The U.S. men’s national team’s time to prepare for Qatar 2022 is short, with the current June window representing the bulk of the time Gregg Berhalter has available to evaluate how the pieces all fit together.
As with just about any team heading into a World Cup, there are plenty of questions for the USMNT that need to be answered, and the time crunch is real: this week’s friendlies against Morocco and Uruguay are followed by Nations League games against Grenada and El Salvador. There’s a mid-September FIFA window with two more friendlies that have yet to be scheduled … and that’s it.
Obviously that makes the next couple of weeks massively important, and getting clarity on some things now would go a long way towards setting the USMNT up to succeed in Group B. Here are four items that they need to see real progress on by the time this window ends:
Can someone stake a claim on the No. 9 spot?
On one hand, the USMNT qualified for the World Cup without really needing their strikers to score the goals. Wide forwards led the way with nine as a group, which is not particularly surprising given that this is Christian Pulisic’s role. What is surprising is that the center forward position generated only four goals, barely beating out the fullbacks (who combined to score three times).
Berhalter is certainly not judging his strikers purely on whether they scored or not, but even with the evolution of the position, the fact is that center forwards still see the most chances, and right now for the USMNT, no one has really locked the job down, whether as a big-time scorer or as someone who can reliably facilitate for Pulisic and others.
There was a moment where this job looked like Ricardo Pepi’s, but after turning a crucial early game against Honduras and following that up with a brace against Jamaica, his good form dried up completely. Pepi secured a big move to Augsburg, but that second goal against Jamaica on October 8, 2021 is his last goal in a competitive setting.
Pepi’s not in camp right now, nor are familiar faces like Gyasi Zardes or injured duo Jordan Pefok and Josh Sargent. That leaves Jesús Ferreira and Haji Wright with a golden chance to box out their competition as the USMNT’s top striker.
Ferreira is tied with Jeremy Ebobisse atop the MLS Golden Boot race with nine goals, so the FC Dallas man is obviously in excellent form. Ferreira’s an established presence within the USMNT, and his ability to play as a false 9 helps open up chances for the wide attackers and for late runners arriving from midfield, but he only ended up seeing 225 minutes in the entire qualifying cycle.
As such, Ferreira’s job is simple: show that his MLS form can carry over, and show a consistent, game-changing connection with Pulisic, Weston McKennie, and Tim Weah. If you’re the best player in the pool when it comes to playing off that trio, you’re probably starting.
For Wright, things are much different. He’s never been capped before, and his call-up is down to outlandishly good form at Antalyaspor, where he’s spent the season on loan from SönderjyskE.
But expecting Wright to maintain that kind of form with a group he hasn’t played with before is asking a lot. Wright very likely has to carry on his scintillating play to stay in the picture, as Pefok, Pepi, and Daryl Dike—all of whom have more familiarity with Berhalter’s methods—will probably come back into consideration in September.
Clarity among the goalkeepers
Speaking of unsettled situations, the USMNT’s goalkeeper pool remains murky. Zack Steffen isn’t in camp for family reasons, and once Matt Turner heads off to Arsenal this summer, the only player in the group with a secure starting gig will be Sean Johnson.
Turner is used to this kind of battle for time, but the fact is that his 2022 form in MLS has fallen short of his very best. A foot injury cost him time early in the season, and of goalkeepers to play 450-plus minutes in MLS this season, he rates just 19th out of 31 in American Soccer Analysis’ Goals Added metric right now. Nonetheless, Berhalter said he would start Wednesday night against Morocco.
Johnson has been in the frame forever, and is a leader on an NYCFC side that has posted six straight shutouts in MLS. However, he’s generally been Berhalter’s third choice for years now, and breaking that perception as a veteran is enormously difficult, particularly in a position where your success is so tied to how the entire team plays.
Ethan Horvath rounds out the group in camp, and while he’s had some spectacular USMNT moments, he’s also spent most of this year as a backup. Brice Samba is the starter at Nottingham Forest, leaving Horvath to appear in just 11 out of 55 games this season.
“A lot can change,” said Berhalter during Tuesday’s press conference ahead of the Morocco match. “We have Ethan going back into the Premier League, we have Zack in the Premier League, we have Matt in the Premier League, we have Sean Johnson having an excellent season, and it’s time to just let this play out.”
It feels, in other words, like the starting job is truly there for the taking. If most of the pool is spending the early fall backing up a Premier League starter, it stands to reason that these moments in USMNT camp are crucial for all parties.
Is this Joe Scally’s moment?
We’re in a world where there’s a 19-year-old USMNT prospect that spent most of this season as a starter in the Bundesliga, who remains uncapped. That’s Scally, who has been the subject of heated calls from fans for more call-ups, and in this window, he’s getting his opportunity.
“He’s looked good in training,” Berhalter said of the Borussia Mönchengladbach defender. “He’s not going to start (against Morocco), but I’m sure he’ll get some game time on this trip.”
However, Scally has a serious fight on his hands to truly stick, as he’s one of five fullbacks called into this camp. With Antonee Robinson seemingly locked in as the starting left back, and Sergiño Dest the likely right back in Qatar if healthy, Scally will be trying to unseat roster regulars George Bello, Reggie Cannon, and DeAndre Yedlin.
Scally’s ability to play plenty of roles is a huge plus heading into a tournament, but Dest can do the same, and Cannon has played both right and left back with the USMNT as well. It’s a positive, but it’s not necessarily a competitive advantage for Scally over anyone in this group save for Bello (who, in turn, has the edge of being a regular call-up).
In other words, if the fullback group is going to see some change before the USMNT heads off to Qatar, Scally’s going to have to simply leave Berhalter with no choice, and that means winning a plane ticket in training and in these four games.
How will Berhalter replace Miles Robinson?
Coming out of the Octagonal, center back seemed like a rock-solid position for the USMNT. Miles Robinson and Walker Zimmerman were third and fourth in terms of minutes played in qualifying, and did well enough that calls for a recall for John Brooks, or from folks pining for Aaron Long’s return from injury, were kept fairly muted.
That all changed on May 7, when a seemingly innocuous defensive play at midfield saw Robinson tear his Achilles playing for Atlanta United. Robinson and Zimmerman made sense as a partnership because they had strengths that paired well together, and to some extent it stands to reason that Berhalter will be looking at other center backs now in the context of finding someone who, like Robinson, can offer covering speed as well as comfort in possession.
Chris Richards generally seemed to be Berhalter’s next man up throughout qualifying, but the Bayern Munich man is still dealing with a thigh tendon injury suffered in April. Long is back, though, and will be joined by Celtic’s Cameron Carter-Vickers and Erik Palmer-Brown of Ligue 1 club Troyes.
Long and Zimmerman have played together before, and in fact Long’s skill set is not all that different from Robinson’s. Whether that impacts Carter-Vickers or Palmer-Brown’s hopes remains to be seen, as the door is open for possibly finding a new dynamic at the back.
For this quartet, that’s what this camp is about. Robinson’s injury has changed a previously stable situation, and it may well be that the best center back duo for this group is not as simple as just putting the two best individual players next to each other and calling it a day. After all, Brooks’ resume would seem to guarantee him a spot with the USMNT, but Berhalter saw stylistic problems as well as poor form and concluded that he couldn’t rely on the Bundesliga veteran.
Beyond hopefully seeing Richards return to full fitness this summer, Berhalter has options like Mark McKenzie, whom he name-checked in the press conference concerning this squad, or could even make a late turn back to Brooks. It’s the USMNT, after all, we all enjoy a bit of drama.
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