USMNT: Does the identity debate really matter?

USMNT players and coaches are debating whether the current national team has an identity or not. But does it really matter if they do?

How important is the identity of the team? And if it is important, just how do you cultivate one and what positive impact can it have? That is the question that currently faces the U.S. Men’s National Team.

More than just a question that the team faces, however, it is a debate that several figures at the heart of the team have publicly spoken out about, and on different sides of the coin.

It all started with goalkeeper Zach Steffen who stated quite plainly that the USMNT does not have an identity. “We don’t have an identity right now,” Steffen told ESPN FC. “We’re very young and inexperienced and immature in the international soccer world right now. We’re trying to find our feet, we’re trying to find leadership, we’re trying to find our playing style.”

His critique was more aimed at the U.S. Soccer Federation and not head coach Gregg Berhalter. His point was the delay in hiring a new head coach, whoever that was going to be, has now undermined the efforts to accurately and productively provide an identity of the team.

Berhalter, in due course, responded, and didn’t entirely disagree.

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“The first thing is, it’s a young group of guys establishing themselves on the international stage,” Berhalter told Fox Soccer. “The second thing is we haven’t had an event to form our identity. So when you think about the [past teams], you’re defined by your year of the World Cup, the ’94 group, the 2002 group, the 2010 group — that’s how the public forms opinions on the team. We haven’t had this opportunity because we’re a young group. And we’ll get that opportunity and the guys will work really hard in qualifying and then eventually in the World Cup to form what we feel can be a really strong group moving forward.”

Essentially, he says that it is in the works, but that it takes times — and invariably a big international tournament — for this to be developed. He isn’t wrong, and Steffen himself concedes that it takes time.

And this week, midfielder Weston McKennie stepped into the void.

“Whenever I think of the national team, I think of the collective group – that we know what we want to do, we know the type of players we have, and everybody knows what they have to offer, what we can do and everyone knows our abilities,” McKennie told ESPN FC. “When they say it’s a lack of identity, I don’t agree with that at all either. Our group is so close together, and so moulded together and understand each other so well, it’s something I haven’t experienced in a long time.”

He is more bullish in his rebuttal of Steffen’s initial claim, though it is fair to wonder if he is speaking about a different aspect of the team. McKennie seems to talk about the togetherness of the group, their collective spirit, their work-rate and commitment. Steffen, it seems, is critical of a lack of definition, which is very different.

All in all, this debate leaves the USMNT in this weird void. Of course, no games does not help. That they have not played since January, and that was the infamous January camp in which any European-based player, like McKennie and Steffen, is not present, is disruptive, to say the least. But national team management is very different to club management.

Where it is vital for domestic teams to have a philosophy and style that they stick to, national teams are not playing 40, 50, 60 matches a year. They have to peak for particular matches and periods, but having a defined identity that provides consistency and repetition throughout an extended period is simply not as important.

That is not to say that Berhalter need not bother with a system or a style or philosophy. Of course, the players will perform better or worse depending on the efficacy of the tactics he employs. And if they can execute those tactics at a higher level, which comes with greater understanding, the USMNT will have a better chance than not. But it is not the be-all and end-all like it can be in club management.

Ultimately, then, finding an identity for the USMNT will take matches. That does not look likely for some time. Until then, Berhalter must do what he can to teach his system to the players and hope, that when it matters most, they understand what they need to do.