Expectations Are Sky-High!
What a summer it’s been for the U.S. Men’s National Team. Manager Gregg Berhalter led the program to two first-place finishes in both Nation’s League and The Gold Cup. Making it even sweeter, the U.S. upended fierce rival Mexico in order to take home two trophies. For the first time potentially ever, we’re now seeing a changing of the proverbial guard as to who the best team in the region is. For long spells of time, Mexico had a chokehold on all of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Now, it appears as if this new crop of U.S. talent is finally breaking through at just the right time.
The World Cup Qualifying process begins Sept. 2 for the United States (in El Salvador). As we recall from the past cycle, the U.S. embarrassingly failed to make the World Cup in 2018. With the deepest and most talented player pool we’ve ever had, expectations couldn’t be higher. We’re going to look at the 30-best players in the pool at the moment. It doesn’t mean they’re the most talented man for man — though it could very well resemble (for the most part) the group used to get the U.S. to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup.
Honorable mentions: Luca de la Torre, George Bello, Owen Otasowie, Shaq Moore, Julian Green, Sam Vines, Walker Zimmerman, Jordan Morris, Aaron Long, Eryk Williamson, Paxton Pomykal, DeAndre Yedlin, Tanner Tessmann, Caden Clark, Niko Gioacchini, Bryan Reynolds, Julian Araujo, Cristian Roldan, Richie Ledezma, Jonathan Gomez
Image Source: Omar Vega/Getty Images