CHESTER, Pa. — The United States is, indeed, preparing for the World Cup. It just happens to be the 2022 men’s tournament in Qatar, not this summer’s spectacle in Russia.
And so when the Americans gathered Monday for a 3-0 victory over Bolivia in a low-key friendly at Talen Energy Stadium, an interim coach named seven players age 22 or younger to his starting lineup. Four were teenagers, three of whom are employed by German Bundesliga clubs and one with the runaway French champion. Only two players on the 22-man squad were born in the 1980s — and they arrived late that decade.