Jurgen Klinsmann addresses the media last November. The Copa is a chance to put the memories of a tough 2015 behind him.
Neil W. Blackmon
Saturday, Jurgen Klinsmann released the final 23 man US Men’s National Team roster for next month’s Copa America Centenario, the largest international men’s soccer tournament held on US soil since the 1994 World Cup. The roster features 15 players who featured for the US in the 2014 World Cup, and 18 who have already played for the Yanks in 2018 World Cup qualifying.
“This roster really was put together based on what we saw over the last year, and it’s one that makes us the strongest team possible to compete in Copa America and to hopefully surprise a lot of people,” Klinsmann told US Soccer. “We feel that these 23 going into the very special Copa America, they really deserved to be there,” said Klinsmann. “Obviously when you get down and you decide on the final 23-man roster, there are very close, tight decisions to make. The moment when you decide, it’s about definitely who you feel the strongest about.”
The US begin group stage play in the Copa America June 3 against Colombia in Santa Clara, California.
Here is the final roster, once more.
U.S. Roster by Position
GOALKEEPERS (3): 1-Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), 12-Tim Howard (Colorado Rapids), 22-Ethan Horvath (Molde IK)
DEFENDERS (8): 5-Matt Besler (Sporting KC), 3-Steve Birnbaum (D.C. United), 6-John Brooks (Hertha Berlin), 20-Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), 21-Timmy Chandler (Eintracht Frankfurt), 23-Fabian Johnson (Borussia Moenchengladbach), 14-Michael Orozco (Club Tijuana), 2-DeAndre Yedlin (Tottenham Hotspur)
MIDFIELDERS/FORWARDS (12): 15-Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), 11-Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes), 4-Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), 8-Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), 13-Jermaine Jones (Colorado Rapids), 16-Perry Kitchen (Heart of Midlothian), 10-Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers), 17-Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund), 18-Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes), 7-Bobby Wood (Hamburg SV), 20-Gyasi Zardes (LA Galaxy), 19-Graham Zusi (Sporting KC)
And here are five thoughts on Klinsmann’s final roster choices.
With Altidore out, can Dempsey again carry the scoring load?
The choice by Klinsmann to select a largely veteran group suggests the manager isn’t viewing the Copa as a transitional tournament or a glorified series of friendlies.
What to make of the Copa America Centenario depends on you who ask. To some, it is a fantastic opportunity for the US in a massive tournament they are fortunate to host, a “championship of the Americas” that will feature some of the globe’s best talent. Want an early referendum on Jurgen Klinsmann’s second cycle? Here it is. To others, it is a glorified sequence of friendlies, a CONCACAF, SUM and CONMEBOL money grab that isn’t being respected by some of the federations involved, evidenced by the absence of players like Neymar Jr. from the competition.
Whatever side you come down on, the US failure to win the CONCACAF Confederations Cup playoff last October means that these are the final meaningful games the US will play, outside of World Cup qualifying, until Russia 2018. This is the lone chance the Americans will have to test themselves against elite teams from outside CONCACAF.
That reality paves the way for two schools of thought. In one, you play the best team you can and look to make a statement about the standard and capabilities of the program. For a manager increasingly under fire after a troubling year of results in 2015, this makes strategic sense. What better way to defend your resume and assert the program’s progress than success in a tournament against global standard bearers? For Jurgen Klinsmann, manager, this is a useful measuring stick, if not an Alamo.
In the other view, you use the tournament as a transitional one, where you begin phasing out the older faces so integral to cycles past and begin integrating new faces who will become mainstays in Russia and beyond. This makes sense for a program coming off a troubling year of results, with a 33 year old still bearing the brunt of the scoring load and a nice grouping of young players making a name for themselves overseas and in MLS. That the tournament is against strong global competition is a bonus: what better way to let young players cut their teeth than against elite sides in meaningful games? For Jurgen Klinsmann, technical director, this would be a sensible path.
In the end, the manager largely won out over the technical director, as Klinsmann and his staff largely went with the first path. The heartbeat of this team remains Michael Bradley, who will captain it, Clint Dempsey, who will yet again be asked to score the goals, Jermaine Jones, who was so critical in Brazil, and goalkeepers Brad Guzan and Tim Howard. That’s a heartbeat that was largely a part of winning a World Cup group in 2010 and was a part of vanquishing nemesis Ghana and escaping a trying group in 2014.
