Cristian Roldan played college soccer for the Washington Huskies, and Jordan Morris was a member of the Stanford Cardinal. So it was inevitable they would meet. Their teams played two Pacific-12 Conference games in the space of eight days, UW winning both times, and afterward Morris texted Roldan about how cool it would be to play together some day.
That was in the autumn of 2012.
“He beat me out for Freshman of the Year,” Morris said, “which he loves to tell that story.”
This helps explain why these longtime Seattle Sounders teammates will be together again in Qatar, named Wednesday by coach Gregg Berhalter to the United States men’s national team roster for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Morris is 28 years old and has made 49 international appearances. Roldan is 27 years and has 32 caps. On this U.S. team, that is what passes for old and experienced.
“In a 26-person squad, we were thoughtful … put a lot of time and effort into who are team guys and how this team is going to be cohesive and remain cohesive throughout this tournament,” Berhalter told reporters at the roster announcement in Brooklyn. “And also, (keep) that same spirit of togetherness that they’ve shown throughout.”
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It’s often said by those who follow the sport closely that World Cup soccer “is a young man’s game”. This may be because the tournament generally follows long club seasons in major leagues around the world. This one, instead, will interrupt those European seasons, but given how many club games have been squeezed in since August, youth may be valued just the same.
The U.S. certainly will test that theory. Even with “old timers” Roldan and Morris making it, along with 35-year-old central defender Tim Ream and 29-year-right back old DeAndre Yedlin — the squad’s only World Cup veteran — the U.S. is by far the youngest team among the 32 that will appear in Qatar. The Americans are just under 24 on average, nearly two years younger than their old World Cup rivals from Ghana.
“I feel like I’m still one of the young boys, but when we played Costa Rica I was the third-oldest player to start,” said left back Antonee ‘Jedi’ Robinson, who is 25. “In general, looking at us as a younger team, people see positives and negatives. Some people look at it as inexperience, but as I’ve said, this group — a good part of it — has been together for four years now, and we have a lot of good experience with each other and, individually, developed so much in that time.”
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Morris and Roldan have teamed up to win multiple MLS Cups with the Sounders, and in 2022 helped the team win the CONCACAF Champions League. Roldan has been a part of two CONCACAF Gold Cup winners with the USMNT, and Morris scored the winning goal in the 2017 Gold Cup final. They know what a winning culture is about.
“I think it’s really important. It’s a younger group, but a group that has a ton of special players that have played in big games,” Morris told The Sporting News. “But this is going to be a new experience for most of us, so I think you have to provide that leadership in any way possible … doing anything we can to push the team forward, both on and off the field, in training every single day, working as hard as we can.”
There will be some degree of controversy about the inclusion of the two Sounders. Morris is coming off a season in which he scored seven goals for the Sounders in 29 MLS games, after two years in which he was severely limited because of a torn ACL. Roldan had four goals and four assists in MLS this summer but required groin surgery to repair an injury that occurred in August.
After becoming the first MLS team to win the CONCACAF Champions League back in May, the Sounders then endured one of their most difficult regular seasons, missing the playoffs for the first time since entering the league in 2009.
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There are other players who were more involved in the USA’s qualifying effort who were not included on the final roster, particularly Ricardo Pepi of FC Groningen, FC Dallas winger Paul Arriola, and others with higher club profiles, such as Jordan Pefok of Union Berlin. They all play forward positions, as Morris does, though Morris has the versatility to play a wing position in the 4-3-3 formation that represents the alignment generally favored by Berhalter, but he said it’s been mentioned to him that he might find the field as a striker, also.
If he finds the field at all.
Morris and Roldan both mentioned the possibility of not getting into a game while in Qatar. When looking at the roster, it’s important to remember FIFA expanded the maximum number of players to 26 from the 23 that had been in place for years. It’s unlikely, even in a long World Cup run, that all 23 field players will gain the opportunity to appear.
If Roldan winds up playing in Qatar, there’s a very good chance something has gone wrong either with multiple injuries to more prominent players or results in the first couple games that render the third game, against Iran – as at France 1998 — as nothing more than an exhibition.
“I feel that my role has been cemented for me over the last couple years,” Roldan said. “So understanding that role, embracing it, competing every day in training, understanding that I might not see the field but what type of teammate can I be? How can I keep training competitive?
“And then when I get that opportunity to grab it and do well with it. That’s been my mindset going into each and every camp, and I’m just thankful now I get to enjoy being a part of this squad and continuing to have that same role.”