Gregg Berhalter, the head coach of the USMNT, has had a fair share of ridicule and praise. On one hand, fans question his call-ups, lineup choices and in-game substitutions. On the other hand, he has done well to qualify for the World Cup and win both the Gold Cup and Nations League.
Last week, Berhalter released the group of 27 players he’ll take for a group of matches in June. Two of them (June 1st and June 5th) will be friendly matches at home against Morocco and Uruguay, respectively. These, along with two CONCACAF Nations League matches (June 11th and June 15th) against Grenada and El Salvador respectively, will help the USMNT prepare for the World Cup. It’s an essential group of games that will give Berhalter insight into who is ready and who isn’t ready to make the trip to Qatar.
This roster is full of shoe-in choices for the World Cup but also some fringe players who could play their way in. Let’s take a look.
Goalkeepers
As with most international windows, Berhalter decided to go with three goalkeepers. However, there are no surprises here. Despite the concern about their playing situations, these are arguably the three best goalkeepers in the USMNT pool.
The question here: who will start? Do you reward Matt Turner for his work during World Cup Qualifying and start him all four games or at least the more difficult friendlies? Do you stick with Zack Steffen despite his lack of playing time? Do you give Ethan Horvath one or both of the Nations League games to rest the other two players? While there are plenty of possible outcomes, I predict that Turner will start all four games with Steffen maybe starting one of them to rest Turner. Despite his upcoming move to Arsenal, I still think Turner is the best option and he more than proved himself during qualifying. Also, at this point, I think Horvath is the certified third-choice goalkeeper behind the other two.
It’s important to note that Gabriel Slonina, who just committed to the U.S. over Poland, is not on this roster. I’m not too surprised at this not only because of his youth but also because of his recent dip in form. Now that this decision has been made, I think he should focus on himself and look for new ways to improve; he will get called up eventually.
Defenders
The injury to Miles Robinson has opened the floodgates for other center-backs to make their case to start in the World Cup. Walker Zimmerman, a pencil-in for one of the spots, gets the call-up to work with the others and to see with whom he pairs the best.
Aaron Long, Erik Palmer-Brown and Cameron Carter-Vickers are all in the running to pair with Zimmerman, especially with another option, Chris Richards, injured as well. All three of those options have some case to back them up. Long has been solid for the New York Red Bulls in MLS, dodging an injury scare early in the month. Palmer-Brown plays for French club Troyes in Ligue 1, starting their last nine games and helping them stay out of relegation. Carter-Vickers, playing for Celtic in Scotland, has featured 45 times and scored four times, helping them win the Scottish Premiership. Both he and Palmer-Brown’s seasons started as loans but they’ve both recently extended their contracts to stay longer.
There are four games, so realistically Berhalter can pair each of them with Zimmerman for a game. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if Zimmerman is rested at some point. In any case, there are plenty of combinations that can be made and Berhalter has the games to make them. One has to wonder, however, where John Brooks stands in all of this…
There aren’t many surprises among the full-backs. Segiño Dest is out with an injury so other players are getting reps–most notably the young Joe Scally, an NYCFC academy product now playing in Bundesliga with Borussia Mönchengladbach. At just 19 years old, he made 33 appearances across competitions this past season, netting one goal and two assists at both left-back and right-back. That versatility is an excellent quality, especially with the limited number of spots on the World Cup roster. Fans have been eager to see Scally be called up and his time has come. I hope to see him get at least one start.
Midfielders
There are two big surprises here; one that’s long-awaited and one that is completely new.
The first is Djordje Milhailovic, the 23-year-old midfielder playing for CF Montréal in MLS. He has had an excellent start to the season so far, with seven goals and three assists in 13 matches. While he has one goal in six appearances for the USMNT, it has been a while since he was last called up (December 2020). I’m glad that Berhalter is seeing Milhailovic’s hard work and rewarding him with a call-up. If all goes well, he could parlay a good international window and MLS season into a European move or even a World Cup roster spot. For now, however, I’m eager to see him start at least one or two of these four games.
The other big surprise is Malik Tillman. I’ll be honest, I had no idea who he was when I first saw the roster list. However, Berhalter, who is known for his recruitment of dual-nationals, found this young German-American and decided to give him a chance. Tillman has featured for both the German U-17 and U-21 teams, so he has experience with them. Despite this, he is supposedly looking to make a one-time switch to represent the U.S. In any case, Tillman plays for Bayern Munich in Germany where he made seven first-team appearances this past season. When he’s not playing for the first team, he’s playing for the reserve team. There, in the fourth-tier of German soccer, he had four goals and four assists in 15 appearances. I would be surprised if the 19-year-old started any of the four games but I hope he gets plenty of time as a substitute.
