One thing I'm not clear about with Efra. USSF totally had the new FIFA eligibility rules wrong. They thought you had to play 3 caps, friendlies or otherwise, to cap tie a player. They told Musah this, and luckily he is committed. They announced Musah was cap tied, he is not. Pretty incredible that USSF could have this so wrong. Now, to Efra. Gregg let him go to Mexico, "to try it out". At the time, he thought Efra had to play three times, so, what is one or two caps. But, we know Berhalter and USSF were ignorant at best and seemed to have read it completely wrong. So, is Efra now cap tied to Mexico until he is 21? Because you can read that he won't be able to switch until he goes three years without a cap. I'm pretty sure he won't wait and will just play the Gold Cup with Mexico. Or, can you make your one time switch regardless as long as you haven't played in the Gold Cup or World Cup?
The new rules only come into play if a player has a *competitive* cap. A player appear in as many friendlies as he (and his federations) desire without being cap-tied. So Efra is not tied in any way. True, the mixed messages from the USSF on this are a bit confusing, but at least it was only a max of 2 matches available with Mexico, so there was no real risk -- even if their erroneous reading was correct.
Only as a youth competitive cap, same as before the rule changes. I had forgotten about that, but he would still be eligible to file a one time switch to the US, even after the recent friendly appearance. The new rules are supposed to make it *easier* for a player to switch his allegiance rather than be tied up quickly. The way others have been speculating about what the new cap rules mean have been suggesting that the rules tie up a player *faster* than before.
There’s some discussion in the Musah thread, though it may not be the only place: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/musah.2114220/page-7#post-39415496