CARY, N.C. – It took awhile, but an 18-year-old budding footballer finally expressed what so many have been wanting to hear out of the US national team since failing to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
“Not qualifying for the World Cup has been a hard time for us,” said Tim Weah, the former New York Red Bulls Academy product, now a member of Paris Saint-Germain. “But it’s a new era, as I said on Twitter, and we’re looking forward to everything we’re going to do with these young guys.”
This new era enjoyed its latest episode Tuesday evening in chilly North Carolina. A melange of international and domestic club youth took to the field at WakeMed Soccer Park under the USMNT banner to get a 1-0 win over Paraguay, the first US victory since last October. Even Toronto FC’sMarky Delgado, who started the match to earn his first international cap, admits he hadn’t heard of some of his teammates before camp opened last week. And even the veterans on the roster – DeAndre Yedlin, Darlington Nagbe, Bobby Wood – were the up-and-comers not so long ago.
“It’s good for us younger guys, but obviously it’s tough,” said Erik Palmer-Brown, who received his first senior national team call-up in the nine-day March camp. “I remember watching that game [the loss to Trinidad and Tobago] and it hurt. It was something you can’t forget, but we have to move on. I think that’s what we’re doing as a national team system. We’re moving on, and now it’s on to the next generation and the younger guys.”
The group exuded what USMNT interim coach Dave Sarachan branded “youthful confidence.” And for a night, fans eagerly shared in that exuberance. But the audacity of hope eventually abuts harsh reality. The question remains whether the youngsters featured in the three US friendlies since washing out of the World Cup, and those yet to come in the run-up to next year’s Concacaf Gold Cup, will form the spine of a new national team era or merely become developmental window dressing.
“Using this experience now and gaining these international matches at a younger age will prove to be important down the road,” said 19-year-old New York Red Bulls midfielder Tyler Adams, who earned his third USMNT cap against Paraguay. “With the Olympics and a lot of these guys being eligible for that cycle, gaining chemistry around our senior team coaches and the experiences they have will only help us going forward.”
Still, while Sarachan said in advance of Tuesday’s match that he hoped to use all six of his allotted substitutions in order to evaluate as many young players as possible, he ended up using only four subs, two of them beyond the 85th minute. There’s also the backdrop of how long Sarachan will remain the USMNT manager beyond the World Cup season, and how a future gaffer, and men’s team general manager, might assess this new era.
“This is the natural progression,” Sarachan said. “I was part of this in 2002 and part, off and on, of all the different four-year cycles The natural progression is that guys get older and young guys come through. If the balance is right, you can find a pretty successful group. Having older, veteran heads and voices is extremely important. And yet, you need some of the young guns to get their feet wet and take the mantle.”
As they assume the mantle, the young guns in this March camp informally adopted the rehabilitative meme du jour, popularized by the Philadelphia 76ers gradual, systematic return to success.
“It’s trust the process, you know,” Palmer-Brown said. “That’s my motto. Focus on what you can control, and the rest will fall into place.”
“I think we’re going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future,” Weah added. “So, the process is the way to go.”
