By: COLIN REESE
COMMENT:
As Jürgen Klinsmann seeks to improve the United States Men’s National Team, it’s important that Klinsmann doesn’t scrap too many players that are just under 30 years old or over 30 years old.
Forcing players at or above 30 years old into virtual retirement isn’t a wise policy to apply blindly in world soccer, as age isn’t as important as form and fitness.
All that matters is whether or not a player is fit enough and talented enough to play against the level of the competition whether it be club competition or international competition.
There are always too many players in their mid-30s that excel in the World Cup and/or the Champions League to believe that dropping players above 30 years old is a sound coaching policy.
By all accounts, Clint Dempsey at 31 looks like the type of player that will be very fit and in form well into his mid-30s, and it’s way too soon to even consider beginning to phase him out. This would be a huge mistake.
As one of the goals of U.S. Soccer is to bring in younger and more technical players, this goal can be achieved by putting the players that are ready to compete internationally on the roster while evaluating how they compare to other more experienced players.
Specifically, DeAndre Yedlin, John Brooks, and Julian Green have demonstrated that they are already ready to contribute to the national team in a big way, and Yedlin and Brooks have earned starting spots at right back and left center back respectively.
Green can either be used as a starter or as a substitute, but he’s ready to be used as a wing on either side for at least 20 to 30 minutes per game depending on the formation and tactics.
Despite Benny Feilhaber’s excellent form and fitness as a playmaker or central midfielder that is under 30, Klinsmann appears to have forced Feilhaber into a virtual international retirement.
Feilhaber is likely out of the picture for Klinsmann, which makes it high time that the German coach actually start Mix Diskerud or Joe Corona or both, as Corona can play centrally or out wide.
The USA is in desperate need of some additional link-up play in the midfield besides just Dempsey, and this is exactly what Corona and Diskerud bring to the team.
It remains a mystery why Klinsmann put Diskerud on the World Cup roster only to never use him even when Dempsey was forced to play out of position at striker. Dempsey needed a playmaker like Diskerud behind him to give him more service and an attacking player to combine with.
Jermaine Jones also looks like the type of player that has the sort of fitness and durability to play into his mid-30s, but the USA still needs to reincorporate Maurice Edu back into the national side because the United States needs at least three defensive midfielders: Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones, and Maurice Edu.
Having Bradley, Jones, and Edu on the roster is important to being able to use one or two defensive midfielders that have the sort of defending, physicality, work rate, and technical ability that allows the more attack-minded players to flourish.
Using Corona, Diskerud, and Dempsey in front of Bradley and Jones/Edu is a way to bring more technical ability, creativity, and attacking skill to the American midfield, and Bradley needs to be able to play the more stay-at-home defensive midfielder role and the box-to-box midfielder role, depending on whether Jones or Edu start.
If Edu starts, then Bradley is more free to attack, but if Jones starts, then Bradley needs to play deeper and cover the Back Four.
Whatever Klinsmann’s reason was for excluding Juan Agudelo from the 2014 World Cup roster, Agudelo needs to be put back on the roster immediately. Agudelo deserves to be a roster lock with or without a healthy Terrence Boyd; Agudelo is simply too good and too effective to exclude.
Keeping the discussion on young players, Yedlin not only proved to be completely ready for World Cup play, but he was good enough to stand out at right back as a exciting attacking threat and strong defensive force.
Fabian Johnson is the obvious starter to play at left back, but Chris Klute has shown too much skill and athleticism in MLS for Klinsmann to continue to exclude from the national team.
Johnson is certainly the obvious starter in most observers’ minds, but Klute stands out among American left backs as a player that can improve the national team and give it more depth at a position where the USMNT is weak.
Robbie Rogers has also recently been converted to play as a left back as a right-footed player, so Rogers too deserves a roster spot whether as a midfielder or as a defender because of his ability to play left back or right back and left wing or right wing.
Staying with the defense, young defenders like Shane O’Neill, Kellyn Acosta, and Andrew Farrell are also too talented to continue to exclude.
As it’s the start of a new World Cup cycle, having quicker and more technical center backs like O’Neill and Farrell are more crucial to the USA’s improvement in the center of the defense than a less agile Omar Gonzalez who doesn’t bring the same amount of lateral quickness and technical ability that the younger center backs bring.
Gonzalez is only in his mid-20s, but O’Neill and Farrell are better.
Cameron and Brooks is the best center back partnership, and Farrell and O’Neill are the next two best center back options.
For all of the praise that Matt Besler has received as a center back, both Farrell and O’Neill are more technical, more athletic, and better defensively.
Neither of these center backs settle on hitting as many long balls as Besler, as both Farrell and O’Neill work the ball out of the ball better and only hit a long ball if it is the only option or best passing option.
Farrell and O’Neill are also capable of dribbling forward out of trouble in order to play the ball out of the back, and Besler doesn’t have this weapon in his arsenal.
It bears mentioning that for about a month O’Neill has been suffering from an unknown knee injury that the Colorado Rapids are still trying to diagnose. Pablo Mastroeni has told MLSsoccer.com that each scan of O’Neill’s knee has failed to isolate the exact problem with the knee.
At the outside back positions, Acosta like Klute plays as a right back or left back, and the USA can’t continue to keep outside backs with their defending, speed, size, skill, and versatility off the national team.
Veteran players like Geoff Cameron are a vital portion of the core of the USMNT, so American rosters need to include these types of more experienced players with the likes of Agudelo, Corona, and Diskerud.
The United States isn’t in need of a total overhaul of its roster, but it does require the incorporation of younger players that can better play positions where the United States is weakest.
Starting Guzan, Yedlin, Cameron, Brooks, Johnson, Edu, Bradley, Corona, Diskerud, Dempsey, and Agudelo allows the USMNT to keep its most talented and athletic experienced players in the XI while adding in the younger talents that can improve the overall skill level of the team.
With 11 players starting, there are 12 more roster spots for a combination of experienced and less experienced players with skill and athleticism being the most important criteria for roster inclusion.
Many USMNT observers and fans either want a total roster overhaul or the use of only players with a sizeable amount of international experience, but the United States needs to use its best players rather than either giving all of the older players the boot or making talented young players wait for years for no good reason.