USMNT: Reviewing Josh Sargent’s season and future prospects
On Saturday, Josh Sargent ended his Bundesliga campaign with a goal. With the season now over, we review the USMNT striker’s performances and consider his future prospects.
The U.S. Men’s National Team has the most talented group of young players in the team’s history. No player has ever performed at the level Christian Pulisic is currently competing it, while the likes of Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Sergino Dest and Gio Reyna all boast far higher potential than any American before them.
In fact, Gregg Berhalter has a young crop that fills almost every position on the pitch. There is just one obvious hole that needs to be filled: centre-forward.
The man the USMNT hope can inherit the mantle from Jozy Altidore is Josh Sargent, who is currently semi-regular for Bundesliga side, Werder Bremen. Having only turned 20 earlier this year, he is extremely young. That he is receiving so many minutes in a top-five European league is impressive enough, irrespective of his performances.
But with the Bundesliga campaign closing this weekend, Bremen securing a dramatic 6-1 victory to stave off relegation until a playoff against the third-placed 2. Bundesliga team, Heidenheim, we thought it would be interesting to review Sargent’s individual campaign and consider what that means for his future prospects, both with Bremen and the USMNT.
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The season started in an encouraging fashion for Sargent. After being named on the bench for the opening two matches, he earned his starting role in the third contest. He scored in a 3-2 win over Ausburg, playing 82 minutes of Bremen’s first victory of the season.
Sargent then started five of the next six matches, mostly playing as centre-forward though sometimes moonlighting out wide, on the right and left flanks. He provided an assist in a 2-2 draw with Borussia Dortmund, before scoring one of the goals of the season against Hertha Berlin, back-heeling a flicked header up and over a stranded goalkeeper. It was a terrific piece of acrobatic skill. In the final match of that six-game run, he provided an assist in a 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen.
From this point, his form curtailed. He dropped out of the starting line-up for the next three matches, then missed the winter schedule with a torn muscle fibre, and did not return until the turn of the year. In 2020, Bremen and Sargent’s form continued to spiral out of control. The team lost six of their first eight games in 2020 and won just one. They slipped into the heart of the relegation fight.
During this eight-game run, Sargent started three teams. The first was the only win of the period, a 1-0 victory over Fortuna Dusseldorf. He then started the next week in a loss to Hoffenheim before four-straight substitute appearances. Upon his return to the starting XI, he scored in a 2-2 versus Hertha Berlin.
That was the last match before lockdown. To close out the season, Sargent featured in every Bremen match upon the league’s resumption, starting six of the 11 matches. He provided two assists in a crucial 5-1 win over Paderborn, before notching his final goal of the season in this weekend’s 6-1 over Koln with a lovely deft touch and finish into the bottom corner.
By the end of the year, Sargent provided four goals and four assists in 1,419 Bundesliga minutes. He also provided one assist in 199 DFB Pokal minutes. It is far from a tremendous return and pales in comparison to some of the other brilliant young attackers the Bundesliga features, but given his age and the struggles of his team more generally, there were plenty of positive signs for Sargent’s development.
For the USMNT, Sargent has five goals in 12 caps. He has been quietly effective under Berhalter and seems to be the long-term option at the position. It remains to be seen whether Bremen remain in the Bundesliga or are relegated, but Sargent’s prospects are strong at a club that clearly believes in him.
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There is a long way to go, of course, and he certainly does not possess the natural talent of Pulisic, Adams or McKennie. But the striker made progress this season, and that is all you can ask for.