The full list is at the bottom, but suffice it to say that the U.S. interim coach Dave Sarachan has gone really young for these games. Like, average age of 22 years young. I'm not sure that in my recollection there has ever been a roster announced that is this young and inexperienced at the international level. In fact, the players with the most caps (20 each) are Pulisic and Joe Corona.
Here are a couple of thoughts from the announcement:
1. This Announcement isn't Completely Meaningless
Just mostly meaningless. I mean, the next "competitive" game that the U.S. will play is the opening game of the 2019 Gold Cup, which is over 12 months away. So we don't exactly have a ton of reason to play these matches other than unearthing some talent and discovering exactly what a few of our new players are capable of. On that note...
2. Coach Sarachan has 100% Made the Right Call
The only way this roster will be meaningful is to identify new talent. The roster includes a lot of players that are just breaking into the professional game - players like Tim Weah from PSG's academy, Cameron Carter-Vickers from Tottenham's, Matthew Olosunde from Manchester United's, and Josh Sargent from Werder Bremen's.
These are not players that have seen substantial professional minutes for their clubs. A few have made the odd appearance off the bench, or from the start in rotated squads. But for the most part they are what they are - academy players. And while we are all going to get excited about them after these games, and a few will probably have hype trains a month from now with people declaring them the new American Messi, the odds are pretty good that a few of these players will just not work out, fall down the divisions, and not go on to have a long and meaningful US career.
And that's alright. These friendlies are one of the steps on the way to determining which players are going to work out, and which aren't.
3. The Lack of Experience is Not Just Ok, It's a Good Move
One of the reasons this roster is so exciting is because there were almost no "experienced heads" called in. Usually, even when experimenting with new players, the coach will call in a few regulars with the idea that they will show them the ropes, and pass on their experience to the next generation of youngsters.
Here, there are none. And here is why that is good:
First, it's questionable what kind of "experience" will get passed down. While there are probably things that the older players could teach the youngsters (like how to deal with bags of pee being thrown at them in certain central american stadiums), there are a lot of things that I would honestly be concerned about what the young players could pick up. For example, the older "experienced heads" effectively downed tools this world cup cycle away in Costa Rica. And they showed a complete lack of preparation and effort in the last game in Trinidad & Tobago. This new group of players does not need to pick up any bad habits from those particular experiences.
Second, those "experienced heads" have needed a wake up call for a long time. For a long time, certain names have been written in stone in the roster and the team sheet. It didn't matter how certain players were performing, where they were playing, or how they were played in their last match. They were not left off the roster for any reason, and some were not even benched.
Hopefully this new roster is another indicator to those players that going forward, if players are not challenging themselves and trying to improve their game, they won't be picked. Hopefully those players get the message that the failure to qualify will have real consequences to their own personal careers - and if they want to get more caps for their country, they are going to have to show why they deserve it.
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