Back in 2014 — the last time the U.S. men’s national team appeared in the World Cup — then-head coach Jurgen Klinsmann made the stunning decision to leave longtime USMNT star Landon Donovan off his roster. Fast forward eight years, and head coach Gregg Berhalter didn’t need to worry about leaving a U.S. soccer legend off his team this time around.
In an announcement show on ESPN2, Berhalter discussed some of the tougher roster decisions as several mainstays in qualifying were left off the squad entirely. On top of that, a couple players who were thought to be out of the Berhalter’s vision were given the coveted World Cup call-up.
Let’s break down a few of those snubs and surprises.
While the most stunning news comes in goal, Berhalter left at least one strong candidate out in every position group. The USMNT boss had to deliver bad news to center backs, wingers, strikers, fullbacks, and attacking midfielders.
Some choices came down to injuries, while others may relate to tactical preferences. In at least one case, Berhalter openly stated that the choice boiled down to form.
Here are the six most notable snubs in the squad heading to Qatar.
With an average age of 25 years, 175 days, it’s the second-youngest USMNT World Cup squad ever
U.S. men’s national team head coach Gregg Berhalter has named a 26-man roster for the 2022 World Cup and as expected, it is heavy on young players.
The squad heading to Qatar is led by some of the team’s biggest Europe-based young stars like Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna, Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah, Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson.
With an average age of 25 years, 175 days, this is the second-youngest USMNT World Cup squad ever, only behind the college-laden 1990 squad.
The inclusion of Reyna, Musah and Joe Scally, all 19, means it is the first time a USMNT World Cup roster has more than one teenager.
Steffen among notable absences
One of the biggest headlines with the roster will be the exclusion of Zack Steffen, who looked set to battle with Matt Turner for the starting goalkeeper role but instead will miss the World Cup completely.
Amid a standout season with Fulham, 35-year-old defender Tim Ream got a call-up despite last featuring for the USMNT back in September 2021. Reggie Cannon, James Sands and Mark McKenzie were among the defenders to miss out.
Defensive duo Sam Vines and Chris Richards had already confirmed they would miss out due to injuries.
Sergiño Dest and Luca de la Torre, who have battled injuries of late, made the cut as Berhalter has until 24 hours before the opening match against Wales to replace injured players.
Forward Haji Wright is a notable inclusion, with Ricardo Pepi missing out. Wright told Pro Soccer Wire this weekend that he was unsure of his USMNT status despite his red-hot form with Antalyaspor.
“We are excited to take this group to compete in the 2022 FIFA World Cup,” Berhalter said. “Final roster decisions are always difficult, and we appreciate everyone’s contributions who helped us get to this point. We believe we have a talented group, a strong team spirit, and one that is ready to compete. We are extremely proud and honored to represent the United States and appreciate all the amazing support from our fans as we head to Qatar.”
USMNT World Cup roster (Club; caps/goals; hometown)
GOALKEEPERS (3): Ethan Horvath (Luton Town/ENG; 8/0; Highlands Ranch, Colo.), Sean Johnson (New York City FC; 10/0; Lilburn, Ga.), Matt Turner (Arsenal/ENG; 20/0; Park Ridge, N.J.)
DEFENDERS (9): Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic/SCO; 11/0; Southend-on-Sea, England), Sergiño Dest (AC Milan/ITA; 19/2; Almere, Netherlands), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls; 29/3; Oak Hills, Calif.), Shaq Moore (Nashville SC; 15/1; Powder Springs, Ga.), Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG; 46/1; St. Louis, Mo.), Antonee Robinson (Fulham/ENG; 29/2; Liverpool, England), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach/GER; 3/0; Lake Grove, N.Y.), DeAndre Yedlin (Inter Miami CF; 75/0; Seattle, Wash.), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC; 33/3; Lawrenceville, Ga.)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United/ENG; 24/6; Medford, N.J.), Kellyn Acosta (LAFC; 53/2; Plano, Texas), Tyler Adams (Leeds United/ENG; 32/1; Wappingers Falls, N.Y.), Luca de la Torre (Celta Vigo/ESP; 12/0; San Diego, Calif.), Weston McKennie (Juventus/ITA; 37/9; Little Elm, Texas), Yunus Musah (Valencia/ESP; 19/0; London, England), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders FC; 32/0; Pico Rivera, Calif.)
