those efforts. That’s fine with me- continuity is a good thing in international soccer, mostly.
But if Stanko impressed at the Copa camp and is in for that reason, is Perry Kitchen not in for the same reasons? After all, he was on the actual Copa roster. And he’s been a starting lineup fixture since joining Hearts of Midlothian last season.
The American wing group is Bedoya, Zusi- two staples, and Darlington Nagbe, Christian Pulisic and Paul Arriola, another player who impressed Klinsmann and the staff in the pre-Copa camp. Arriola, who plays consistently at Club Tijuana, is a guy with a frenetic motor and a really technical right foot.
Paul Arriola with a fantastic finish to open the scoring in Tijuana's 3-0 Copa MX win last night over Toluca: https://t.co/81qx3tvDSh
— Nats Abroad (@Nats_Abroad) July 20, 2016
His inclusion is warranted and he’s a fine example of why this is the best US talent pool ever.
By calling in Sacha Kljestan for the injured John Brooks, Klinsmann acknowledges the terrific season the New York Red Bulls player is having in MLS and avoids excluding the most in-form American midfielder from MLS for the second consecutive year (Feilhaber in 2015).
Kljestan is excelling as the number ten in New York, with five goals and fifteen helpers to date, an assists pace that should allow him to pass everyone on the single season list but Carlos Valderrama’s ridiculous 26 assist year for the Tampa Bay Mutiny.
But Kljestan offers more than that. He gives the US a creative passer who can orchestrate between the lines OR be deployed with Michael Bradley. The two have familiarity, in youth teams and on this level, and had success paired together in the 2010 World Cup cycle in Bob Bradley’s double pivot.
With evidence overwhelming that Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley, whatever their substantial individual talents, aren’t a great “pair”- trying Kljestan with Bradley is relatively low-risk, given their track record. And that’s true before you address Jermaine Jones age- which will be 36 come Russia.
As far as deployment, Sacha was rarely actually deployed as a 10 under Bob & spent too many games lost. Curious to see Klinsmann’s response.
— Will Parchman (@WillParchman) August 29, 2016
How Klinsmann chooses to use Kljestan is the key. This is a player with very specific strengths. Deviating from the concentric circle of what he does well is risky, but the reward for deploying him properly is immense.
Lastly, it is worth noting that Graham Zusi is in the side, despite having played fullback of late for Sporting Kansas City. Zusi’s inclusion is largely because Klinsmann trusts him to fill very specific roles: track back with industry and defend if the US are ahead; deliver a set piece if the US are behind. The US are trying to make sure they reach the HEX at this point, and that makes some sense as a security blanket.
Nonetheless- Lynden Gooch is not in this team– despite having started three games at Sunderland. His exclusion makes little sense for a manager and technical director who consistently talk about players needing to challenge themselves at the highest level. It’s possible David Moyes didn’t want to release him, but that seems unlikely, given Moyes’s history.
Can the US score consistently without Clint Dempsey?
FORWARD
Chris Wondolowski is here, which really ought to make the comments section LIT. It isn’t his fault that Jurgen Klinsmann commanded him to track and mark Javier Mascherano in the Copa semifinals, but it didn’t do much for his already beleaguered reputation with American fans either. Still, he’s here, and whether that’s because Clint Dempsey isn’t or because Jurgen Klinsmann just loves the guy, he appears to be harder than Game of Thrones’s Hound to get rid of.
Jozy Altidore enters the camp healthy and in his best form since 2013, when he scored eight times for the United States in thirteen games. A healthy, happy Altidore is always good for the United States.
It’s even more important for an American team missing Clint Dempsey, who has scored over half the American goals in competitive play since the beginning of the 2014 World Cup. That’s a ton of production lost, but having Altidore back, who has missed so many of those critical games due to fitness and injury issues, softens the blow.
Rubio Rubin is in the camp, perhaps because Gyasi Zardes was hurt this weekend with the LA Galaxy. Rubin is talented but hasn’t scored yet for FC Utrecht this campaign.
Bobby Wood, now with Hamburg, is back with the US after a strong Copa América. Here he is scoring a ridiculous goal while not playing as a winger in a 4-3-3 this past weekend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5jaQxyhrUM
Who starts is the biggest question in this group.
The obvious option is Altidore and Wood, but Klinsmann could certainly go with the 4-3-3 and pair Wood, Altidore and Morris or Rubin as well, with Altidore manning the center of that grouping.
The question with that formation, especially with midfield linker Michael Bradley absent, is whether that would result in a US too disconnected to put together much offensively in the opening qualifier in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. That’s a result most US fans have taken for granted- and not a game for the US to tinker with formations.
Comments are yours as always.
Neil W. Blackmon is co-founder of The Yanks Are Coming. Follow him on Twitter @nwblackmon.