The USMNT 26-man roster for World Cup 2022 announced p80 #1991

https://www.mlssoccer.com/

And finally, I absolutely believe Eryk Williamson has a shot to be on the World Cup roster as the fourth-string No. 8 behind Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah and Luca de la Torre. I could even see him pushing de la Torre for the third spot in that hierarchy, though that’s more of a long shot.

According to a couple of sources, Williamson actually had to turn down a call-up to this last camp as he worked toward full fitness, but just the fact he was called at all should give you (all of us, really) a read on how highly Gregg Berhalter rates him.

Given how well he’s played for Portland over the past month, I’ll be surprised if he’s not at September camp with the USMNT. And I won’t be surprised at all if he plays his way into a secure spot on the Qatar 2022 roster given his talent and the US’s needs.

 

Locks (12). Turner, Steffen; Dest, Jedi, Zimmerman; Adams, McKennie, Musah; Pulisic, Weah, Reyna, Aaronson.

Near locks (3). Long; Acosta; Ferreira.

Good Bets (3). Richards; LDLT; Pepi.

In a Battle (3). Yedlin, Cannon; Arriola.

Bubble (5). Johnson; Brooks, Williamson; Mihailovic; Morris.
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Wrong side of Bubble: Horvath; Moore, Bello, Vines, Scally; CCV, EPB, McKenzie, Ream; Busio, Roldan; Sargent, Pefok, Zardes.

I am sure I am forgetting someone obvious...but I think those are the 40 with the best chance to go. Not that there are not others, especially where we are a bit thin (LB, CB, CF). But it is really gonna take something special to leapfrog from outside the top 40 to into the 26.

 

Solid, Good list..Here's hoping Ledesma gets into the Bubble.

 

Yep. I now realize Sands should probably be on that list, too.

 

If Moore does well at Nashville over the next few months, is there a chance that he will move from the wrong side of the bubble to the right side? Of course in the end that might not matter. If you don't make the roster, does it really matter how much you missed by?

I like Moore for a superficial reason. I like players who smile a lot on the field and act like they're happy to be there (i.e. Thomas Dooley, Carlos Vela and Tyler Adams). As opposed to players who frown a lot like Geoff Cameron.

 

He doesn't have the experience in a back three Cannon has and doesn't have the experience for the national team Yedlin has but I think he has looked very solid for us as long as I remember. Cannon and Yedlin were liabilities in games this past window, with Yedlin against Uruguay being particularly concerning. Its an uphill battle, but I think he has a real chance.

 

He hasn’t been good in MLS either but whatever

 

Wait a sec, have the rules changed? Are we going to start rating the players based on performance?

 

At this point he just isn’t good enough IMO.

 

Yedlin has been mid to bottom in MLS no idea why he is a lock, but with Gregg's system needing familiarity that probably gets the call. But yeah he has been bad.

The issue I guess is who do you replace him with too. Cannons been crap too, but its a new year. Moore maybe gets eyes now in MLS. Scallys up and down.

Doubtful we see a guy that's not been called in. Maybe if Reynolds takes off in Belgium he could get a look. Gregg seemed to like what Lennon brought.

We will see but there is some interesting backup battles all over the field. Interesting to see where Gregg's mind is at with the September callups. You think maybe it's a bigger than normal roster to give guys time to show in camp? If yedlin is the guy he needs to be better.

 

Yedlin I think is an experience thing more than anything, being the only guy whose likely going to be on the roster who has ever been to a World Cup. There was a podcast a few months back where Meg Swanick was asked who the leaders amongst the team are and one of the first names she said was Yedlin and specifically noted what a calming presence he is with the group.

 

Yedlin in fact is the most capped player in the group with a legitimate shot at the WC.
Followed by Acosta.......................................and then to the young guys. Pulisic at 51 caps.

Pulisic is 23 years old and has 51 caps. Barring injury, he's an easy 100.

There was a time when we said Landon Donovan was a shoe-in to break our caps record. Didn't happen.
So I can't say the same about Pulisic. Things happen.

 

I don't know what the internal dynamics of the team are other than what's been reported and have no clue how much of a leader Brooks is or isn't within the group. And it's also not a topic that has been reported on so we don't have any clue.

I understand that alot of people really want to see Brooks with the team, but for now I'm just hoping he lands in a good place so he can make his case for inclusion in September.

 

At this point in US Soccer history, I think it's highly unlikely that anyone will break Cobi Jones' caps record. Most of the players at the top of the list were guys from the 90s/00s when the competition for spots was way, way lower than it is in 2022. Even a talented player like Pulisic is likely to get pushed hard for playing time in the not too distant future (for example: I think Brenden Aaronson will challenge him for "most indispensible attacker" in the next two years).

 

Not only that, the number of qualifying games is going down. It’ll be very difficult to get a hundred caps anymore.

 

The most likely person would be a goalkeeper. If say, Gaga Slonina got better quick, and started starting at 19 or 20... that'd do it.

I think a healthy Reyna has more of a chance than people think.

 

I feel like it'd be more likely to be an MLS player whose a regular with the A as they're also going to get January camps, B team Gold Cups, and all the other games when European players aren't available. Hence someone like Acosta having been capped so much in recent years.

 

I feel like it bears mentioning that Cobi Jones got his first 50 or so caps in that period in the early 90's when the USMNT was operating like a club team, traveling the globe playing an insane number of friendlies, with a roster largely made up of players under contract to the USSF (I assume Cobi was one of those players, but I can't find confirmation of that on Google).

We're probably never going to see anything like that again.

 

Pulisic has 51 caps so far. Let's say he gets 6 more this year. That's 57. Now let's say he plays 10 more years and averages 10 caps per year. That's 157 I can't see him getting many more caps than that. I think it's going to be close.

 

So Gregg, about that World Cup slot ....