It's busy international season for the US National Teams. The U20 World Cup group stages have ended and the boys are BUZZING! The U20's went 3-0-0 in group play and didn't concede a goal. The standout players in group play have been goal keeping phenom Gaga Slonina, midfielder Diego Luna, center back Brendan Craig, and forward Cade Cowell. Rokas Pukstas and Kevin Paredes are set to join the squad for the knockout rounds to add to an already stellar group.
The U-20 World Cup being such a big event with so many eyes you have to wonder if some of these players land transfers, especially if their good run of play continues. Could Brendan Craig find a similar transfer as Paxten Aaronson, who also wasn't playing a ton at Philadelphia then made the jump to the Bundesliga and found minutes right away. Could Luna or Cowell find their way to Europe? A couple of interesting one's are Slonina and Jonathan Gomez, both who have already moved to Europe but will be looking for a loan move to get more playing time. Slonina could find himself spending next season as Chelsea's backup keeper, playing FA Cup games.
It's been rumored recently that Anthony Hudson may not take the same roster to both the Nations League and Gold Cup this summer. I believe there is merit to that. Guy like Jedi Robinson, Joe Scally, Weston McKennie and Flo Balogun have logged a ton of minutes this season and will likely welcome the rest after Nations League. So I decided to draw up separate rosters with some conditions:
1. We need to actively try and win both tournaments. The US are defending champs at both tournaments, and the roster we took to the Continental Clasico may get bounced in the group stages of the Gold Cup.
2. I find both tournaments to be of equal importance. I think you mostly take the guys who logged a ton of European minutes to Nations League and bring some players you want to get a closer look at to the Gold Cup. The Gold Cup has six games to two and you can assume some of the games are going to be against lesser competition than Mexico and Canada/Panama.
3. Dest, Pulisic, and Reyna didn't log many minutes between the three of them post World Cup. There's a good chance they're all going to be looking for new clubs and will welcome the calm and stability of the US National Team. So they're candidates for both.
4. I'm assuming players with injuries (Ream, CCV, Adams, Tillman) won't be available for either competition this summer. Any of the four would be welcome, but I would only bring them to Nations League.
With all of that said, here's my initial Nations League roster (starters in bold):
GK: Ethan Horvath (Luton Town); Matt Turner (Arsenal), Zak Steffen (Boro)
RB: Joe Scally (Gladbach), Sergio Dest (AC Milan)
RCB: Mark McKenzie (Genk) Walker Zimmerman (Nashville)
LCB: Auston Trusty (Birmingham City) Chris Richards (Crystal Palace)
LB: Jedi Robinson (Fulham) Sam Vines (Royal Antwerp)
CM: Yunus Musah (Valencia) Johnny Cardoso (Internacional)
CM: Weston McKennie (Leeds United) Kellyn Acosta (LAFC)
AM: Gio Reyna (Dortmund) Luca de la Torre (Celta de Vigo)
S: Folarin Balogun (Reims) Ricardo Pepi (Groningen)
RF: Timothy Weah (Lille) Brendan Aaronson (Leeds United)
LF: Christian Pulisic (Chelsea) Alex Zendejas (Club America)
That is a stacked squad, and we're missing three extremely valuable starters in Ream, Adams, and CCV. I went with Horvath as the guy who was the starter for a club that just won promotion to the Premier League, Scally as a guy who has played consistently in the Bundesliga, McKenzie who is in a great run of form, and Auston Trusty who was named Birmingham City's player of the year.
I went with the double pivot in the midfield because I don't think anyone can replace Tyler Adams in our National Team pool right now. That allows you to move Gio Reyna to the 10 and an attacking front of Reyna, Pulisic, Weah and Balogun. My goodness that is a group that should score goals.
