For US national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann, much of the past year has been about transition from old to new. Klinsmann has done his best to move the USMNT into a new generation, consistently calling in younger players as he looks toward the future.
On Tuesday, all that changed.
By naming a veteran-heavy roster for the Gold Cup, Klinsmann said he's placed the focus squarely on winning this summer’s regional championship – and qualifying directly for the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia.
“It’s not about developing players for the next couple of weeks, it’s about winning that Gold Cup and qualifying for the Confederations Cup 2017,” Klinsmann said in a statement released by U.S. Soccer. “So we’ve got to put the development side on the backburner for a few weeks, and then we’re going to pick it back up because the only way we can develop the players and get them better and better is by giving them opportunities.”
Of the 23 players named to the roster on Tuesday, 17 were on last year’s World Cup squad. Additionally, seven players are 30 or older, with eight playing significant roles for the USMNT in at least two World Cup cycles.
All that experience should serve the US well in their difficult Gold Cup group, which will pit them against two tough Central American foes in Panama and Honduras as well as Caribbean representative Haiti.
“It’s very different now in the Gold Cup where our main rivals are from Central America and they play a specific way. They’re all different in their own terms, but you need to put that in consideration when you put the pieces together in terms of your roster,” Klinsmann said in a Q&A on USSoccer.com. “You need to have guys that are experienced in dealing with teams like that. If you look at our group, it’s a very difficult with Panama and Honduras and also Haiti is a team that’s a little unpredictable, so you need to have guys in your team right now that can deal with surprises, that can deal with issues, and can deal with maybe being a goal down and turn things around.”
That's without even mentioning Mexico, the US’s opponent in three of the last four Gold Cup finals. El Tri are sending their top team to the tournament, and will no doubt be a tough out – in a potentially hostile environment – should they meet the US in the knockout rounds.
“Going into a Gold Cup, especially in our region here, experience means a lot. You need players that stay calm in very emotional and very difficult and very tough battles,” Klinsmann said. “It can get nasty, things might not go your way in some moments, so you have to stay cool and you have to always be on top of things. I think the experience that players like Brad Guzan, Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Chris Wondolowski, Nick Rimando have, just to name a few of them, those guys bring the experience with them to stay calm and get the job done.”
