Gregg Berhalter says the USMNT’s current strikers are more different than fans think

Berhalter also said he doesn't "want to ever insinuate" that a player like Jordan Pefok wouldn’t be helpful to us, potentially.”

U.S. men's soccer team Gregg Berhalter has plenty to think about as the World Cup nears.Read moreMartin Meissner / AP

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Sept. 22, 2022, 4:22 p.m. ET

U.S. men’s soccer team manager Gregg Berhalter loves to preach the of the virtue of sticking with his tactical system, no matter what the masses in the pews think.

But beneath the rhetoric and the reaction to it, Berhalter has shown some flexibility. During the summer, he switched formations during games between his usual 4-3-3 and a 3-2-2-3, so his players could use a different setup if needed at the World Cup.

Those moves mainly affected the defense and midfield. You don’t have to be a tactics savant to notice that the “3″ at the end of both number sets didn’t change.

So as the controversy over Berhalter’s roster choices rumbles on, it’s natural to look at the current U.S. roster and think that its strikers — Jesús Ferreira, Josh Sargent and Ricardo Pepi — are pretty similar. They’re all quick, able to cover lots of ground, good at pressing defensively, and not seen as “target forwards,” a moniker usually given for size as much as skill.

Pepi is the only one of the three listed at six feet tall or higher. Sargent is listed as 5-foot-10 and Ferreira is 5-foot-8. For as much as the rancor around Jordan Pefok’s omission is based on his good scoring form, it also matters that he’s 6-foot-3.

The other notable absentees are also pretty tall: Brandon Vazquez is 6-foot-2 and Haji Wright is 6-foot-3. And if you want to add veteran Jozy Altidore to the backup list for his quiet resurgence with Mexico’s Puebla, he’s 6-foot-1.

‘Subtle differences’

How much does Berhalter’s seeming insistence on sticking with one type of striker matter? Or put another way, if he doesn’t take more than one type of striker to the World Cup, how much of a risk is there of it coming back to haunt him?

The more polite version of the question was put to Berhalter on Thursday, the eve of the U.S. men’s team’s next-to-last World Cup warmup against Japan in Düsseldorf, Germany (8:26 a.m. ET., ESPN2, UniMás, TUDN, ESPN+; pregame coverage on all four starts at 8 a.m.).

“I’m not there with you,” Berhalter said during a Zoom news conference from the team’s training camp in Cologne. “I wouldn’t say they’re the same. I don’t think you can compare Ricardo Pepi in the air or Josh Sargent in the air to Jesús; I don’t think you can compare Jesús’ playmaking ability to Pepi. I think they are different.”

The differences, Berhalter continued, “may be subtle differences, but nonetheless, they are differences.”

He then brought up a name where subtlety is not required.

“When you’re talking about a guy like Jordan, you know, he to me is a completely different profile — which could be useful as well,” Berhalter said. “I don’t want to ever insinuate that, you know, that wouldn’t be helpful to us, potentially.”

With that, the day’s biggest headline was in place.

“We’re just evaluating,” Berhalter continued. “I thought we have a lot of information on Jordan, we got good information on what he’s doing now in the Bundesliga [with Germany’s Union Berlin]. We’re going to continue to monitor him, Haji [at Turkey’s Antalyaspor], Brandon [at FC Cincinnati], any other forwards in the pool.”

Sargent to the fore

Berhalter hinted that he wants to give significant playing time to Sargent and Pepi on Friday and in next Tuesday’s game against Saudi Arabia in Murcia, Spain (2 p.m., FS1, UniMás, TUDN).

“Now we get to look at, up close, Josh — who we haven’t had in camp in a while, who was a big part of our group [in] the summer of ‘21 and the start of qualifying,” Berhalter said. ‘And then Ricardo, who in qualifying, really made a big difference for us in a lot of games. So we want to give these guys an opportunity to evaluate them again.”

Berhalter notably spoke at length about Sargent’s improvement in recent months. At the start of this World Cup cycle, the now-22-year-old from the St. Louis suburbs was considered the Americans’ top young striker prospect. But a fall in form for his country and his club, Norwich City of England’s second division, sent Sargent spiraling down the depth chart. He hasn’t scored a goal for the U.S. in nearly three years, and hasn’t played for the national team — or even been called up — since the opening World Cup qualifiers last September.

It didn’t help that Sargent was often played on the wing instead of centrally at Norwich. (It also didn’t help that he suffered an ankle injury in April.) But this season, he has gotten a new chance at his preferred position, and he has capitalized with six goals and one assist.

Could the player who was expected to be the No. 1 all along end up winning the job now?

“He looks great,” Berhalter said. “Confidence is a big thing, but also strength — he’s gotten bigger, he’s gotten stronger, gotten quicker, more decisive with his movements. … He’s had a tough road, but now it shows what he can do when he’s in form, [and] he’s been showing that.”