The time for Bruce Arena to experiment with his national team roster is over, so the team the U.S. coach called up Sunday for the resumption of World Cup qualifying is older, deeper and more experienced than the one he used in July’s Gold Cup.
A dozen of the 26 players Arena summoned have made 10 or more appearances in World Cup qualifying, five have more than 100 international caps overall and 19 players are age 27 or older. Compare to the team with which Arena started the Gold Cup. That roster included 13 players who had appeared in fewer than 10 international games and 11 who were no older than 26.