FORWARDS (7): Jesús Ferreira (FC Dallas; 15/7; McKinney, Texas), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders; 49/11; Mercer Island, Wash.), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea/ENG; 52/21; Hershey, Pa.), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund/GER; 14/4; Bedford, N.Y.), Josh Sargent (Norwich City/ENG; 20/5; O’Fallon, Mo.), Tim Weah (Lille/FRA; 25/3; Rosedale, N.Y.), Haji Wright (Antalyaspor/TUR; 3/1; Los Angeles, Calif.)
“I’d like to say few things but I’ll refrain from that. You guys will eventually find out”
Matt Miazga has said that some differences of opinion with U.S. national team head coach Gregg Berhalter may have prevented him from being considered for the World Cup squad.
Miazga moved to FC Cincinnati in August, ending a six-year spell at Chelsea that saw him make just two appearances for the Blues while taking in several loans at clubs across Europe.
The 27-year-old has slotted in seamlessly in Cincinnati, starting every game for the club after making his debut in mid-August and helping the team reach the Eastern Conference semifinal.
But Miazga’s strong form in MLS hasn’t seen him return to the USMNT picture.
Miazga has been capped 22 times by the USMNT, but his most recent appearance came in June 2021. Though the U.S. has a host of issues at center back, it doesn’t appear that Miazga is in contention for a World Cup roster spot. Any hope he may have had was likely ended when he wasn’t called in for the team’s pre-World Cup fitness camp.
Speaking to reporters this week, Miazga was asked about Berhalter name-checking him last month as a player who nearly made his roster for friendlies against Japan and Saudi Arabia.
In response, Miazga aired out his belief that some fundamental issues with Berhalter could be part of the reason he’s been out of the USMNT picture recently.
“We didn’t see eye to eye on a few things in the past and that has affected me from being called up. But it is what it is,” Miazga said.
“I’d like to say few things but I’ll refrain from that. You guys will eventually find out.
“I’m always ready to play for the national team. But I don’t make the decisions. There’s one guy that makes the decisions and that’s how it goes.”
Miazga was asked if he and Berhalter had patched things up, to which he responded: “Me and Gregg have been texting throughout the last four years. He’s been in touch with me recently and I’m sure he watches my games. Football works mysteriously, it moves quick. Me moving out of the national team moved quickly, me coming back in could move quickly as well.”
We’ll know the 26-player U.S. men’s national team roster for the 2022 World Cup in less than a month.
U.S. Soccer announced Thursday that they will announce the full squad heading to Qatar on Wednesday, November 9, at Brooklyn Steel in New York City.
ESPN2 and ESPN+ will broadcast the event, with coverage beginning at 5:00pm Eastern. Gregg Berhalter and some players from the squad will be present in person.
In World Cups past, the run-up would mean a roster reveal coming out as far as a month before the tournament. However, with Qatar holding the World Cup in November and December, in the thick of the European club season, the announcement will come just 12 days before the USMNT opens its schedule against Wales on November 21. Many players will likely have one more round of club matches the following weekend before joining up with the USMNT and heading to a pre-tournament training camp in Qatar.
Expect Berhalter to stay young
USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter is expected to call up one of the youngest squads going to the World Cup. Per data from U.S. Soccer, the average age of the USMNT in their 14 qualifying matches was 23.82, making them by some distance the most youthful group to qualify for the tournament.
Berhalter will have some tough calls to make over the next few weeks. A dispiriting pair of friendlies against Japan and Saudi Arabia saw few players improve their stock, and while important players like Christian Pulisic and Ricardo Pepi have since gotten into better form with their clubs, fans are justifiably nervous with the group’s struggles in their last pair of rehearsals.
It feels as though there are few roster mysteries, provided that some key players stay healthy. Recent call-ups like Johnny Cardoso and Sam Vines appear to be on the outside looking in, while striker Brandon Vazquez has said that Berhalter told him it was too late to integrate him.
