Will make America great? | Israel today

With representatives from Barcelona, ​​Juventus, Manchester City and Dortmund, and the squad that is 22 years old, the USA presented an intriguing team against Wales • Coach Gary Brahalter is now expected to bring achievements from the "golden generation of American football"

• United States national team.

  Representatives in the major groups of Europe

  Photography: 

  Reuters

The result of the US prep game against Wales last week elegantly ignores the story. 0: 0 Gray may create a feeling that this game is not worth special attention, but a look at the line-up page makes it very clear that it is very worthwhile to linger on the Americans. The USA, which tonight (Monday, 21:45) will play against Panama, has fielded a squad that includes players from Manchester City, Juventus, Barcelona, ​​RB Leipzig, Valencia and Borussia Dortmund. 

Among the substitutes were players from Wolves, Boavista, Lille and even from the Brazilian Internacional.

The average age of this lineup was 22, and six players made their debut against the Welsh.

More than it was a football game, it was a show: the US introduced to the world its new generation - young and European - and great curiosity.

A lot has happened in American football in the 285 days that have passed since the team's last game against Costa Rica (0: 1 victory).

At that time Weston McKinney joined Juventus, Serginio Dest became the first American to represent Barcelona in the Champions League, Englishman Yunus Musa chose to represent the USA and at the same time became at 17 the youngest foreign conqueror in Valencia history, Gio Reina made his debut. Dortmund also scored a debut goal before his 18th birthday, and 18-year-old Chris Richards made his Bayern Munich debut and even cooked for Robert Lewandowski. 

Adding to this squad 25-year-old goalkeeper Zack Stephen who moved to Manchester City, 21-year-old Tyler Adams from Leipzig, 20-year-old Josh Sergeant from Werder Bremen and Chelsea's injured Christian Polisic are accepted What is defined as the "golden generation of American football."

"There are players here who collaborate with Messi and Ronaldo on a regular basis," Adams said this week, "so they can bring with them to the team the knowledge with which they are developing in their European teams." 

This is of course not the first time an American footballer has played in Europe.

Until recently the USA was a wonderful goalie exporter with Casey Keller, Brad Friedel and Tim Howard, and also in the field players sector it had Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Josie Altidore and others. But in those days the American player played in second tier teams (Except for Donovan who failed at Bayern), and there were very few Americans at any point in time. 

Today the story is completely different.

Many Americans grow up in the youth wards of large European groups, and their success is great.

As a result, senior teams from Europe are closely following the American League and developing academies, and the American footballer has become highly sought after.

For example: very soon 20-year-old Brendan Aronson will leave Philadelphia Union in favor of R.B. Salzburg, and in addition, the success of Serginio Dest and Conrad de la Puente in Barcelona has sparked interest from the Catalans as well as 18-year-old Gianluca Bossio from Sporting Kansas City and 17-year-old Cade Coal from San Jose Artqueak. 

Thanks to Politic, Reina, Dest and others, the American player's stock has risen sharply and the timing of this trend could not have been better.

Remember, the US team was not at the World Cup in Russia in 2018. Since 1990 it has appeared in every World Cup, reached the quarterfinals three times and in 2002 even reached the last eight, but the loss to Trinidad and Tobago in 2017 - the one that kept it out of the World Cup - Made it clear to Americans that they needed new, better quality blood. 

In that match there were seven players aged 28 and over, and only three who played in a European team at the time: Bobby Wood from Hamburg, Diandra Yadlin from Newcastle and the young Borussia Dortmund star Christian Polisic, then 19. The American media described this loss as the most embarrassing in national team history. In the revolution.

Some will say that the revolution started a long time ago and that it is still in the process, but the disappointment of 2018 has accelerated the understanding that the key is the development of the local player.

And really, after some laws were introduced that strengthen the status of the young American player, many academies have added quality coaches and invested in youth.

Many of the stars of the current generation may have grown up in Europe and started there, but others like Reina, McKenney and Adams came out at a young age thanks to the local league. 

"There's a young team here that I'm very proud of," concluded coach Gary Brahalter, who has the task of converting pride into unprecedented achievements for the Americans.