The US men’s national team’s player pool is steadily growing younger and deeper, as more and more Americans rise across MLS and/or test themselves in big European leagues.
So much so, in fact, that one of those who spearheaded the current trends is basically a veteran now, at the wizened age of 22.
“We have a very young group — I'm starting to feel old, almost, at this point,” Christian Pulisic told reporters with a smile in a Wednesday conference call ahead of Thursday’s friendly vs. Jamaica in Wiener Neustadt, Austria (1 pm ET | ESPN2, UniMás, TUDN), his first chance don a USMNT kit since October 2019.
The Chelsea winger is exaggerating, but not by much. The average age of the squad in camp this week is 23 years, 27 days. And that number might have dipped even lower were some of the group not taking part in Concacaf Olympic qualifying with the under-23 team in Mexico this month.
While US talents have been plying their trade in Europe for decades, the current scenario seems unprecedented, a combination of dual-national recruitment, more quality players being churned out domestically and overseas clubs rating Americans more highly. Beyond the excitement it’s generated among fans, it’s also becoming a compelling feature for players like Yunus Musah, the English-Ghanaian-American midfielder who committed to the USMNT last week.
“I'm really into the project we have of building this new team, this new identity and trying to change the view of American soccer in the world,” Musah said during Wednesday’s media availability. “That really inspired me and was one of the things I really wanted to be involved in.”
Pulisic became perhaps the most prominent standard-bearer when he left Hershey, Pennsylvania, to join Borussia Dortmund at age 16 in 2015, carving out success beyond his years in the Bundesliga before moving to London as the most expensive American player in history. He’s elated to see how many have taken inspiration from his example.
“It's amazing to watch,” said Pulisic of his US colleagues abroad. “These guys are going through similar stuff to what I go through and what I've been through and it's just awesome to see other people challenging themselves and playing at such high levels. It’s really just only a good thing for our country and for our national team, of course.”
With the MLS-dominated U-23 squad now one Concacaf semifinal win from qualifying for the Summer Olympics – a stage the US men haven’t graced since 2008 – speculation has shifted towards the possibility of a full-strength roster, or something close to it, representing the United States in Tokyo this summer.
“The Olympics is something that is of course a massive honor. To represent your country in an Olympics would be amazing,” said Pulisic. “I can't control exactly what goes on and what is best for me at the time and what's best for the team at the time, I obviously can't say. But it is something that I would like to play in.”
FIFA regulations treat Olympic competition as a youth event and thus do not compel clubs to release their players to participate, which is a big reason the likes of Pulisic and Musah are in Austria and not Guadalajara right now. But there’s a chance their employers might be more amenable to letting them go for the Summer Games proper, considering that they fall during preseason and offer significant global exposure for both player and club.
Coach Gregg Berhalter offered a sobering dissection of those hopes, however, pointing to the hectic World Cup qualifying schedule that’s been highly compacted by delays from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The first thing is we're not there yet, so we don't want to get ahead of ourselves,” he said of coach Jason Kreis’ U-23s. “I don't want to jinx anything. But the other side of it is, I'm not the one to answer that question. The ones to answer that question are the players’ clubs, right, because we have to sit and have conversations with these clubs and say ‘OK guys, here's what's coming up in the calendar: You have Nations League, you have Gold Cup, you have Olympics, you have World Cup qualifying in three windows in the fall, and then 2022, you have January and March [windows]. So what do you think, guys? You want to release your players for the Olympics?’
“What are they going to say? I mean, it's an uphill battle that we're fighting. If we're in a perfect world, I would love — there would be nothing more I'd like to see than our best group compete in the Olympics. It would be amazing. I'm just not sure that's going to happen. I'm not sure that the clubs are going to allow the players to go.”
The topic will be on hold at least until Sunday, when the US U-23s face a still-to-be-determined team from Group B in the all-important semifinals of the Concacaf qualifying tournament in Guadalajara. A win there, and US players and supporters alike can dream of Tokyo in earnest.
