The United States have a very important one-off game against Mexico for a spot in the Confederations Cup, and have a few friendlies to prepare for the match. The first is today, against the South American country of Peru. Peru is one of the weakest sides from South America, but that doesn’t make this match any less important.
The US team has a bit of an injury bug amongst the pool of fullbacks. DeAndre Yedlin and Greg Garza are the only two “true” fullbacks who got called into this camp. Although there are more than 6 centrebacks, so perhaps one or two might move to the outside. Also missing for this friendly are captain Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey. They are both staying with their MLS teams and will join the squad before the Brazil friendly next week.
Jurgen Klinsmann has reaffirmed that Brad Guzan will be the number one goalkeeper, at least through the Mexico match. Tim Howard and William Yarbrough have also been called in, and will be ready to go if needed. Other big names that are back are Matt Besler and Geoff Cameron, who were left off the final Gold Cup roster. Tim Ream gets another call-up, which might signal a revival of his international career.
The midfield is pretty thin on experience, although Jermaine Jones is back. Alejandro Bedoya is the most reliable out of the group, but they will have to find at least one or two more pieces in Danny Williams, Mix Diskerud, or Alfredo Morales.
The forward line is pretty standard, minus the new addition of Andrew Wooten. Wooten has had a wonderful first few weeks for SV Sandhausen, leading to his call up. Bobby Wood, Gyasi Zardes get another call up as expected. Of course, we also have Jozy Altidore and Aron Johannsson in camp, likely starting the Peru match. Jozy will look to regain his form, while Johannsson is coming off his first goal for Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga. Jozy was sent home from the Gold Cup, so it will be interesting to see how he responds.
Peru have quite a few players who play domestically, although they do have a few players who play overseas. Paolo Hurtado plays at Reading, while Paolo Guerrero is at Flamengo in Brazil. Perhaps their most exciting young talent is Carlos Ascues, a 23-year-old defender who is at Wolfsburg. He has 5 goals in 13 caps, which is very impressive for a young defender.
This match shouldn’t be one for experiments. Instead, we will likely see something similar to the lineup that will take the field against Mexico. Obviously there will be a few holes with Bradley and Dempsey missing, but the basic form should be taking shape. We are very curious to see who the two centrebacks end up being. There are plenty of options. Besler and Cameron were heavily used in the World Cup, but not so much since. John Brooks and Ventura Alvarado were the Gold Cup starters, but struggled. We also have others hoping to get their chance with Tim Ream and Omar Gonzalez.
This game will be a good opportunity to knock some rust off and get serious before the Mexico match.
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