One of the last remaining pre–World Cup questions for the U.S. men’s national team was answered Thursday. Come Nov. 9, the projections can stop and the scrutinizing of club appearances can be temporarily put to rest. On that day, in New York City, manager Gregg Berhalter will reveal the U.S.’s 26-man roster that’ll be headed to Qatar, and, barring any injury setbacks at the club level in the remaining days before players are officially released to their national teams, that’s who will represent the country at the World Cup.
But there’s still a bit to go before that checkpoint is hit. A month from Saturday, the final pre-roster-reveal camp will conclude after a week in Germany and Spain, where the U.S. will face Japan and Saudi Arabia in its last tune-ups before the World Cup. Those matches also double as the final auditions for players on the roster bubble, with Berhalter’s task to balance preparations for World Cup group games against Wales, England and Iran with assessing his player pool in person for one last time and using what he observes to assist in making his last cut. He has typically capped U.S. camps at about 27 to 28 players, with his feeling being that a group too big is ultimately a disservice to the players and the overall mission.
That means that if some of the last-chance-saloon players are indeed incorporated next month, some intriguing omissions will have to be made. Not being included in this camp does not mean a player is out of the World Cup picture entirely, but with the opportunities to show out in a U.S. kit (yes, even that leaked one) dwindling, it would put any player excluded for sporting reasons on notice that there’s no margin for error when it comes to form over the subsequent weeks.
