After a summer of unqualified success, the United States national team heads into World Cup qualifying this fall with momentum and a deep roster.
On Thursday, United States national team head coach Gregg Berhalter announced his 26 players for the first slate of qualifiers. Qualifying begins on September 2 with a match at El Salvador followed by a home game against Canada. The group then closes out this pod of games at Panama.
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Here are the 26 players called in by Berhalter as the United States national team gets ready for World Cup qualifying.
United States national team roster:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Ethan Horvath (Nottingham Forest/ENG; 7/0), Zack Steffen (Manchester City/ENG; 23/0), Matt Turner (New England Revolution; 7/0)
DEFENDERS (10): George Bello (Atlanta United; 3/0), John Brooks (Wolfsburg/GER; 43/3), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona/ESP; 11/1), Mark McKenzie (Genk/BEL; 6/0), Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG; 45/1), Antonee Robinson (Fulham/ENG; 12/0), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United; 9/3), James Sands (New York City FC; 6/0), DeAndre Yedlin (Galatasaray/TUR; 64/0), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC; 17/2)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Kellyn Acosta (Colorado Rapids; 37/2), Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig/GER; 14/1), Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy; 29/7), Weston McKennie (Juventus/ITA; 24/7), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders; 25/0)
FORWARDS (8): Brenden Aaronson (RB Salzburg/AUT; 7/3), Konrad de la Fuente (Olympique Marseille/FRA; 1/0), Jordan Pefok (BSC Young Boys/SUI; 6/1), Ricardo Pepi (FC Dallas; 0/0), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea/ENG; 38/16), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund/GER; 8/4), Josh Sargent (Norwich City/ENG; 16/5), Tim Weah (Lille/FRA; 13/1)
The layout of the roster is a bit deceiving as players such as Aaronson and Reyna can and will drop into the midfield roles. In addition Sands, who played as a centerback this summer in the Gold Cup, can move up to play as the No. 6.
The start of CONCACAF qualifying comes after Berhalter masterfully led the United States national team to capturing both the inaugural Nations League as well as the Gold Cup this past month. Both tournament triumphs were big in terms of rebuilding the national team’s psyche after failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.