Quickly looking forward to the Gold Cup I'm immediately leaving Weah, Jedi, Scally, McKennie, Balogun, Pepi, Trusty, McKenzie, and Horvath off as guys who logged a lot of European minutes this season. All of these guys need some rest and relaxation before the fall European season kicks off. So let's get going into the Gold Cup squad. I'm not naming starters here because you could mix and match through the group stages as necessary.
GK: Matt Turner (Arsenal) Gaga Slonina (Chelsea) Chris Brady (Chicago Fire)
RB: Reggie Cannon (Boavista) Sergino Dest (AC Milan)
RCB: Miles Robinson (Atlanta United) Erik Palmer-Brown (Troyyes)
LCB: John Brooks (Hoffenhiem) Chris Richards (Crystal Palace)
LB: DeJuan Jones (New England Revs) Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg)
CM: Johnny Cardoso (Internacional) Alan Sonora (Juarez)
AM: Yunus Musah (Valencia) Djordje Mihailovic (AZ Alkmaar)
AM: Paxten Aaronson (Eintracht Frankfurt) Timothy Tillman (LAFC)
S: Josh Sargent (Norwich City), Jesus Ferreira (FC Dallas)
RF: Gio Reyna (Dortmund) Brendan Aaronson (Leeds United)
LF: Christian Pulisic (Chelsea) Taylor Booth (Utrecht)
Here are a list of players (beyond those I've listed already) that I would prefer to see at center back to Aaron Long: Jaylen Neal, Joshua Wynder, Brendan Craig, Matt Miazga, George Campbell, and Tim Ream in a sling. His story is neat and kudos for him making the World Cup but he is not a National Team player at this point in his career. Not even on a B squad, not even in a domestic only camp.
Some other notable omissions are Cristian Roldan, Jordan Morris, Paul Arriola, and DeAndre Yedlin. I'd still keep these guys around for domestic camps, but there are other guys that need minutes and caps ahead of them. It's time to get John Brooks back in camp. He clearly had some form of fundamental disagreement with Gregg Berhalter (and an admitted notable drop in form) that has kept him away from the National Team for almost two full years. He's back starting in Hoffenheim, played well down the stretch and bring a lot of value to a National Team that is without it's two best center backs this summer in Ream and Carter-Vickers.
I'm fully trusting Johnny Cardoso and Alan Sonora to carry the load at the six for the Gold Cup. They both play in good leagues and have shown well in their past call ups. The other option is to go for Aidan Morris or Obed Vargas. Both are dual nationals who could represent Canada and Mexico. Both have big potential but I don't think either are as good right now as Cardoso or Sonora. Two big questions still surrounding this team: who is our number two left footed left back? And who can even remotely replace Tyler Adams for the summer?
It was hard not finding a spot for guys that are excelling at the U20 World Cup, but I tried to put together a roster that can win the tournament. I did find a place for Paxten Aaronson and Chris Brady, two guys who were not released by their clubs to go to the U-20 World Cup. I wouldn't mind if Brian Gutierrez also got a call up since the Chicago Fire also did not release him for the biggest youth competition in the world. Kevin Parades is a huge talent with his feet wet in the Bundesliga for Wolfsburg.
Canada and Mexico are both hungry to win a trophy. Mexico kind of flipped the script on guys having success in Europe this season with Chucky Lozano (Napolia, Serie A Champs), Santiago Giminez (Feyenoord, Eredivise Champs), Edson Alvarez (Ajax, 3rd in Eredivise). Then you have Canada and their top level talent: Jonathan David (Lille), Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich) Cyle Larin (Real Valladoid) and Tajon Buchannon (Club Brugge).
So if the US had to go with: Turner, Dest, Miles, Brooks, Jones, Cardoso/Sonora, Musah, Gio, Sargent, Brendan, and Pulisic you still have a squad you feel confident in beating anyone in CONCACAF.
*A late note: I originally had Miles Robinson on both rosters. I'm not sure that there's a scenario where Atlanta United are cool with Miles being gone for a month and I don't have any MLS players on both rosters.
Comments
Post a Comment