Providing Leadership
The USMNT is in a transitional period, as the organization looks to move past it missing the World Cup. The team will play its first international match since losing out on a bid for the World Cup, and Alejandro Bedoya and CJ Sapong earned a call-up for the match against Portugal. Bedoya is the most tenured USMNT player on the roster, and will be asked to take on a large leadership role on the team. Meanwhile, this is the first call-up for Sapong since 2012, but he too will provide leadership as one of the older players on the roster.