(USA Soccer)

In the grand scheme of determining if this current USMNT group is good, this Friday’s match against Mexico means sincerely nothing. It’s a friendly, with no Tyler Adams, no actual meaning, and tons of room for experimentation. We’ll see some new faces, hopefully, and maybe some new looks from Gregg Berhlater. Here’s a few things to look for:



How Pomykal, Dest, and Robinson play at the international level: Three big name prospects look to make their senior national team debut in this camp. Paxton Pomykal is quietly tearing up MLS with FC Dallas. Sergino Dest has broken into Ajax’s starting XI- not a big deal at all. Miles Robinson is one of the candidates for MLS Defender of the year. These are three players that we need to see at least competent performances from. Pomykal was nothing short of outstanding with the U20s this summer, absolutely carving a French team made up of Ligue 1 regulars. Dest started that same tournament a bit slow, especially defensively, but came into his own during the last couple matches and has really been striving in Amsterdam so far this young season. Getting Dest capped is going to be massive, as the Netherlands have been enquiring about his services. No matter what, a cap in October’s Nations League matches absolutely has to happen, and the only way that can be guaranteed is a good showing from him. Miles Robinson really needs to step up and make a name for himself in this defensive group. There’s a solid starting CB pairing with Long/Zimmeran and Brooks, but after that it gets a bit sketchy with Matt Miazga and Cameron Carter-Vickers having their progress a bit stalled overseas. Huge opportunity for these three. The return of Alfredo Morales: Morales is off to a good start in the BundesLiga with Fortuna Dusseldorf this season, and has played his way back into a USMNT camp for the first time since 2016. He’s started all three games for Dusseldorf so far and pitched in a goal as Fortuna sit in their usual middle of the table spot. He currently finds himself rated as the second best player on Dusseldorf by WhoScored, only behind fellow American Zack Steffen. This is probably the 29 year old’s last cycle to really stick with the National Team, and it can be guaranteed he’ll be grinding for minutes in a midfield missing Michael Bradley and Tyler Adams. Player improvements/regressions after club changes: Christian Pulisic is off to a not-great, but not-horrible start to his time at Chelsea. Outside of a stellar Super Cup performance against Liverpool, he’s been a 40 degree day as Stringer Bell would put it. Tyler Boyd has started every game so far for Turkish giants Besiktas, and seems to be playing well but not yet producing- 0 goals and 0 assists through three matches. As mentioned above, a case can be made for Zack Steffen being the best player on Fortuna Dusseldorf so far this season, and he got off to a tremendous start with a tremendous showing against Werder Bremen. Since then Dusseldorf has been leaking goals, allowing 5 over their last 2 games. So far this season Steffen has made 19 saves and allowed 6 goal- about the same save rate he had in Columbus. C

While USA Mexico is a massive rivalry, this game’s result doesn’t mean a thing- it’s all about getting young guys adjusted, reintroducing a player that’s been gone for awhile, and seeing that some key players are adjusting to their new club.