With Berhalter seemingly not particularly moved by Jordan Pefok’s excellent start with Union Berlin, the strike force question also seems close to settled. Center back should see the most heated competition, though that stems in part from injuries and poor showings in September for several candidates.
The ship has sailed for Vazquez’s hopes of making the USMNT World Cup squad
Brandon Vazquez said Gregg Berhalter has informed him that his 2022 World Cup roster hopes are over.
Vazquez has put himself on the U.S. national team radar with a stellar 2022 season with FC Cincinnati, scoring 18 goals and adding eight assists to lead his side to the playoffs.
It’s that lack of experience with the USMNT that has proven costly in Berhalter’s eyes, which Vazquez said the U.S. coach relayed to him last month.
“I talked to Gregg right before that [September] camp,” Vazquez told MLS Today, “and he was basically saying that it was a little too late to integrate me and that he feels I made it really hard for him and that I just need to keep proving myself and that I’ll [have] that opportunity in the next cycle. Pretty much was that.”
The ship appeared to have sailed for Vazquez when Berhalter omitted him from that September roster. The USMNT boss said at the time that Ricardo Pepi, Josh Sargent and Jesús Ferreira were preferred in part because they all had USMNT experience.
“For us, it’s comparing him to what we have, comparing him to other guys and then the body of work both with his club and with us,” Berhalter said last month. “And with us, it’s very difficult for him: He doesn’t have a body of work.”
Too many USMNT arrows are pointing down rather than up
The U.S. men’s national team came into September’s international window hoping to find clarity and belief, but after two dispiriting performances, they certainly didn’t get the answers they wanted.
If anything, more players saw their stock drop, and in many cases there’s no recourse beyond hoping they go back to their clubs and tear it up. Gregg Berhalter has plenty to chew on over the next several weeks, but he was probably hoping to have more “good problems” than what he’s looking at right now.
Who hurt their chances of playing a major role at the World Cup? And who seems more important today than they did a few weeks ago? Let’s check the markets and see where the individuals are trending.
Stock down: Aaron Long
We have to start with the fact that the USMNT, against two very different systems, struggled with progressing the ball from their back line into the midfield. There were multiple causes for that problem, but the one that stood out more than the rest was that the center backs were both inaccurate with their passes, and very predictable with their intentions.
Walker Zimmerman wasn’t at his best, but for Long, the possession side of things was a major source of concern. Injuries to Chris Richards and Cameron Carter-Vickers didn’t help, and Berhalter ended up subbing Long off in both games to get a look at Mark McKenzie.
The fact that Long started both games seems to indicate that Berhalter holds him in esteem, but it’s not like he lacks for competition. With Richards vying for time in the Bundesliga and all of McKenzie, Carter-Vickers, and Palmer-Brown all getting regular minutes at European clubs, Long’s form with the New York Red Bulls will need to be much sharper than what we saw in this window to ensure his place on the plane to Qatar.
Stock up: Matt Turner
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about whether Berhalter simply prefers Steffen to the extent that the starting goalkeeper job is a settled issue. That seems unlikely, but either way, Turner was the best USMNT player in this window, and there’s not much more someone can do than that.
The worry for Turner coming into this camp was that he’d played just one competitive match since moving to Arsenal this summer. Those fears of lost sharpness or confidence ended up being unfounded, as Turner was precise, fundamentally sharp, and kept Japan from walking away with a bigger margin of victory. He had less to do in the second friendly, but still responded well when called upon.
Based on recent play with the USMNT, it’s Turner that should have the edge to start against Wales on November 21. If Steffen is going to win that job, he’s going to have to impress with Middlesbrough in very short order.
(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Stock down: Gio Reyna
Reyna’s place in the USMNT squad isn’t in question, and when healthy, he’s obviously one of the best players in the entire pool. Berhalter is frankly lucky to have Reyna and Tim Weah possibly vying for one spot (we hear you, play-Weah-centrally advocates, but it really doesn’t seem like Berhalter is interested).
