USMNT face lingering questions over trio of strikers

PHILADELPHIA — Whether the U.S. men’s national team has a dearth of good options up front or more strikers than it knows what to do with depends on the day.

As it relates to the November window that opens with a friendly here in Philadelphia on Saturday against Paraguay before the U.S. faces Uruguay in Tampa, it’s closer to the latter. 

Folarin Balogun, Ricardo Pepi and Haji Wright are all not only in camp, but all three arrive in form. Balogun has scored in two of his last three games in Ligue 1 for AS Monaco.

Pepi is fighting for minutes at PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands, but scored in the Champions League to give his team a 1-1 draw against Olympiacos last week. Wright made the most of a USMNT call-up in October, getting back into the fold with a two-goal performance to help beat Australia.

As it relates to the World Cup in June, the question is murkier.

Anyone with a passing knowledge of the USMNT is familiar with the struggles to find a consistent No. 9 that plagued it throughout the 2022 cycle, and which have carried into this one.

At various points, Balogun, Pepi and Wright have all looked like real options to lead the U.S. line next summer, and there’s plenty of time for things to keep changing between now and June.

“I don’t really think about it,”Wright said on a Zoom call Tuesday. “Try and perform for my club [Coventry City] and if I get called into camp, I try to come in and do the same thing. Just focus on myself and what I can do to affect the coach’s decision in a positive way.”

This would appear to be an especially crucial set of games for Pepi, who hasn’t suited up for the national team in 13 months.

Coach Mauricio Pochettino has stressed that anyone can work their way into the fold, and with a number of regulars missing from this window, this would appear to be an obvious chance to do so.

“They need to know they are in the race or the competition to be in the roster in the World Cup,” Pochettino said before camp when asked about Pepi. “That is, I think for us, the most important thing. Then they can play. 

“But the important thing is they need to give their best, to try to arrive in the best shape. To be like animals and feel really strong and to arrive in a competition that is going to be the most important competition in the history of the national team. That is the idea we want to relay to them.”