As the USMNT player pool broadens and deepens, places in its established core alongside the likes of Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie become scarcer and more difficult to seize. Yet soft spots persist on the depth chart, and high performance pays.
Take Brandon Vazquez, who made his USMNT senior debut at this point last year and quickly waded into the mix at the striker position by scoring four goals in his first eight caps. Could those footsteps be followed by someone like AZ Jackson, the rising St. Louis CITY standout who had only played in MLS NEXT Pro a year ago?
“Everyone has a different pathway, and it's really nice to see him and what he's done and how he's come on and made an impact for a very, very strong St. Louis team,” said Berhalter of Jackson. “So I think it's interesting to work with guys like him, like Diego [Luna], who bring this unpredictability to the game. He's a dribbler, a playmaker. We're excited to see how he fits into what we're doing.”
Or maybe this January camp’s star will be Bernard Kamungo, the diamond in the rough who first earned a contract by impressing in an open tryout with North Texas SC, FC Dallas’ second team, in 2021 and by the end of last season was arguably FCD’s most important attacker during the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs.
It was striking to hear Berhalter make an unprompted comparison between Pulisic and Kamungo, who was born in a Tanzanian refugee camp and didn’t play soccer on grass, or even with a proper ball, until a resettlement program landed his family in Abilene, Texas, when he was 14.
“That's the beauty of this job,” said Berhalter, “to see these journeys that players take and then end up potentially representing the senior national team in a game, it's just a wonderful story. And it's no secret that I get a lot of information from Nico Estevez, the coach of Dallas [and Berhalter’s former USMNT assistant]. We’re very close and he called me at the beginning of the year, and he said, ‘You know, I may have this guy that's interesting. We're going to have to wait to see how this whole year plays out.’
“Sure enough, the kid just has a knack for scoring goals. He gets in front of goal and he’s very effective. Those are qualities you can't teach. When I think about our wingers, particularly Christian, you know, that's one of his main attributes that people overlook, is that he scores goals. He’s in position, he attacks the penalty box very well and then he's able to finish off attacks in a very efficient way. And Bernard’s no different. So it's going to be interesting to really work with him up close. He's been coming off of an ankle injury towards the end of the year, so we're going to have to see what his fitness is like. But really excited for him and again, just an amazing feel-good type of story that he's involved in this camp.”
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