Ahead of Copa America, we dig deep into the USMNT's depth chart. Let's rank the top 120 American players by position -- 15 players each!
Ryan O'Hanlon is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He's also the author of"Net Gains: Inside the Beautiful Game's Analytics Revolution."
The purpose of the exercise isn't necessarily to identify who exactly is the 14th-best American left-back, but to see what the USMNT's positions of strength and weakness are. In the past, the USMNT had multiple 'keepers who could come up big. Kasey Keller and Brad Friedel, both very good in Europe, were on the roster at the 2002 World Cup. In 2006, Keller, Tim Howard and Marcus Hahnemann were there -- all playing over in Europe. In 2010, it was Howard, Hahnemann and Aston Villa's Brad Guzan. And in 2014, Howard and Guzan were there again.match since January, while the backup, Ethan Horvath, had to go to the Championship midseason in order to find game time.
Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah and Tim Weah are all capable of playing that position, and it seems like Reynolds might've earned the spot had there not been an Olympics this summer as well. An uninjured Yedlin might've gotten the nod over Moore, too. But the pattern with these position rankings is similar to the pattern at almost every other position: a couple starters for top-50 teams in the world, then a bunch of guys either playing in MLS or somewhere like Belgium or the Netherlands.
It's funny how quickly things can change. Richards didn't make the World Cup roster, and now he's the team's first-choice center-back. Lund is still unproven with the USMNT and in a major European league. He hasn't necessarily been lighting up Serie B or anything like that.
Three of those guys are 21, and McKennie is 25. After that group, there's a good deal of potential, too.Herculez Gomez and Sebastian Salazar debate the biggest storylines and break down the best highlights that soccer in the Americas has to offer.De la Torre started 22 games in LaLiga this season. The elder Tillman, Timmy, got one of the final roster spots at the Copa America. McGlynn has been getting significant minutes in MLS since he was 17.
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