WHIPPANY, N.J. — It’s not as if Sacha Kljestan is incapable of scoring goals, even important ones. He scored in consecutive matches in early September to help the United States win two World Cup qualifiers, and then he won a Concacaf Champions League match for the Red Bulls two weeks later with an 89th-minute finish.

Kljestan calls scoring a goal “the best feeling in the world, the ultimate,” and he says he would like to enjoy many more such moments. But Kljestan’s true forte — and he is arguably better at this than any other American midfielder at the moment — is creating chances for other players to score. That is the skill that helped the Red Bulls post the best record in Major League Soccer last season, and it is a big reason they were positioned to clinch a return to the playoffs when they were to host Montreal on Saturday night.

It is also why Kljestan, after two long, frustrating years away from the national team, has played his way back into contention for a place on the United States roster as it prepares for the final round of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.

“I’ve always had the eye for the pass, the one that splits the defense and sets it up, trying to make the guys around me better and set them up for success,” Kljestan said after a Red Bulls practice session on Wednesday.