But despite some initial success with Borussia Dortmund’s cautious approach to his season, Reyna was once again having to come out of the game due to what Berhalter said post-game was some muscle tightness.
Dortmund boss Edin Terzić has since announced that Reyna’s recovery time is less than two weeks, which is the good news. The bad news is that on a team with several other key players who aren’t exactly the most durable, it’s now worth wondering whether the USMNT can lean on Reyna as a starter in a World Cup match. At the very least, they need to enter each game with a very specific plan on how they’ll adapt if he pulls up.
Stock up: Joe Scally
It’s not that Scally was a revelation against Saudi Arabia. Rather, the fact that he managed to get high and wide in the attack on a regular basis meant that he had to be accounted for, which had a positive ripple effect for the USMNT going forward.
The USMNT doesn’t function well without a fullback taking care of this task, and with Antonee Robinson missing out due to injury, no other fullback in camp was able to reliably get to the right places at the right time. Berhalter gave this responsibility to Sam Vines against Japan, and then to DeAndre Yedlin on the other side against Saudi Arabia, before Scally’s movement allowed for some more familiar patterns of play to take hold.
It wasn’t a good camp for the USMNT fullback pool in general, so Scally — who has had something of a difficult time getting call-ups, despite being a reliable starter at Borussia Mönchengladbach — is benefitting from simply not doing too badly while others disappointed. But then, that’s kind of the story of this entire international window, and being a player who didn’t run into some kind of problem means Scally’s odds of being on the final 26-man roster should be better today than they were two weeks ago.
Stock down: Ricardo Pepi
Progress isn’t linear, and anyone hoping that Pepi finally breaking his long goal drought meant that he’d come roaring into this USMNT camp was disappointed by how he struggled to really get enough touches to be a factor against Saudi Arabia.
(AP Photo/Jose Breton)
Some of that was simply the entire team struggling to break into the attacking third with consistency, and there’s only so much Pepi can do to fix that. He’s not a channel-running No. 9, and he’s not going to drop off the front line as a false nine either. If the team can’t get out of their own end, he’s not going to be involved.
But the real reason Pepi’s stock fell a bit is that Jesús Ferreira came in, and the USMNT attack instantly started finding angles it hadn’t been seeing earlier. Ferreira has taken some flack for jumping too early for a header against Japan, and he didn’t bury any looks against Saudi Arabia, but the entire attack was more lively once he came on. Not to get too into the weeds on modern soccer thinking, but an attack that is creating chances is believed to be better for winning games than a team that can’t get out of second gear going forward.
With Ferreira seeming to be the best fit for the players around him, Jordan Pefok being the hot hand as a finisher, and both Pepi and Josh Sargent skewing towards being best as pressing forwards, it feels like Berhalter has to sort through some tough questions. There’s a really good case to be made for there only being one spot for Pepi and Sargent, given that they’re the two most similar players in this group.
For Pepi, the best cure would be to light it up over the next few weeks at Groningen. If his profile becomes pressing/target man who is also scoring regularly, the questions here are not nearly as pointed. It’s just that, like we said, progress isn’t linear, and one goal in nearly a year could be a blip rather than the start of things to come.
The September window wasn’t a lot of fun for the U.S. men’s national team, but just as the players return to their clubs, Gregg Berhalter got some good news.
One day after Antonee Robinson’s absence stood out as one of numerous issues in the USMNT’s tepid 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia, the Fulham left back delivered a much-needed update on his status.
“Nice to be back out on the pitch,” Robinson tweeted, along with photos of himself going through a workout at Fulham’s Motspur Park training ground.
Robinson last played on September 3, but lasted just 29 minutes in Fulham’s 2-1 loss to Tottenham before departing with an ankle injury. Earlier this month, Fulham manager Marco Silva said Robinson would be back “soon,” and it appears that the international break has done the 25-year-old some good.
Robinson’s health appears to be a significant concern for the USMNT. He’s not just clearly Gregg Berhalter’s first-choice left back, but within the team’s system, his ability to get forward effectively and without any signs of fatigue is a major factor in possession and in breaking into the final third.
