Timothy Weah leads a roster of young talent into the Paraguay match next week.
Neil W. Blackmon
Almost Six Months have passed since the Collapse in Couva. In many ways, the US is stuck in the Trinidad mud, even as it tries to move forward.
Okay, Okay, Okay TYAC fam.
You’re right.
Life moves on. TYAC should too.
It’s been almost half a year since the Collapse in Couva kept the US Men’s National Team out of a World Cup. It’s not a day that any of us will soon forget, and there’s so much to be done to avoid error replication.
But six months have elapsed, and as the late great Tom Petty sang, it’s “Time to Move On.”
And yet how little has truly changed…
There’s been a controversial election that ultimately produced plenty of antipathy but no substantial change agent.
There’s been more litigation between the federation, the top division of US Soccer and the NASL, the latter of which now sits in a corner room somewhere, clinging to life on a Jeffrey Kessler powered respirator.
The US Women are still awesome, winning the She Believes Cup without a midfield to speak of, and people still complain about how they play, even when they win all the time.
The US Women are also still World Champions losing an equality fight, as we were all reminded this week in a strange way, when US legend DaMarcus Beasley and the Houston Dynamo got a little taste of what the ladies of the NWSL go through from a facilities standpoint all the time.
Just when I thought @MLS was getting better in every aspect, todays “conditions” were unacceptable!! From the locker room to the “training” room(which was jus an area blocked by curtains next to the vending machines) kids volleyball goin on, it was a circus. #unacceptable
— DaMarcus Beasley (@DaMarcusBeasley) March 17, 2018
Meanwhile, as MLS kicked off another season, the holy Grail that is the CONCACAF Champions League has all eyes on Toronto FC and the New York Red Bulls, no matter the hangover it creates on league results. Not that league results matter much anyway when everyone with a valentine makes the postseason…
And while DaMarcus is correct that this shouldn’t happen in MLS, his tweet is more instructive of a separate point- the reality that equality in soccer shouldn’t- nay, doesn’t- simply mean equality in pay. Perhaps equality in facilities and treatment is more vital, at least in terms of sequencing change?
Finally, there’s the US Men’s National Team.
It will be almost 18 more months before they come together to play anything resembling a competitive match again, but there’s still a Trinidad after Carnival sized-hangover in the men’s portion of the federation, which slogs on in a state of near paralysis.
There’s no new head coach and at present, no search committee to find one (though we’re told that’s happening soon.)
Instead, despite the presence of many “on the payroll” alternatives, Dave Sarachan, a member of the Bruce Arena staff that helped author the most humiliating failure in US Soccer Federation history, leads the team.
This week, in another sign the USSF was eager to step away from the Arena-led failure, it signed his top assistant Sarachan to a contract extension through June. If you’re scoring at home, that means a coach that failed to lead the US to the World Cup is coaching through the World Cup anyway, because US Soccer is, I suppose, no longer or never a meritocracy.
The latest Sarachan extension (a prior one came after a pop-up friendly in Portugal last November that was the final blow in a recruiting battle between Mexico and the U.S. for the dynamite Mexican-American midfielder Jonathan Gonzalez) didn’t come, or at least hasn’t yet come, with a devastating loss of a dual international, but it isn’t without meaning.
This time, the interim contract extension almost certainly indicates the US won’t hire a new coach until after the 2018 World Cup, and perhaps until after the conclusion of the MLS regular season, depending on when the search committee Cordeiro has promised gets to work. None of that is necessarily a bad thing, it’s just odd, especially from an optics perspective, that the federation would choose stasis under an Arena assistant despite the availability of other options (Hackworth, Tab, Jill Ellis) on the US payroll.
All told, maybe it’s just a good time to be a #2 in US Soccer, what with former President Sunil Gulati’s #2 Carlos Cordeiro now elected to lead the federation and Bruce Arena’s right-hand man, Dave Sarachan, the interim head coach of the Men’s National Team.
The US will host a semi-extended week long camp in North Carolina this week (I recommend Blake Thomsen over at our friends ASN for updates on the ground) and then take on Paraguay in a friendly next Tuesday. The game will be played at WakeMed Soccer Park at 7:30 next week and despite Sahlen’s Stadium having a small capacity of only 10,000, tickets very much remain available.
The US roster called in by Sarachan features 22 players with an average age under 24, and given that factor, as well as the strength of the side called in by Paraguay (a good, honest team, to be frank), there’s plenty to look forward to. Here is the roster:
“This match once again represents an opportunity for some new faces. The roster has an average age under 24, so for the most part this is a group of younger players that we feel have a future with the National Team along with some familiar names,” Sarachan told US Soccer for a press release. “The timing is right to give these guys international exposure, and they will certainly be tested against a strong and experienced Paraguayan team.”
It’s been a while, so bear with us, but here are three thoughts on the team Sarachan has called in, as well as two thoughts on who isn’t here.
We’ll start with who is missing.
Christian Pulisic isn’t here, and that’s fine. He shouldn’t be.
Between the failed World Cup campaign where he was option A, B and C for the US in the Americans disastrous final two months, and nearly two years of Bundesliga plus Champions League and Europa League soccer, Pulisic has logged a ton of travel miles and tire miles on his body and legs.
He’s only 19, so there’s an element of “he can run forever at that age” to this, of course, but the reality is he’s looked tired at times for Dortmund this spring and his form has dipped because of it, and only in the last two weeks- after a rest- has he looked like his dangerous, top ten player under 21 in the world-self again.
Further, with a match against Bayern Munich on the horizon, and Dortmund clawing to finish second in the Bundesliga, it wouldn’t make much sense to call him in for this match even if the US had qualified for the World Cup.
