Light workout: United States’ Weston McKennie (front) and teammates warming up at the Al-Gharafa SC Stadium. — AP
A WORLD Cup jammed into the middle of the European season isn’t ideal, especially for the United States.
Injuries and idleness run throughout the roster ahead of today’s match against Wales.
Weston McKennie, Sergino Dest and Luca de la Torre missed time, and Christian Pulisic and Matt Turner are among those struggling for playing time with their clubs. Defenders Walker Zimmerman and Aaron Long enter the Americans’ first World Cup match in eight years on lay-offs of more than a month after the ends of their Major League Soccer (MLS) seasons.
A friendly was held on Thursday against Al-Gharafa, the Qatari club hosting the American training base at Thani bin Jassim Stadium, but the level of intensity figures to be exponentially higher against Wales.
“This is going to be a dogfight,” McKennie said on Saturday.
“When everyone’s on all cylinders and fighting for each other and you see little fights on the field and everybody’s just fired up and ready to go, those are the times that I think we’ve played at our best.”
Absent from the biggest stage since the extra-time loss to Belgium in the last 16 in Brazil, the Americans take a new-look roster into the game – only rightback DeAndre Yedlin remains from 2014. FIFA said the Americans’ average age of 25.2 years is the second lowest among the 32 teams, higher than only Ghana’s 24.7.
With youth comes inconsistency.
“Every athlete in every single sport has an off day,” McKennie said.
“And the thing about football, it’s such a team sport that even if one player has an off day, it can throw off everything, and all of us have had an off day at some point. Obviously, we know when we come to the national team, everyone wants us to be 100%, everyone wants us to be focused and everything, which we are.
“But at the same time we’re humans and can we have faults, as well, so I think those are the times whenever we haven’t gotten the results maybe we want and haven’t been at our full potential.”
McKennie last played a competitive match for Juventus on Oct 29 because of a thigh injury.
“I came in, did a couple days of just maintaining and keeping it under control,” McKennie said.
“We played the friendly the other day and I felt good, ready to go.”
Dest, battling an adductor issue, has not played 90 minutes since Oct 5. He returned from the injury to play 35 minutes for AC Milan on Nov 13.
“After the last game, I had a little bit of fatigue,” he said. “Right now it’s going well. I’m ready to play.” — AP
