Football: The future looks bright for United States' men's national team (USMNT)

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Bengaluru, June 6: As Alan Judge scored in the 91st minute to hand Republic of Ireland a stoppage time victory in veteran John O’Shea’s farewell game, it was heartbreak for a young United States team. The US broke the deadlock first as Chelsea’s Matt Miazga headed down for Hamburg’s Bobby Wood to score. But the experience of Ireland's players shone through as they came back to win 2-1.

Although in a losing cause, this was another impressive performance by US under the makeshift manager Dave Sarachan after the draws with Portugal and Bosnia and victories over Paraguay and Bolivia. The last of this set of friendly games comes against World Cup favorites France, where these youngsters will be exposed to the absolute best, the level all of them want to reach at.

With no World Cup to play for, Sarachan went with youth. Many debuted during these games and most of them impressed in what was the youngest squad in US men's national team's history with an average age of 22 years and 286 days. Debutants included the likes of Jordan Sargent, Erik Palmer-Brown, Antonne Robinson, goalkeeper Alex Bono, Matt Olasune and Keatan Parks. Tim Weah, son of former FIFA World Player of the Year and current Liberian president George Weah became the youngest goalscorer in USMNT history when he netted the third in the 3-0 win over Bolivia disposing fellow 18-year-old Josh Sargent, who had scored the second goal in that game.

Long term thinking has been forced upon the US after a catastrophic qualifying campaign as they failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in almost three decades. Sarachan’s aim is to bleed in the probables of the next world cup early. It is almost certain that the future team will be built around Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie, high flying American talents of the Bundesliga who will be in their prime when Qatar arrives.

Josh Sargent, who signed for Werder Bremen in February, is an exceptional talent up front. The 18-year-old scored four times at the U-20 World Cup winning the silver boot and thrice at U-17 World Cup; where his compatriot Weah scored the first hat-trick by an American in an international World Cup game. Weah, who plays for PSG, made his senior club debut in March and started the last game of the season. Matt Miazga, on loan at Dutch side Vitesse from Chelsea is consistently improving and is on course to become mainstay at the back.

Cameron Carter-Vickers also had a successful loan at Fulham and is set to be recalled by Tottenham while DeAndre Yedlin has made large strides tactically under Rafa Benitez at Newcastle. Keaton Parks, the 20-year-old Texan midfielder made four appearances for Benfica and punched in seven goals for reserves. One of Toronto FC’s Alex Bono, FC Midtjylland’s Bill Hamid and Hertha Berlin’s Jonathan Klinsmann will compete for the goalkeeper’s spot.

The United States’ next possible World Cup match - in the best case scenario - will occur in almost five years from now in December 2022 in the middle of a desert and they won’t take part in a major tournament until next summer’s Gold Cup. The time for building from scratch will never be riper. The future is here and now, if depressingly ahead of schedule.