Pulisic, Pepi on Berhalter's USMNT Roster for World Cup Qualifiers
Pulisic (vaccinated, no symptoms) tested positive for Covid-19 last week; Pepi chooses USA over Mexico
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The USMNT plays its most important games in four years when World Cup qualifying starts next Thursday at El Salvador, and today USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter released his 26-player roster for the first three qualifiers in the September window (23 can suit up for each game):
Roster by Position (Club/Country; Caps/Goals):
GOALKEEPERS (3): Ethan Horvath (Nottingham Forest/ENG; 7/0), Zack Steffen (Manchester City/ENG; 23/0), Matt Turner (New England Revolution; 7/0)
DEFENDERS (10): George Bello (Atlanta United; 3/0), John Brooks (Wolfsburg/GER; 43/3), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona/ESP; 11/1), Mark McKenzie (Genk/BEL; 6/0), Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG; 45/1), Antonee Robinson (Fulham/ENG; 12/0), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United; 9/3), James Sands (NYCFC; 6/0), DeAndre Yedlin (Galatasaray/TUR; 64/0), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville; 17/2)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Kellyn Acosta (Colorado Rapids; 37/2), Tyler Adams (Leipzig/GER; 14/1), Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy; 29/7), Weston McKennie (Juventus/ITA; 24/7), Cristián Roldán (Seattle Sounders; 25/0)
FORWARDS (8): Brenden Aaronson (Salzburg/AUT; 7/3), Konrad de la Fuente (Marseille/FRA; 1/0), Jordan Pefok (Young Boys/SUI; 6/1), Ricardo Pepi (Dallas; 0/0), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea/ENG; 38/16), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund/GER; 8/4), Josh Sargent (Norwich City/ENG; 16/5), Tim Weah (Lille/FRA; 13/1)
THE BIG HEADLINE
Champions League winner Christian Pulisic has been included in the squad despite testing positive for Covid-19 last week. Though Pulisic missed Chelsea’s last game, a 2-0 win over Arsenal, he posted on his Instagram that he had been vaccinated and was showing no symptoms.
OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
• Forward Ricardo Pepi, the 18-year-old Mexican American dual national who has nine goals for Dallas this season, has chosen to represent the U.S. at the international level and has been included in this roster.
• Winger Konrad de la Fuente, who has gotten off to a good start at Marseille, has been included in the squad. De la Fuente joined Marseille from Barcelona this past summer.
• This is a young USMNT squad. As U.S. Soccer noted in its release, only six players have previous experience in World Cup qualifying: Pulisic (13 qualifiers), Yedlin (10), Acosta (6), Ream (6), Brooks (4) and Lletget (1). The release also noted that the U.S. roster for the Gold Cup had the youngest average age of any team in the world during the summer tournaments that included the Euros and Copa América along with the CONCACAF competitions. The second youngest: the U.S. roster for the Nations League finals. The inclusion of Yedlin and Ream in particular suggests that Berhalter values their experience in these types of games.
• Forward Jordan Pefok, who scored the game-winner in the Nations League semifinals against Honduras, has formally changed his surname with U.S. Soccer.
WHO MISSED OUT?
There aren’t any major surprises in terms of players who aren’t included on the roster: Reggie Cannon, Chris Richards, Daryl Dike, Matthew Hoppe, Shaq Moore, Sam Vines, Nicholas Gioacchini, Jackson Yueill, Luca de la Torre and Gianluca Busio. Injured players include Gyasi Zardes, Paul Arriola and Yunus Musah.
What are your thoughts on the roster? You can post them in a comment below, and I’ll chime in as well.
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The roster is fine. Hopefully it will be used in an optimal manner. For me this means giving Gio Reyna a game or two in midfield. He's certainly looked good there for Dortmund.
Great read!