The European club seasons are over, save a few northern leagues, and a deep group of internationally-based United States men’s national team players have turned itsattention to the summer and Copa America.
There are friendlies coming, too, starting Saturday versus dangerous and long-unbeaten Colombia, but suffice it to say we’re intensely-focused on how the USMNT fare this this summer.
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And that makes this a terrific time to revisit our ranking of the top players in the USMNT player pool. The last list, produced in late March, was Serie A-heavy and paced by the career year of AC Milan’s Christian Pulisic.
There will be certainly be changes in this list, as Sergino Dest has suffered an ACL injury, a pair of Championship strikers drove their clubs near the playoffs, and Giovanni Reyna suffered through a rough loan to Nottingham Forest. How much should either of those things affect their places in our power rankings?
It’s a case-by-case thing. Let’s remind ourselves of the guiding lights.
Top 25 players in the USMNT player pool right now
The ranking is meant to illustrate who would be most likely to positively affect a USMNT match, regardless of club or country manager — sorry Gregg — or teammates, right now.
Health doesn’t matter to our rankings if a current injury isn’t one that could drastically alter the player’s skill set moving forward. In Dest’s case, it does matter (even if recovery from ACL injuries seemingly grows more certain by the day).
Age/potential/experience doesn’t matter either, at least not much; It’s how likely you are to contribute to the team if put on the field right now. Obviously, Cavan Sullivan is a better long-term prospect than an older playmaker, but who do you want against Uruguay in the Copa America group stage?
Finally, if you’re breaking a tie between players… ask which you’d be more upset to hear was unavailable for a USMNT camp.
Away we go...
- Christian Pulisic, AC Milan (1)
- Yunus Musah, AC Milan (3)
- Antonee Robinson, Fulham (4)
- Weston McKennie, Juventus (2)
- Tyler Adams, AFC Bournemouth (5)
- Timothy Weah, Juventus (7)
- Giovanni Reyna, Borussia Dortmund (9)
- Chris Richards, Crystal Palace (15)
- Johnny Cardoso, Real Betis (8)
- Folarin Balogun, AS Monaco (10)
- Matt Turner, Nottingham Forest (14)
- Malik Tillman, PSV Eindhoven (18)
- Haji Wright, Coventry City (20)
- Ethan Horvath, Cardiff City (21)
- Tim Ream, Fulham (11)
- Cameron Carter-Vickers, Celtic (13)
- Kevin Paredes, Wolfsburg (24)
- Auston Trusty, Sheffield United (26)
- Luca de la Torre, Celta Vigo (12)
- Josh Sargent, Norwich City (17)
- Ricardo Pepi, PSV Eindhoven (16)
- Brenden Aaronson, Leeds United (25)
- Walker Zimmerman, Nashville SC (22)
- Gianluca Busio, Venezia (23)
- Joe Scally, Borussia Monchengladbach (19)