But to have him fly across the ocean for a meaningless friendly in an experimental side for an interim coach 18 months before the US plays another “competitive match?” Well, that should never happen, and fortunately, it didn’t.
Pulisic is probably the captain of the US team by the middle of the next World Cup cycle, if not earlier. And whatever the strengths of the various young US talents, Pulisic is by far the group’s polestar.
But if he plays for the United States in 2018, it will, or it should, be in friendlies on European soil only, where he can take a peaceful bullet train to a US pop-up camp, hydrate, kick a ball or two around, have a nice job and give the US an hour in France.
Otherwise, the kid has nothing to prove, especially to a lame duck staff.
I would have liked to see Jordan Siebatcheu.
If you don’t know who he is, he’s a six foot three Bambi on Ice CF plying his trade in Ligue 2 in France. He was hurt two weeks ago, and my broken French email to his club’s media organ was not responded to, but the likelihood is he wasn’t healthy enough for the call.
The US will need CF help moving forward, even with Altidore still in his prime and Wood entering his. And Siebatcheu is 21 and has made no secret of his desire to play for the United States (France isn’t exactly waiting on line one, either). But a call-up would make sense, especially in 2018, when all the US should be doing is building a “big board” it can work with from the 2019 Gold Cup forward.
About who is here…
HARRISON, NJ – OCTOBER 30: New York Red Bulls midfielder Tyler Adams (4) during the first half of the MLS Cup Playoff game between the New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC on October 30, 2017, at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams slaying the midfield is a fun thought. Plus Paraguay brought a good enough team for this to be a competent test.
Adams arrives in camp off the heels of an epic performance in the CONCACAF Champions League. His influence was most notable late, with Xolos chasing the tie. On New York’s final goal, Tijuana opts to bypass the center of the pitch altogether, instead playing to a wing. This results in New York winning the ball, and BWP finding Kaku for the dagger.
https://twitter.com/JogaBonito_USA/status/973758953162190848
Adams versatility has him coveted in Europe already, but his international home is as a regista six, pinging sizzling diagonals to wingers from the scrum and more capable a midfielder in traffic than the US have produced in at least a decade. The cross-training at fullback is part of this; the gifts as a player who reads the game moves ahead are another part. The absence of Jonathan Gonzalez moving forward makes it all the more inevitable that for whatever Adams worth at fullback or as a number eight, his likely international home is as a six.
Weston McKennie should feature ahead of him, and after a first repetition in Portugal, the 19-year-old tandem get a second go at it on home soil. It’s easy to praise (and right to praise) what Adams has done in New York. It’s also right to praise McKennie, who is playing vital minutes for a team fighting its tail off for a Champions League position in one of the three best leagues on Earth.
The damning loss of Gonzalez isn’t assuaged by the brilliance of these two players. But they do mean the future can still be very bright if the US develop quality depth pieces behind them.
As talented a defensive group as the US have put together in a long time, and that’s without John Brooks, of course.
Shaq Moore is 21 and playing at Levante, competing against some of the world’s best attacking talent in the world in La Liga.
Antonee Robinson is less cultured than Moore, but the 20-year-old Everton left back has made good on a loan to Bolton Wanderers this year and whenever Everton settle on a new manager long-term, Robinson should play a part in the Toffees future plans. The Championship isn’t La Liga, but the US have been lost in the wilderness at left back. A Championship level talent that is still developing is exciting.
Also exciting? The prospect of reuniting Erik Palmer-Brown, the best American player at the recent U20 World Cup, and Cameron Carter-Vickers, who has made good on a loan to Ipswich Town after Tottenham Hotspur held him a bit too long for comfort. The call-up is especially useful for the former, who as a Manchester City product needs to finalize a UK work permit and can use the call-up to help meet requirements, pre or post-Brexit.
The fact these four players are the first you mention before you get to the fact that Matt Miazga (still really good in Holland) and DeAndre Yedlin (still important at Newcastle) are here is a great sign that the US are building quality depth in the back well-ahead of the next World Cup cycle.
Finally, the fashionable thing to do is mention that PSG starlet Tim Weah is here, but the interesting battle is at goalkeeper, so let’s go there.
Let’s go there because if Tim Howard is crisper on two plays against Costa Rica, we’re probably writing about World Cup rosters right now.
Let’s go there because Brad Guzan deserved the whole cycle, especially after a monstrous performance against Panama at the 2015 Gold Cup and a promising Copa America, but Bruce Arena and Jurgen Klinsmann were loyal to their two-keeper system, even as Howard, an all-time great, was clearly not the same footballer.
And let’s go there because this used to be a position of strength for the United States, and with four-plus years before You’re Guess is as Good as Mine but probably Qatar because Who Cares About Human Rights 2022, the US could still make the goalkeeping position a strength again.
Bill Hamid left for Europe, finally, but has not won the job in Denmark at Midjylland, at least just yet.
Meanwhile, Zach Steffen has rated as one of the top three keepers in MLS, per OPTA, over the past year with the Columbus Crew, and he single-handedly kept Atlanta from advancing in last year’s postseason. And it would be foolish to ignore Alex Bono, the Toronto FC keeper who racked up confidence and respect last year after taking the job from veteran Clint Irwin.
To me, this is the most important and interesting battle in camp, and against a talented La Albirroja attack, it’s a quality shot-stopping test next week.
Comments? Thoughts?
It’s good to be back writing about soccer.
Neil W. Blackmon co-founded The Yanks Are Coming. For inquiries, contact him at neil@yanksarecoming.com. Follow him on Twitter @nwblackmon.