Gregg Berhalter caused a bit of a stir when naming his USA squad for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, with notable omissions including goalkeeper Zack Steffen, who misses out of the squad entirely despite playing in much of CONCACAF qualifying.
His horrific error in Manchester City's FA Cup semi-final defeat to Liverpool last season started a conversation among the US fanbase about whether he should still be their number one, and Berhalter has decided to go in another direction here.
Arsenal's Matt Turner looks set to start in goal against Wales with Steffen not selected, but Ethan Horvath has a chance too as his heroics from their 2021 Gold Cup final victory against Mexico still remain fresh in the mind, where he was named man of the match.
Chris Richards's move to Crystal Palace has not brought him the game time he desired so he misses out on the squad too, alongside fellow defender Bryan Reynolds who fell out of favour at Roma and was loaned out to Belgian football following the Giallorossi's 6-1 defeat to Bodo/Glimt in the UEFA Europa Conference League last year.
Playing regular Champions League football at Rangers was not enough for Malik Tillman to make the final squad, while there were surprise omissions for attacking duo Ricardo Pepi and Jordan Siebatcheu.
Berhalter has a selection headache in attack, as the US are blessed with many exciting young attacking talents, but have been lacking a natural striker.
Jesus Ferreira has shown good form in MLS with FC Dallas and scored four in their recent win over Grenada, so he could be the breakout star for them as they hope to solve their issue up front.
Starting Ferreira would mean that one of Gio Reyna and Timothy Weah will have to miss out though, as Christian Pulisic and Brenden Aaronson's places are guaranteed in the starting lineup, and Reyna may just get the nod given that he has become a regular at Borussia Dortmund following a tough run with injuries.
In terms of injuries here, Weston McKennie remains the only question mark, as the Juventus man has not featured for the Serie A side since October, but he should be able to recover in time to start here.
USA possible starting lineup:
Turner; Dest, Zimmerman, Long, A Robinson; Adams, McKennie, Aaronson; Reyna, Ferreira, Pulisic
> Click here to see how Wales could line up for this fixture body check tags ::
