ST. LOUIS—When the US national team stepped up out of the dugout and onto the playing surface for a Thursday evening training session at Busch Stadium, they encountered a penalty box where the home team usually fields grounders, and a corner flag near the spot where the next batter awaits his chance at the plate for the 11-time World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals.
It offered an easy metaphor for the message coach Jurgen Klinsmann had just reiterated at his press conference: There's always someone else on deck, awaiting their turn.
“Here and there definitely you need to make that transition happen already,” said Klinsmann, as the fifth-year boss guides the program toward a potential World Cup 2018 appearance in Russia. “Those [new] players are coming in because they're good, because they deserve to come in, they deserve to get a chance to play in World Cup qualifying games, in games that really are very, very important. We cannot wait until the very last moment and then hope for the best for the World Cup.
“If you don't take those risks in a certain time, then you don't get answers.”
From front to back, few roles on the USMNT are set in stone. Klinsmann confirmed platooning his brace of veteran goalkeepers, with Brad Guzan earning the nod in Friday night's 2018 World Cup qualifying curtain-raiser vs. St. Vincent & The Grenadines and Tim Howard set to start at Trinidad & Tobago on Tuesday.
“It was no secret as to what was going to happen. I think Jurgen put some statements out in the last set of games. For us, nothing changes,” Guzan said. “I think it's probably made more of a big deal from you guys [in the media] than it is from us. We train the same, we work hard, and obviously for me, [Friday] is a big night because us as a team, we want to get off to a good start in this qualifying campaign.”
In the attack, several young faces are making their case for the starting role up top alongside Jozy Altidore, since Clint Dempsey was left at home this time around.
“We believe they are ready,” Klinsmann said. “They're going to continue to grow over time. I think especially in the forward positions, it's about learning experiences, it's about building confidence, it's about smelling the thinner air in the international game where you can mature.
“So we continue that process and we are confident they will give a lot of energy back to us.”
Even in midfield, where the World Cup trio of captain Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones and Kyle Beckerman are all ready for action, change might be in the offing in one or both of these qualifiers.
“It's important to get some new blood in, some new faces,” Bradley said. “It's important in anything to find the right balance between young and old, experienced and new. But there's no doubt that in terms of where we are in the transition of a team, we need some new faces, some young players to come in and start to really show what they're all about.
“Some guys who've been given opportunities have done well to take them, and a few more get an opportunity this week.”
