Over the past few months, Bruce Arena has gone back and forth a couple times on the whether or not he intended to bring in Clint Dempsey for the pair of upcoming World Cup qualifiers. In a Facebook Live session on Thursday, though, Arena made it pretty clear that the only question in his mind was about Dempsey’s fitness, as opposed to any concern over form.
Until playing in the Seattle Sounders’ past two games, Dempsey had not played in a competitive match in more than six months. The last time he suited up for the USMNT was last July’s Copa America, where he led the team in scoring.