After a slow start to World Cup qualifying, the United States men’s national team find themselves atop the Concacaf Octagonal group through four matchdays. Following back-to-back wins away to Honduras and at home against Jamaica, Gregg Berhalter’s side look to make it three in a row. Another tough away test awaits them as they make the trip down to fourth-place Panama for their fifth match of their qualifying campaign.
Due to pandemic-related travel restrictions in the UK, the team will be without Zack Steffen, Antonee Robinson, and Weston McKennie for their trip. The two most obvious candidates to replace Robinson at left back are moving Sergino Dest across the field and brining in DeAndre Yedlin or Shaq Moore. There’s also an option of using George Bello who is a more natural left-sided option. As far as the midfield goes, the onus of filling in for McKennie could lie on several contenders. Yunus Musah celebrated his WCQ debut with a stellar second half against Jamaica. He’ll likely be asked to carry some of the load. Other options that could come in and help include Luca de la Torre, Cristian Roldan, Kellyn Acosta, and Gianluca Busio.