Thursday night the United States Men’s National Soccer Team played a great game in the Copa America Centenario to beat Ecuador 2-1 in Seattle and advance to the Copa Semi-Finals.

That game did not come without its consequences, however for the red, white, and blue. Jermaine Jones got a straight red card in the 52nd minute for putting his hands on the face of an opponent after the play had ended. While the call was by the letter of the law, it seemed like a quick draw to the red after a hard foul on a teammate. That card is not going to be rescinded by FIFA anytime soon. So USMNT will have to play without one of their best players in Jones on Tuesday in Houston.

After Jones’ sendoff, the USA saw breakout forward Bobby Wood and grinding midfielder Alejandro Bedoya pick up their second yellow cards of the tournament. Both of them will miss the USA’s semi-final matchup with the winner of Argentia vs. Venezuela.

With Jones, Wood, and Bedoya out the Jurgen Klinsmann will have to, for the first time this tournament, make major changes to the starting eleven of his squad. In the group stage the USA started the same 11 players for all three games.

When Yedlin picked up two yellow cards in a matter of seconds against Paraguay he was out for the quarterfinal against Ecuador. Klinsmann made only one change for Thursday night’s game replacing Yedlin on the right with starting left back Fabian Johnson and sliding World Cup starting center back Matt Besler into the left back spot.

With Yedlin coming back for the Semis the USA will presumably have either preferred back line intact. But Klinsmann will have to look into his 23-man roster and figure out how to replace three key cogs to the current American success. So what will he do? One thing we’ve learned about Jurgen in his time atop US Soccer is we have no idea. Here are a few ideas I could see happening for Tuesday Night’s big game.

Worst Case Scenario (AKA Experience Over Talent):

Obviously, the back four (and Guzan) is not going to change. They have played too good all tournament to even think about messing with them. But the rest of this lineup scares me. Graham Zusi is a solid replacement for Bedoya. He has experience, is a better finisher and gives the team another option other than Bradley on set pieces. The other two replacements are terrible and shouldn’t play a full 90 for this team. Kyle Beckerman is a solid defensive midfielder. The problem is he’s replacing Jermaine Jones who is a dynamic central midfielder and Beckerman can’t do what Jones can with the ball. Also, Bekerman is best used on this team with 30 minutes or less left to help defend and keep a lead. That is when I’d want to see him. And finally, there is the player that shouldn’t be on the 23-man roster anyway. Chris Wondolowski replacing Bobby Wood up top might be the biggest step down you can make on the USMNT. Many argue that Wondo shouldn’t be on this roster (I’m one of them) and Jordan Morris should be in there. You feel a lot better with someone with the potential of Morris filling in for the potential of Wood than Wondo taking that spot. Wondolowski scores a lot of goals but never seems to do it for the USA in big games. Maybe it’s unfair, but I don’t trust Wondolowski to perform against top talent in the world. He’s 33 and never played outside of the USA and of his 10 international goals, the only one against a top notch team was Mexico in 2014 in a friendly. His five competition goals were scored against Belize & Cuba, not a lot of confidence with him against a big team.

Youth Movement

Jones is 33, Bedoya is 29, Wood is young at 23 but time to get younger. Bring in Darlington Nagbe, 26 on Sunday, to replace Jones. This is his natural position with the Portland Timbers and he should fill in nicely and get some good experience. Zusi, 29, replaces Bedoya on the right. This is the most likely thing to happen and like above is not a big difference than Bedoya there. The big move would be to place Zardes at the top of the formation in place of Wood and then start the 17-year-old Christian Pulisic on the left side of the mid-field. That would certainly be a bold move. Pulisic saw some time in the first game of the tournament against Columbia and looked solid, but to rely on a 17-year-old playing against a world class team isn’t something that happens all the time. Except Pulisic started for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga this year, one of the world’s best clubs in one of the world’s best leagues, so he has felt pressure. See what he can do. If he’s not working out, slide him out in the 60th minute, but you have him on the team. Might as well use him.

How Offensive

Not offensive as in being offended, but as in attacking. This is the idea Klinsmann might go with if he really really wants to try and put the screws to the opposition early in the Semi-Final. Fabian Johnson moves up to left midfield (his natural position) to give a more attacking look to the lineup. Nagbe fills in for Jones in the central midfield and Zusi on the right for Bedoya. All three of those replacements are upgrades on offense for the USMNT. Zusi and Nagbe are downgrades on defense however and Zardes up top has not shown he will be as effective as Wood. Beseler did show he is capable of playing on the left and having Johnson in help isn’t a bad way to defend the attacking right side.

Bunker Down

This formation would come into play if the USA draws Argentina and decides instead of attacking the tournament favorite they want to hunker down in the back and play defense. The back four becomes the standard again, but Besler (who started at center back during the 2014 World Cup for the USA) plays just in front of the center back stars Cameron and Brooks. Bradley would slide up and play a little more of a natural center midfielder rather than a six that he is most comfortable with. Zusi and Nagbe take the outside midfielder positions but play a little more dropped than moving up the wings. Zardes up top to replace wood with the great Dempsey in his best position behind him. This formation allows too much midfield space for a team like Argentina and Guzan would have to go Tim Howard vs. Belgium for the U.S. to even have a shot. While the 11 on the field is the same as the offensive minded 11, it isn’t the formation to succeed against a team like Argentina.

The WTF?

There is no way that this lineup sees the light of day. This is the kind of thing that happens after spending the last 12+ hours trying to get into the head of Jurgen Klinsmann. Crazy things start happening. Dempsey at the top alone is the only change that we could actually see in this. Even though we all know Dempsey disappears and has problems playing as the lone striker, Klinsmann has done it before, especially with the lack of a back to the goal striker. Birnbaum and Castillo are both very good defenders. Both are better in the center and Birnbaum only saw the last 30 seconds of the Ecuador game. Castillo hasn’t sniffed time. The Zusi and Pulisic idea playing high in the midfield and behind Dempsey is interesting especially with it opening up the wings for Yedlin and Johnson to fly up and down the wings. But this takes away ALL the chemistry of the back line from the previous four games. Castillo and Birnbaum haven’t played against anyone as good as Argentina for club or country.

Who knows what will happen. We’ll only be able to see on Tuesday at NRG. But win or lose, with whatever starting XI make it out on the pitch, by the words of head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, this tournament has been a success for the USA and with some luck and a solid lineup, it might even become what dreams are made of.

Let Me Know What You Think – @GarretHeinrich