Steve Birnbaum had a pretty good 2016, with United States caps both in World Cup Qualifying action and during the Copa America Centenario, and had European interest from Israel and Germany which was parlayed into a new contract to keep him in Black-and-Red for a few years.
Then 2017 happened. It happened for a lot of players but Birnbaum may have crystallized it more than most. He was given the team captaincy, replacing Bobby Boswell, and paired with Sean Franklin, a move designed to play the ball out of the back more at the beginning of the season and give Birnbaum a chance to serve as the backline organizer.