There’s a scene in Tombstone, a mediocre film that somehow remains canonized, largely thanks to a massive performance from Val Kilmer, where Wyatt Earp, portrayed by Kurt Russell, and Doc Holiday, played by Kilmer, are set to take one final revenge-fueled ride through the Arizona wilderness together. Holiday, dying of consumption and TB, lights a cigarette as Russell tells him it is time to “finish it.” Holiday nods his head in affirmation: “The last ride of Wyatt Earp and his immortals.”
One gets the sense this tournament is the last ride of Clint Dempsey and his immortals, and that’s the path Klinsmann chose.
Fabian Johnson, Bundesliga best 11 winger, doubling as a left back.
“We always have left backs. Anyone can play left back.”
Jurgen Klinsmann is using the Copa America Centenario to double down on his now infamous remark before the beginning of 2014 World Cup qualifying that “Anyone can play left back.”
Before you stop me and say, but “Fabian Johnson is a left back”, let’s address that. No. He isn’t. And he hasn’t been in a long time. He is a player capable of playing on either flank off either foot that has been terrific for the last two years in Germany. And he is the subject of a nice feature in the new 8 by 8 magazine. And yes, he has played left back for his country on occasion. But he isn’t a left back.
Edgar Castillo, who plays the spot for Liga MX leader Monterrey would have been the logical choice, particularly given he featured in the last set of World Cup qualifiers for the US. But he was left out, as was Fulham’s Tim Ream, who has been in and out of camps since Brazil, and the late to the party Eric Lichaj, who logged over 10,000 minutes in the Nottingham Forest before he emerged from the Klinsmann wilderness in time for the transitional pop-up camp ahead of Sunday afternoon’s friendly in Puerto Rico. Other suitable candidates, like Santos fullback Jorge Villafaña, so integral to Portland’s MLS Cup run, or Jon Bornstein, a genuine left back who has played tremendous soccer for 18 months for Liga MX Champions League side Querétaro, weren’t on the preliminary roster.
Now, it should be written that utilizing the best field player the US have at a position he’s played capably enough internationally isn’t the worst way to solve a dearth of options at a position. But the US doesn’t have a dearth of options. And even if they did, tactical logic traditionally dictates you play the best wide player you have in the midfield. Using Johnson in the back reduces the impact of the best US player in the pool, both from width and from a position where he’s flourished abroad.
I suppose, in a pinch– or in a situation where you actually wanted to play the best wide player you had in the midfield where he can best influence the game– Klinsmann could play Timothy Chandler at left back. Of course then he’d be playing Timothy Chandler in a meaningful game. And we’ve all seen how well that goes in CONCACAF.
No word from the US camp as to whether we’ll see Ale Bedoya at left back yet, but it appears Jurgen Klinsmann is going to go Fabian Johnson or bust at the position. And Johnson enters the camp with a bit of a muscle injury, which makes the whole gamble peak Klinsmann.
The Jordan Morris and Chris Wondolowski debate.
First, let’s note what Jurgen did on this choice.
Klinsmann: 'it came down to Wondo or Jordan [Morris]. We chose to go with Wondo.'
— Andrew Das (@AndrewDasNYT) May 21, 2016
Second, let’s note the ways framing the decision this way is odd. These aren’t “like for like” players.
Wondolowski is a poacher, a guy who can escape defenders, find the net in a scrum and who, for years has made brilliant runs from various angles on the field. He’s never been lethal internationally, and there won’t be a Belize in this group to pad his international goal totals, but he is on a run of sensational form in MLS and he scored twice against Real Sociedad this week. Klinsmann trusts him and he’s played in huge games (don’t send me the Belgium vine and get over it).
Morris is fast, sure, but he’s proving in MLS he’s far more than that. His ability to run off the back shoulder with blistering pace would have provided the US with a more pure #9 than they’ve had since at least the 2013 Gold Cup. Morris has an excellent first touch, particularly retrieving balls from the air, and he makes highly intelligent runs for a young player. This would have been a tremendous tournament to showcase his not insubstantial talents against high-level competition. It appears that will have to wait until Russia.
