For the entirety of World Cup qualifying, the U.S. men’s national team has been playing a game of injury Whac-A-Mole. One star comes back, two more go down. One area gets reinforced, another requires a scramble toward a solution.
So it’s only appropriate that ahead of the final window of qualifying, with a ticket to Qatar within reach, the moles go up and down once more. At least for now, days out from the anticipated release of the final squad, the game is working in favor of the U.S. and manager Gregg Berhalter.
Weston McKennie’s injury is a certainty. He’s out for the rest of Juventus’s season after fracturing his foot in the Champions League round of 16. The only question regarding McKennie as it relates to World Cup qualifying is what shape he would be in should the U.S. finish fourth in Concacaf and have to play in a June playoff vs. Oceania’s champion in Qatar for a final berth in the fall competition.
But beyond McKennie, the clouds are clearing. Gio Reyna returned for Borussia Dortmund over the weekend, coming on as a second-half substitute and playing 27 minutes just three weeks after suffering what appeared to be the recurrence of a long-term injury. He avoided the worst-case scenario, though, and is back on track to contribute against Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica later this month. He has played in just one qualifier so far—the opener in El Salvador—in which he suffered a hamstring injury that derailed his season and his ability to help the U.S. His presence for the qualifying coda is looking more and more likely, though.
“It’s nice to be back. I got everything sorted out, I am pain-free, it was good to be back in front of the fans again and to see out the victory,” Reyna said following Sunday’s win over Arminia Bielefeld. “I’ve worked with my medical staff for the last two weeks since I got injured, and I really feel like we solved the root of the problem. Now I have no pain and I am just looking to kick on and play game by game. Just get fitter and fitter and hopefully, in a few weeks I will be 100%.”
That’s a nice follow-up to what he said in late February, when word of his prognosis—and the relief that accompanied it—sunk in.
“I don’t really have too many worries that I won’t be able to go to the national team. I’m pretty positive I’ll be able to go,” Reyna said at the time.
Despite what Reyna brings to the table, the U.S. has been able to get on without him, though. Brenden Aaronson and Tim Weah, in particular, have risen to the occasion to provide the playmaking and width needed to get the results that have the U.S. in position to qualify. Other areas with less depth and fewer top-shelf options are of concern as well, but there appears to be dawn after the darkness on those fronts.
Tyler Adams had endured through a minor back injury but overcame that to feature at the end of RB Leipzig’s rout of last-place Greuther Fürth. His 12-minute cameo should provide some relief, considering the U.S. midfield is already due to be missing one indispensable component. Adams already missed the last U.S. qualifier, a win over Honduras on a frigid night in Honduras, having suffered a hamstring injury in the previous match.
Just as vital is the status of Zack Steffen, the goalkeeper who missed the winter window with a back injury of his own and then suffered a shoulder injury in Man City training that has kept him out of action for the last month. He normally would not have played much in that time, anyway, entrenched as City’s No. 2, but the FA Cup match he would have started and the potential time in the second leg of a Champions League last-16 series that City already had tied up instead went to Ederson and Scott Carson. His return to training this weekend and his place on Man City’s bench Monday vs. Crystal Palace, however, puts him back on course to be the U.S.’s No. 1, barring any setbacks.
With Matt Turner expected to remain sidelined with a foot injury, it’s even more imperative that Steffen be deemed fit. The U.S. has had the luxury of having two goalkeepers it can count on and feel comfortable enough turning to when the lights are brightest, but to have them both be unable to go would put a significant spotlight on a third party. Ethan Horvath, the hero who came in off the bench for Steffen in the middle of the Concacaf Nations League final vs. Mexico in June, has finally been getting a consistent run of games at Nottingham Forest, but he hasn’t played a minute in World Cup qualifying. Sean Johnson, the MLS Cup MVP, would also figure to be in contention. It’s hard to envision uncapped 17-year-old and Chicago Fire rising star Gaga Slonina, the only other goalkeeper who has been part of World Cup qualifying camps this cycle, getting thrown onto the field with the stakes as high as they are.
The U.S. has been playing the balancing act of theoretical XI vs. reality XI for months. Berhalter still has yet to have what he would surely consider his ideal XI starting together for a single game. It’s promising that more of the upper echelon appears to be available for selection for the most important matches of the cycle. If the U.S. has learned anything, though, it’s that the current situation could change again in the next 10 days.
“I think what we’ve learned is expect the unexpected. You never know who’s going to be available to play in each game. You have got to be willing to adapt,” Berhalter said recently. “Some of it we’re not going to be able to control.”
