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EAST HARTFORD, Connecticut – The best measure of the state of the US men's national football team is not the victories, the goals, the assistance, but the more unpredictable: age .
The 10 American players who faced Peru on Tuesday night, for example, had an average age of 21.9 years. Three were still teenagers. Three of the starters made their first appearance for the team. Another was his second.
So when this young team scored at least 90 minutes later, with a 1-1 draw against Peru, which brought together more than half of the players who had represented the country at this summer's World Cup, he There was room to be optimistic. One of these teenagers, after all, the boy Josh Sargent, had scored the goal of the team.
But, like many American teams these days, his promises and his inexperience were displayed throughout the match – a collection of bright lights, clumsy gifts, and envy that showed the team American remained a work in progress.
Take two plays: Sargent's shot, on a well-timed strike, which hit the defender's knee in the 49th minute, and Peru's tying goal at the 86th scored when substitute, DeAndre Yedlin – one rare veterans from the United States – has fallen asleep at the last post and allowed Edison Flores to slip behind him for a tap-in.
In many ways, then, the night was typical for Acting Manager Dave Sarachan and his team.
It's a year of experimentation for the US men's national team, which turned the page on the embarrassing failure of qualifying at the World Cup World Cup by trying dozens of new faces in a exposure after another. This inexperience has sometimes been highlighted, particularly in recent defeats against more demanding and experienced teams like Brazil and Colombia.
Sarachan, hired to lead the team for a match but about to celebrate his first birthday in office, tried to consider each match as a potential learning experience, a chance to expand the pool of players and indoctrinate new players. .
He talked about connecting players on and off the field and teaching them to recognize when to support the pace and when to have the maturity to slow down, to control the possession of the ball, to ensure a comparable potential victory. to that of Tuesday.
"Part of that," he said Monday, "it's just to get to know each other."
Nevertheless, some of the common communication errors in this maturation process were evident on Tuesday: a failed chance in the penalty box when a layoff pass surprised his recipient; a pass in the lead played a fraction of a second too late or a meter too far; a gift in midfield, a lack of concentration, a lost chance of winning an encouraging victory.
Sargent's goal was brilliant, though Yedlin's fault was not. This is what is happening right now for the US national team. Three other players – Reggie Cannon, Aaron Long and Jonathan Amon – made their debut Tuesday night. Three other teenagers – Sargent, Timothy Weah and Amon – have gained experience.
Next month, the team will have two more opportunities to show what she can do and what she should not do when she travels to Europe to play England. and Italy. Sarachan may have left by then, replaced by a permanent coach, but the team will try to keep moving forward, whether he has left for the trip or not.
"I think that progress from one side to the other and from one game to the other is going in the right direction," said Sarachan. "So, there is a lot of hope."
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