The U.S. Men’s National Team either has a striker drought or somebody’s not scouting the player pool well enough. With the vocal minority of USMNT trolls on Twitter, any mention of a striker outside of the five or so who have been on the roster recently is met with instant ridicule as if you suggested an amateur off the street. For a fan base that wants changes and new players, they are surprisingly resistant to incorporating new strikers. If you suggest that a new or different striker is used, people won’t provide an argument about why the player shouldn’t be included. Instead, they’ll just repeat the player’s name with a question mark after it or just write “LOL” or laugh.
Ricardo Pepi
As Hugo Perez said to Jimmy Conrad, Ricardo Pepi doesn’t get any service for club and country, and he needs a 10 behind him. Pepi is a complete striker experiencing a goal drought due to lack of service. U.S. Men’s National Team fans have somewhat stupidly written him off for not scoring, despite the underlying problem. Pepi has been forced to drop deep to receive the ball, and then of course he isn’t in position to receive the ball in a scoring position. Apparently, U.S. fans are too stupid to understand that he can’t be in two places at once. Pepi is still the top American striker because he finishes clinically, makes non-stop runs off the ball, combines well with his teammates, and plays direct. He’s also faster and quicker than people realize. He’s only a teenager, and he’ll get even better.
Haji Wright
Haji Wright like Ricardo Pepi is also a complete striker. His tall, thin build stands out, and Wright is a smooth mover with lots of speed. No problems with changing directions or horizontal quickness, he uses both feet interchangeably, attacks defenders directly off the dribble, and always looks to go straight to goal. He’s got a good goal-scoring rate in Turkey, and he’s shown that he doesn’t have a problem cooly burying penalties. Is he better than Pepi? The jury is still out, but Wright looks much better than Jordan Pefok, Jesus Ferreira, and maybe Josh Sargent just on spec based on the eye test. Wright has been a well-known name in American soccer circles since like 2012 or 2013 when he was 16. He appears to have all of the tools, and Christian Pulisic really likes playing with him. Wright has been bouncing around clubs for years, despite his combination of skill and athleticism. There doesn’t appear to be any issues with him that would hold him back. How many more Haji Wrights are out there? The USSF is the worst scouting federation in the world.
Timothy Weah
Timothy Weah is a striker who just doesn’t know it. I supposed you could say that he’s more of a second striker than a first striker. Lots of people think a first striker means a striker who holds up play, but I mean a striker like Brazilian Ronaldo or Thierry Henry or Karim Benzema. He’s been banished to the right wing for the USMNT where it takes more work and where he has to cover more ground to get in front of the goal mouth and into scoring positions. In the last few games, he showed his willingness and ability to blast shots from outside the box and score them. People say his goal on Morocco was a mistake by the goalkeeper, but I think there was too much power and movement on the shot. Listing Weah as a striker doesn’t mean he can’t be used as a wing or a second striker in a different formation, but his clinical finish against Jamaica with his left foot shows that he has the clinical finishing skills to be a striker.