In soccer, it’s rarely smart to fixate on one game, or one play, or one player, or one decision.

Soccer is played by 22 guys running around a massive field for 90 minutes. Angles open up and close in seconds. One slightly sluggish ball may affect what should have been a clear shot six passes later. One player tugged out of position may break down an entire team’s defense. Soccer is complex.

That being said, sometimes there are singular things that embody larger trends in a game, a coach, a system. And it’s important to look at them.

So let’s talk about USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter’s decision to leave 19-year-old American striker Josh Sargent out of the Gold Cup squad.

Before we get to the decision, let’s just get this out of the way: Sargent is a phenomenal young soccer player. Actually, forget that. Sargent is a phenomenal soccer player, period. He’s already in the senior team at Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga, and only the presence of club captain Max Kruse and club legend Claudio Pizarro kept him from getting serious minutes this year. That being said, he appears to be the man to lead the line for the club going forward.

Sargent has size and strength. He can run the channels. But he also has an innate calmness and almost zen-like quality in the box — he’s one of those rare players who seems to slow down when close to goal, a time when most players lose their minds and rush things. He’s comfy in front of goal, and he can score. The United States hasn’t had a prospect at striker like him since, well, ever.

That’s not hyperbole. Taylor Twellman was a poacher. Brian McBride was a banger who was fearless. Clint Dempsey had to learn to become a striker, and he bloomed late. Landon Donovan was a winger. Eric Wynalda and Joe Max-Moore were solid goalscorers but never cracked the top level of world soccer. Jozy Altidore is great with his back to goal, but not as technical as Sargent. Charlie Davies got hurt. I’d mention Chris Wondolowski here but I’m terrified for my Twitter mentions.

Basically: Sargent is young, but he appears to be the real deal. On Wednesday night he played against Jamaica in a game the USMNT looked beyond sluggish. Sargent went 90 minutes, dutifully running all game despite the U.S. not appearing to be able to complete two passes for much of the game. He received the ball in a good area exactly once, and when he did, he turned his defender and ripped a shot the goalie just saved.

And Berhalter left him off the Gold Cup roster.

So here we are again with the “one decision” thing from the intro. How can one decision make that big a difference? Berhalter explained when they announced the roster that he felt that Jozy Altidore and Gyasi Zardes were ahead of Sargent, and he wants the best team for the Gold Cup. Simple enough.

Except it’s not that simple. And the decision leads to some serious questions I have about everything that Berhalter is doing.

1. What is the USMNT building toward?

Josh Sargent was just 17 years old at the time of the last U-20 World Cup, but he surprisingly made the team and scored, becoming the youngest player to do so. He’s still just 19 years old though, and thus would be eligible to play again this time.

He didn’t go to play, however. Berhalter called him up to the senior camp, so … Sargent could play one friendly against Jamaica and then get cut from the roster.

I understand the argument: Sargent has already played for the U-20 national team, and he deserved the chance to try to make the senior team. Sebastian Soto has thrived in Sargent’s absence, scoring two goals for the Baby Yanks against France in a stunning upset.

Then again, isn’t Berhalter complicating the whole thing? What is he doing here? How does this benefit Sargent or the USMNT going forward?

We’re leaving our country’s most promising young striker roster off the senior team, someone Berhalter himself said was the future of the program, and we left him off the U-20 team, so he can … rest up for next year in the Bundesliga? Get fired up for the next Olympic qualifying? What is the point of all this?

2. Is the system more important than the players?

Gregg Berhalter is a good soccer coach. He’s a tactics wonk who understands different systems of play and has a philosophy about the way he wants to play the game, something that couldn’t be said about most former USMNT coaches. (Looking at you, Jurgen Klinsmann.)

But as I’ve written about earlier this year, Berhalter at times can seem to commit to a tactical approach, and then let that cloud his judgment about, well, everything else. Back then I was writing about Tyler Adams, and how Berhalter had him playing a hybrid defender position because it let them do some interesting things tactically and made sure Adams got into the lineup.

Adams then made the move to the Bundesliga, showed he could play defensive midfield for one of the very best club teams in the world and play it well, so Berhalter … kept him in the same hybrid defender position.

So now we’ve got Wil Trapp, a decent MLS player who looked a bit over his head last night playing against a team of USL players from Jamaica, on the Gold Cup roster. He’ll back up Michael Bradley, the presumed starter at the defensive central midfielder role.

Again, on paper, it all sort of makes sense. Until you remember: Wait, there’s a player at that position already better than Trapp and Bradley on the roster. So now we’ve moved Adams out of his position, brought two players to fill in at that position, and Josh Sargent still isn’t going to the Gold Cup.

3. Is Berhalter’s commitment to his guys blinding him to seeing the quality of others?

The elephant in the room of all this is the two guys with the biggest question marks next to their name — Gyasi Zardes and Wil Trapp — both played for Berhalter when he was the manager of Columbus Crew.

Zardes made the roster directly ahead of Sargent. Berhalter himself said he thought Zardes was the better player now, something I just straight up don’t agree with, and I say that as a Zardes defender.

Berhalter on why Altidore/Zardes as the two strikers over Sargent: "It’s a simple reason: We think they’re ahead of him right now. We have to do what we felt was best for the team right now and that’s the decision we made." — Paul Tenorio (@PaulTenorio) June 6, 2019

Trapp made the roster to back up Bradley, who should be backing up Adams, who’s playing a hybrid right back role.

Josh Sargent will be watching these games on television.

It’s never that simple in soccer. But sometimes one decision can tell you quite a bit, or raise a lot of questions. And the decision Berhalter made to leave Sargent at home has me asking a lot of questions.