What’s weird is that Jurgen is choosing, particularly if he is going to play a 4-3-3. There’s no need for the extra defender (Michael Orozco) or the extra defensive midfielder (Kyle Beckerman) in this group. Beckerman could be very useful against Paraguay, to be sure, but the other two games aren’t particularly great matchups for his skill set, and even if they were, at some point this cycle Klinsmann will hand the reins over to Perry Kitchen or better yet, Michael Bradley at the number six. Why put off for later what must be done eventually?
If you have to choose between Morris and another forward, it would seem cruel to omit Gyasi Zardes. After all, Zardes has improved dramatically in the last 18 months and has had more nice senior team moments than Morris to date. He’s also a better player in the air than Morris by some distance and he’s proven he’s content to hold the ball up or flare off and make the simple pass to primary attackers. Zardes’s upside is nowhere near what Morris’s is internationally. But every international manager has “their guys”- see Bornstein, Jon or Clark, Ricardo- and as long as they are trusted they aren’t usually omitted. Nonetheless, Zardes inclusion on this team should certainly be discussed alongside Morris’s exclusion.
The US, without Jozy Altidore (or at least a fit one) for the third consecutive summer tournament, needs to find new answers up top. Clint Dempsey scored eight goals for country at the previous two tournaments. Whether he can be relied upon- particularly out of position as a number nine with two other players on the wing– to do so again is anyone’s guess. But the reality is that there would have been no harm in bringing both Morris and Wondolowski in a world where Klinsmann hands the reins over to young Bobby Wood and asks him to hold the ball up first and score the goals second. In many ways, how the US performs at the Copa America will turn on how Bobby Wood handles that responsibility. Or maybe Jurgen Klinsmann won’t give him that responsibility, instead riding the bald eagle with flames for wings that is Clint Dempsey one last glorious time.
Christian Pulisic is in the team. Good job! Now… Play him.
Whether the US go 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 or even 4-4-2 (why?), the US manager and technical director brought his most coveted prospect to the tournament and he’s been in terrific form.
Pulisic should play him because he is a better option than Graham Zusi on that wing and you can still use the Sporting KC veteran to see a game out.
Pulisic isn’t really a winger- but if the US are going to play Bundesliga Best 11 winger Fabian Johnson at fullback, they might as well put one of the best prospects at one of the world’s best clubs on the field and let him figure things out. If he and Darlington Nagbe play at the same time, the Americans will have two highly creative players on the field at once- a rare treat.
John Brooks has delivered the goods for Hertha Berlin this year. Can he provide consistent play for the US?
Given form and health, the CB choices at Klinsmann’s disposal are as good as they’ve been in two years.
Geoff Cameron is, by most estimations, the best American defender on earth at present. He had a quietly terrific year at Stoke City and while it took entirely too long, he has won his manager over as both a CB and the first choice at CB. John Brooks is coming off a year where his value to Hertha Berlin became obvious. When the youngster missed a handful of games to injury, Hertha struggled mightily.
How good was Brooks for Hertha this year? Well, the club competed for a European position and Brooks was signed to a long term contract. Brooks excellence in his hometown of Berlin was a positive development for the US in 2015 and 2016. The question now is whether he can produce internationally on a consistent basis. Despite his heroic goal against Ghana and having all the measurables a manager could want, Brooks has yet to produce consistently for Klinsmann. And as long as the manager has questions, he may continue to play the reliable if not spectacular Matt Besler. In that respect, it is worth watching the German-American closely in the friendlies. Steve Birnbaum has impressed in multiple camps- he’ll add depth and his ability to threaten the goal on set pieces has separated him from Omar Gonzalez, at least according to Klinsmann. Michael Orozco adds depth but was a bizarre selection given how little he has featured for club this season. Still, he has been a reliable piece for Klinsmann historically, and probably would have made the World Cup team if not for a late injury. This could simply be Klinsmann rewarding him for services rendered without ever intending to put him on the pitch. The merits of that choice can be debated, but it is at least a plausible explanation for his presence.
As ever, the comments are yours.
Neil W. Blackmon co-founded The Yanks Are Coming. Follow him on Twitter @nwblackmon.