(Football news) Surprise picks in Haji Wright, Joe Scally and Sean Johnson were among the 26 players selected for the United States for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar while experienced players like Zack Steffen, Paul Arriola and Ricardo Pepi failed to make the cut. USA coach Gregg Berhalter revealed his final squad on Wednesday in an event at Brooklyn Steel as his side play its first match against Wales on 21 November at the Al Rayyan’s Ahmad bin Ali Stadium.
USA will have 25 players who will play in their first World Cup as DeAndre Yedlin is the lone survivor from when the United States last qualified in 2014. Only four players remain from the USA squad who suffered a catastrophic defeat to Trinidad & Tobago that cost them a place at Russia 2018: Yedlin, Kellyn Acosta, Christian Pulisic and Tim Ream are the only players from that squad. The biggest surprise was the omission of the Man City player Zack Steffen as the coach views Arsenal’s Matt Turner for the starting goalkeeping spot. Steffan was the number one goalkeeper during the qualifiers before he joined Middlesbrough on loan in July to get more first-team minutes. Instead, Berhalter has gone with the likes of Turner, Johnson and Ethan Horvath in the goalkeeping department.
The other major surprise was the inclusion of Wright, who is currently the second leading scorer in the Turkish league as he came in place of Pepi. The Augsburg striker was America’s top striker who became a favorite under Berhalter with three goals early in World Cup qualifiers. Berhalter can still make changes up until Monday as Fifa has a deadline for submitting the official list. Nine players out of the 26-man squad are from Major League Soccer, eight are based with English clubs, two players play in Germany, Italy and Spain, and one player from France, Scotland and Turkey.
Berhalter’s entire team will be together by 14 November before they travel to Qatar, and will become the first man to represent the USA at the World Cup both as a player and as a coach after he played in both the 2002 and 2006 tournaments. USA will be Playing in their 11th overall World Cup and their eighth World Cup out of the last nine. The US have been drawn into a strong group as Berhalter’s side will play their first Group B match against Wales on 21 November and later on face off with England four days later and meet Iran on 29 November.
“In the case of Ricardo, that was a really difficult conversation that I had to have with him,” Berhalter said. “It’s always difficult when a guy helps you get to the World Cup, he scores three goals in World Cup qualifying, and isn’t going to be a part of the program. Again, it’s more about who we did add that we felt good about.”
“In some of the cases it’s more about what we have than what we don’t have,” Berhalter said on Wednesday. “With the three goalkeepers listed on the roster, we feel great, we feel really good about it. We saw a lot of progress with Matt Turner in this last six months, we know Ethan Horvath has been competing at a good level at Luton in the Championship, and Sean Johnson has been a mainstay in this group since day one.”
USA
Goalkeepers Ethan Horvath (Luton Town), Sean Johnson (New York City FC), Matt Turner (Arsenal)
Defenders Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic), Sergino Dest (AC Milan), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls), Shaq Moore (Nashville SC), Tim Ream (Fulham), Antonee Robinson (Fulham), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach), DeAndre Yedlin (Inter Miami), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC)
Midfielders Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United), Kellyn Acosta (Los Angeles FC), Tyler Adams (Leeds United), Luca de ka Torre (Celta de Vigo), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Yunus Musah (Valencia), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders)
Forwards Jesus Ferreira (FC Dallas), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Josh Sargent (Norwich City), Tim Weah (Lille), Haji Wright (Antalyaspor)
Also read: Kante, Pogba, Mendy and others missing from France's World Cup squad