Without Robinson in this window, the USMNT labored going forward, and Berhalter ended up looking at moving Sergiño Dest over from right back against Saudi Arabia rather than giving more time to Sam Vines.
Fulham has eight matches for Robinson to work through before the Premier League begins its World Cup break, and USMNT fans will probably be monitoring every single one of them.
Tuchel appeared to have reduced Pulisic’s role within the Chelsea squad. The USMNT captain had started just one game in the 2022-23 season, and had spent some time making late-game cameos as a makeshift wingback rather than in a more natural, attacking position. While Tuchel did get Pulisic into every Chelsea match, he played just 177 minutes spread across eight appearances before the coaching change.
“I’m feeling good going back, honestly,” said Pulisic. “I have a fresh start now, and I’m excited to play for the new manager. So, really just looking forward to it, and now I just have to prove myself, as everyone does, and as I’ve done before.”
No big issue with USMNT substitution
Pulisic didn’t give the impression of being particularly happy when he was subbed off after 75 minutes against Saudi Arabia. That appearance — coming days after a training-ground knock kept him out of the USMNT’s loss to Japan — was Pulisic’s longest stint in a competitive game since June 15, when he played the full 90 for the USMNT in their 1-1 Nations League draw with El Salvador.
However, according to the Pennsylvania native, there’s no issue between him and Gregg Berhalter.
“No,” said Pulisic when asked directly if he had a problem with being pulled out of the match. “I always want to be in the game. I was just trying to get off the field, trying to score goals, and trying to win the game. But it’s good to get some minutes in, and I feel healthy.”
The USMNT and Saudi Arabia sure did play a game of soccer
The U.S. men’s national team fanbase was hoping Tuesday’s friendly against Saudi Arabia would wash the taste of a dispiriting defeat to Japan out of their collective mouths.
We have three key takeaways to get into, but as you can probably guess if you watched the game or simply read the three paragraphs preceding this one, none of them is good news.
Opponents to USMNT center backs: Here, have the ball
Saudi Arabia plays a markedly different game from Japan: they attack in a 4-3-3 formation that becomes a 4-1-4-1 out of possession, maintaining a high defensive line without a corresponding high line of contention up front.
The object here is simple: let the other side’s defenders have the ball, stay compact from back to front, and leave teams few options other than to play perfect diagonal switches or balls into the space in behind. The10 Saudi field players, from the deepest defender to the highest attacker, were often only 30 or so yards apart, leaving no space to pass into the midfield and build that way.
Interestingly, this much different approach still left USMNT center backs Walker Zimmerman and Aaron Long (and eventually, in this game, Mark McKenzie) with the same problem they faced against Japan. They were on the ball, with an opponent who took all their simpler options off the table. The challenge, in both cases, was that the center backs had to play passes that solved a problem rather than simply finding a midfielder or fullback to do that.
While the turnovers weren’t as costly — Saudi Arabia has less athleticism than Japan, and were less forcing turnovers with tackles than they were intercepting errant passes at midfield — they were still a pretty regular factor in this game, and while the USMNT piled up possession, they were often completely muted when they tried to do anything with it.
Berhalter’s side has figured this problem out before. It’s not like teams in CONCACAF have never heard of “let the center backs have all of their possession” as a tactic before. Yes, Japan and Saudi Arabia would have also qualified out of the Octagonal, but there’s an issue with execution right now on the USMNT side.
For one, Zimmerman and (especially) Long seemed to struggle on some very straightforward passes that they have both probably completed literally thousands of times in professional games. Secondly, the USMNT seemed unable to shift the angles to open Saudi Arabia up, which means the problem extends to what movements are being offered by the other eight field players.
No Musah no party
Yunus Musah was in the stadium for this one, watching from the stands after making the trip down the Mediterranean coast to Murcia. Unfortunately for the USMNT, his stock ended up rising despite him being in street clothes, because for the second straight game, it became clear that the “MMA” midfield doesn’t function anywhere near its best without him.
