GLENDALE, Calif. - United States manager Gregg Berhalter has come to the defense of midfielder Michael Bradley, insisting that "it's clear that he has quality."
Bradley is part of the squad that will face Panama at State Farm Stadium on Sunday. If he sees the field, which seems likely, it will mark just the third game he has played for the U.S. since his participation in the match against Trinidad and Tobago in which the Americans failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
During that time, Bradley has endured his ups and downs. While 2017 ended with his club Toronto FC claiming a domestic treble, the Reds and Bradley endured a down season in 2018 with TFC failing to reach the postseason. Bradley also struggled late in the Americans' 4-2 friendly defeat to Colombia last October.
Those circumstances, plus Bradley's advancing age -- he'll turn 32 in July and will be 35 by the time the next World Cup takes place in 2022 -- have led to calls that he should be dropped from the U.S. in favor of younger options. Berhalter disagreed.
"It's hard for me to understand how people gather that opinion, because when I see [Bradley] up close, it's clear that he has quality," Berhalter said. "When you look at his quality level in this group, it's high."
Berhalter added that when it comes to his player selections, he'll continue to look at the ability of a player rather than age.
"If [a player is] good enough to perform and he can fit and execute in the roles and responsibilities that we have for that position then he should be able to play, whether that's old or young," he said. "Michael is a good example of that. He's been doing well in camp. His leadership has been good, but also his execution has been excellent."
Berhalter also elaborated on his decision to drop Kellyn Acosta from his gameday squad. The Colorado Rapids midfielder garnered significant minutes during the last World Cup cycle, and also saw playing time last year, making six appearances. Berhalter said it simply a case of Acosta's competition playing better.
"We had [Acosta] playing a position that he has competition in," said Berhalter. "We felt at the time that the other guys in his position were better suited to play the role than he was.
"Having said that, and I spoke very clearly to Kellyn, that doesn't mean that his fate is sealed with the national team. What I explained to him is that this is one slice in time. Here are the things that he can improve on, and as he gets fit, as he gets in better shape, we're confident that he'll be able to execute on that, and we're going to continue to monitor that."
Berhalter said he's now eager to see how the concepts he introduced during an extended training camp will look on the field. The newly minted national team manager has had an up-close look at his squad comprised entirely of MLS players for the past two and a half weeks during a camp that began at the Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., and this week moved to Arizona.
In that time Berhalter has attempted to lay the foundation for his style of play. The first test comes on Sunday when the U.S. faces Panama at State Farm Stadium.
"When I reflect back on the last couple of weeks and going back to the planning stage, our intent was very clear: We wanted to have a camp that was going to bring guys together, that was going to focus on team building, a style of play, and competing," Berhalter said at his prematch press conference. "And you're never really sure in the end about the execution, how it's going to come off.
"But what I'd say is, when I look at these last two and a half weeks, I think it was very successful, and it all starts with mindset of the players. They were very engaged, very open to environment, very inquisitive, and really bonded over these last two and a half weeks, so I think it's been a very productive time period."
Now the focus is on competition, and Berhalter said he'll look at both the result and the overall performance when gauging how much progress his team has made.
He said: "We certainly want to be able to see the concepts, and it gives us now a good blueprint to move forward. What we'll do is we'll analyze the game, we'll analyze what concepts are pretty well ingrained, what concepts need developing, and it will give us a blueprint to go forward and plan the next week of training, and even moving forward evaluating the teaching style, and what training sessions were effective in teaching, what training sessions could have been better executed.
"I'm really excited for this. It's going to give us information. Right now, we have no body of work to go on. This is the start of our body of work."
The U.S. will face a Panama side that is just seven months removed from appearing in its first World Cup, but Berhalter stressed that his focus will be less on the opponent and more on how the U.S. performs.
"Every game, every opponent gives challenges," he said. "I see Panama as an athletic team, a young team. For us it's going to be about how can we get into our structure, how can we get into our shape? How can we open up and get into offensive organization? That I think will be a little bit of challenge, but something that we relish."
Following the Panama game, the U.S. will face Costa Rica in San Jose, California at Avaya Stadium. While there figures to be some squad rotation, Berhalter said he couldn't guarantee that every player on his now 23-man roster would see the field in at least one match.
"The priority of ours is not to play everyone in camp in these two games," he said. "We're definitely going to make substitutions in the game. We know that, we know that guys aren't 90 minutes fit, but you're not going to see two different teams in these games. What we want to do is start working on building, and building continuity and building a core. That will be important in these games.
"One thing I will say is everyone in camp has worked extremely hard and you'd love to give everybody the opportunity. That just may not happen in these two games."