U.S. men’s national team manager Gregg Berhalter has named a young, MLS-heavy roster to contest the Gold Cup beginning on July 10.
With players such as Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie being given time off following grueling club seasons — they were not even named to the U.S. Gold Cup provisional roster — Berhalter opted to look mostly to domestic players, with 19 of the 23 performers playing for MLS clubs. It’s a young group as well, with five uncapped players, and a total of 14 having fewer than 10 international appearances.
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Atlanta United goalkeeper Brad Guzan is the most capped player with 64 appearances. In terms of outfield players, D.C. United attacker Paul Arriola leads the way with 35 international appearances.
All of the roster components are designed to create more depth for World Cup qualifying, which begins in September and will feature triple fixture windows in some instances.
“When we were looking at both the Gold Cup and the Nations League, we were thinking about one big roster picture, not two separate rosters. The idea was to prepare our entire player pool in a competitive CONCACAF format for World Cup qualifying,” Berhalter said.
“When you look at this roster, it’s basically another group of players that are going to get the opportunity to compete to win a trophy. By the end of this tournament, we’re going to have virtually the entire player pool prepared for World Cup qualifying.”
That said, Berhalter’s expectation is that the U.S. will contend for the Gold Cup title.
“Our priority is to win the Gold Cup. Anytime we’re competing for a trophy, we want to win it,” Berhalter said. “It’s going to take a good effort by the group, but it’s certainly a focus of ours. We know the games are going to be difficult, and as we looked at the roster for this tournament, we focused on guys who are in form and can help the team win.”
The USMNT is in Group B with Canada, Martinique and a team that will be determined through the 2021 Gold Cup prelims. The U.S. will play all of its group matches at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City.
The U.S. team’s first match will take place on July 11 against an opponent based on the outcome of the Gold Cup prelims round. The U.S. will face one of Barbados, Bermuda, Haiti or St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The prelims round will run July 2-6 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The U.S. will finish the group stage against Martinique on July 15 followed by a match against Canada three days later.
“A lot of the work we’ve done since 2019 is to prepare this group and also build team cohesion,” Berhalter said. “With this roster, many of the players are already familiar with how we do things, are already familiar with our environment and are already familiar with our style of play. I think that’s going to help us.
“When you look at some of these core guys, like Walker [Zimmerman], Sebastian [Lletget], Kellyn [Acosta], Jackson [Yueill], Paul [Arriola], Gyasi [Zardes] … these are guys that have been in over these last two years and have been major parts of the team. Although it’s a young team, we think it’s an experienced team and we’re looking forward to getting even more experience in a CONCACAF competition.”
The United States has lifted the CONCACAF Gold Cup six times, most recently in the 2017 edition. The USMNT won the inaugural tournament in 1991 before being crowned regional champions again in 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2013.
USMNT GOLD CUP ROSTER BY POSITION (Club; caps/goals):
GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Atlanta United; 64/0), Sean Johnson (New York City FC; 9/0), Matt Turner (New England Revolution; 1/0)
DEFENDERS (8): George Bello (Atlanta United; 1/0), Reggie Cannon (Boavista/POR; 18/1), Shaq Moore (Tenerife/ESP; 5/0), Donovan Pines (D.C. United; 0/0), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United; 3/1), James Sands (New York City FC; 0/0), Sam Vines (Colorado Rapids; 3/0), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC; 14/2)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Kellyn Acosta (Colorado Rapids; 31/2), Gianluca Busio (Sporting Kansas City; 0/0), Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy; 24/7), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders; 20/0), Eryk Williamson (Portland Timbers; 0/0), Jackson Yueill (San Jose Earthquakes; 12/0)
FORWARDS (6): Paul Arriola (D.C. United; 35/8), Daryl Dike (Orlando City; 3/1), Nicholas Gioacchini (Caen/FRA; 3/2), Matthew Hoppe (Schalke/GER; 0/0), Jonathan Lewis (Colorado Rapids; 7/2), Gyasi Zardes (Columbus Crew; 56/12)