Kellyn Acosta has had some fine moments with the USMNT, and his set piece taking ability actually makes him a pretty valuable member of the squad going into a tournament where prep time is low (side note: the USMNT wasn’t particularly threatening on dead balls in this window, but they probably didn’t want to show any of their designed plays off yet either).
However, he’s more suited for a game where the USMNT is going to be on the defensive, needing that extra ball-winning and positional sense more than other, more flashy traits. In a midfield with Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie, against a mid-block opponent who was always going to be a puzzle to solve, he was redundant.
Photo by JOSE JORDAN/AFP via Getty Images
The MMA midfield isn’t even a perfectly ideal balance of roles, as there’s no true playmaker and no true expert in terms of occupying spaces without the ball. Adams and McKennie make up for this latter issue with ferocious effort, but even when Musah — who thrives as a facilitator and ball-progressing midfielder rather than as a true No. 10 — is in, it’s a case of hoping the three can emphasize what their games do have to such an extent that what they lack isn’t a big deal.
When you take Musah out of the mix, that scenario doesn’t play out. The USMNT were sluggish in terms of their tempo, and so much of their time in possession saw Saudi Arabia keep their collective shape, herding possession back to the center backs or even to Turner. The USMNT wasn’t suited to play without their best player in terms of shifting an opposition shape in the middle third. Most teams will miss that player, but it feels like the U.S. learned today just how severe that absence is for them.
Berhalter more or less acknowledged this with his final pair of subs, with Brenden Aaronson coming into Acosta’s spot. Nothing much came of this spell, with the best USMNT chance largely coming down to the FC Dallas connection between Jesús Ferreira and Paul Arriola, but the moves alluded to what was missing in this one.
Right now, it’d be very smart for the USMNT to seriously look at making sure Aaronson has the reps to step in for Musah (or for that matter McKennie, as neither player has a spotless injury record). It could be that Musah, Adams, and McKennie are good to go for 270 minutes in eight days in a desert climate where temperatures are famously very hot, but you don’t want to walk into Group B with all your eggs in that particular basket.
Struggle for fullback balance
Musah wasn’t the only normal starter whose absence was keenly felt. Antonee Robinson may be back very soon for Fulham, but without their normal left back, the USMNT seemed to struggle with the balance between its two fullbacks.
Without Robinson, and after Sam Vines struggled to really make the same kind of impact that Robinson does against Japan, Berhalter moved that responsibility over to right back. Sergiño Dest, normally seen as an attack-first fullback, was asked to not push so high, and to dip inside to help change the angles in possession. DeAndre Yedlin had the job of providing that serious width on the other side.
The problem here is that the USMNT’s best attacking right back is, you know, Dest. He’d have thrived on the right with that kind of assignment, and ended up being the more dangerous attacking fullback despite having to pick and choose when he got forward.
Yedlin wasn’t poor, but he wasn’t influential either, and the USMNT system needs the player with this responsibility to be a constant factor. Particularly against a team playing a mid-block like this, this fullback role is a major factor in pulling the opposition out of their shape, and Saudi Arabia’s comfort without the ball starts with there being no true danger from Yedlin being higher up the field. The timing of his runs made him easy to defend, and he wasn’t getting much help from Acosta to open that space up either.
As with the midfield quandary, Berhalter addressed this with a sub. Joe Scally came in not long after Yedlin was caught by a bad tackle from Saud Abdulhamid that deserved a harsher punishment than the yellow card it got, and was pretty quickly more of a factor in the attacking third than Yedlin had been.
Perhaps that’s the benefit of the USMNT coaching staff having an hour-plus to analyze the game and tell Scally exactly what to look for, or perhaps it’s just a fresh player coming in against a tiring opponent.
Either way, the situation underlined how much the USMNT’s hopes hinge on unbalancing teams by using their fullbacks. It’s not good news that Robinson’s health is right up there with Musah’s, and Pulisic’s, and Reyna’s, but that’s where the USMNT is at right now.
We know they can hit a high enough level to be a serious threat to advance when everyone’s healthy, but is everyone going to be healthy in November? There are now 55 days for Berhalter to figure out how to make sure the answer to that question is positive.