Forwards
Out of the seven players listed in this category, only two of them are traditional central forwards: Jesus Ferreira and Haji Wright. For a team with a problem up front, I’m surprised Berhalter hasn’t called up other forwards to take a crack at the spot. However, with Josh Sargent and Ricardo Pepi both struggling at their respective clubs and Daryl Dike still injured, I’m not surprised either. Berhalter seems to be putting all his eggs in Ferreira’s basket and seems to wholly trust him. A good set of games for him could cement his place on the World Cup roster, especially with his hot start to the MLS season with a league-leading nine goals in just 13 games.
Even though guys like Christian Pulsic and Tim Weah can play in that forward role, both of them are more natural wingers. In fact, everyone but Ferreira and Wright plays as a winger. The USMNT has a lot of depth at that position, so this might be a chance to test them and see who is best ready for the World Cup.
Going back to Wright, I am surprised to see him here. While he has featured for the U.S. youth teams, he has yet to feature for the senior team–with this being his first call-up. Wright currently plays for Turkish club Antalyaspor in the Süper Lig on loan from Danish club SønderjyskE. He had 15 goals and two assists across all competitions this past season, including a span in which he scored in six straight matches. While it’s hard to say where he’ll end up come World Cup, he could parlay some good stretch of games and goals into a roster spot. That just goes to show how open the race for the #9 spot is for the USMNT.
Predictions/Conclusions
This is definitely an interesting group of players, with both veterans and newbies alike. The priority of this window should be prepping players for the World Cup, building coherency and giving opportunities to players to play and possibly build their stock. With that and the schedule of games in mind, let’s try to predict some starting lineups.
Game 1: U.S. vs Morocco
I think Berhalter is going to come out strong against a team like Morocco, who have also found themselves in this year’s World Cup. They are ranked 24th in the world by FIFA and have a good set of players–including PSG’s Achraf Hakimi. Nothing really shocking/crazy different here, except I purposely left out Weston McKennie as he just returned from injury. Weah gets the start with some good form from Ligue 1 and I can imagine anyone else in for Long as I’m sure they will be rotated. Lastly, I wouldn’t be surprised if DeAndre Yedlin started over Reggie Cannon but I’m saving him for the next game.
Game 2: U.S. vs Uruguay
With only four days between these games, I think there will be some rotation in the squad. I put Yedlin and Paul Arriola for some more experience against the better team and I put Brenden Aaronson in because I think Berhalter will see how he fares against a tougher team. I took Tyler Adams out because of his injury history and put Luca de la Torre to get a good test–although I could see Kellyn Acosta starting again.
Game 3: U.S. vs Grenada
Grenada are ranked 170 in the FIFA rankings so that should tell you all you need to know. Considering that this game is at home, I expect Berhalter to go with a fully-rotated lineup–even though this game takes place almost a week after the Uruguay game. I think this is the perfect opportunity to play some of the fringe players, which is why I have Wright up top, Scally at left-back and Milhailovic and Tillman in the midfield. Zimmerman gets to rest so he can play away against El Salvador and, even though I have Cristian Roldan in, I can see McKennie getting the start as he eases into playing action.
Game 4: U.S. vs El Salvador
Playing on the road in CONCACAF, no matter the competition or occasion, is always tough. Case in point, the USMNT only won one of their seven away games in this past World Cup Qualifying cycle. With that in mind, I altered the lineup, opting to go with some experience. Palmer-Brown gets the opportunity to test his chemistry with Zimmerman, Weah gets the opportunity to see how he does as a #9 and I chose this game to have Yunus Musah, McKennie and Adams all in the midfield as I think the three of them need to start at least one game all together. Other than that, I can see Robinson starting instead of Scally.
Regardless of who Berhalter decides to go with for these games, I think this will be an exciting window. It will give the U.S. some decent competition to test themselves while also opening the door for some players to make a big impression. Additionally, there will only be one other FIFA international window after this one before the World Cup. In September, the U.S. will have time for just two more friendlies before they head to Qatar. That makes this window that much more important not just for Berhalter but for all the players who have been called up.
The USMNT know they are going to Qatar and who they will be coming up against when the time comes. It’s time to start putting in the work and making things happen.
Four Score Soccer 