Jurgen Klinsmann has presided over a youth movement for most of the past year, but experience trumped potential when the U.S. coach named his roster on Tuesday for next month's CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Seventeen players who helped the Americans reach the knockout stage at Brazil 2014 last summer, the most ever in the year after a World Cup, made the Gold Cup squad, which will try to defend the United States' 2013 regional title and automatically qualify for the 2017 Confederations Cup -- the dress rehearsal for the main event in Russia in 2018.
The message from Klinsmann is clear. While the introduction of talented newcomers has improved the depth of the U.S. program and inspired it to some impressive recent results, the old hands will still give the U.S. its best chance of winning what promise to be grind-it-out affairs against group-stage foes Honduras, Haiti and Panama.
"In our region here, experience means a lot," Klinsmann said in a news release. "It can get nasty. Things might not go your way in some moments, so you have to stay cool, and you have to always be on top of things.
"I think the experience that players like Brad Guzan, Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Chris Wondolowski, Nick Rimando have -- just to name a few of them -- those guys bring the experience with them to stay calm and get the job done."
Heart and soul midfielder Bradley, the Americans' top performer in recent wins at Germany and the Netherlands, is the headliner along with Dempsey, who received an invite despite his three-game MLS suspension. That ban will prevent him from suiting up for his club, the Seattle Sounders, before the U.S. squad convenes for a weeklong pre-tourney training camp in Nashville, Tennessee, beginning Monday. Striker Jozy Altidore is there, too, despite not having fully recovered from the hamstring strain he suffered playing for Toronto FC in mid-May.
But there was no place for young forwards Juan Agudelo or Jordan Morris (fellow youngster Bobby Wood, who scored the game-winning goals against the Germans and Dutch earlier this month, was left off the provisional roster) or fullbacks Greg Garza and Brek Shea, who both missed out despite having started six of seven U.S. games between them in 2015.
The absence of Garza and Shea leaves an obvious hole at left back, especially since DaMarcus Beasley -- a surprise inclusion on the provisional list -- was also omitted. Timmy Chandler, Fabian Johnson and Tim Ream figure to vie for the spot.
One area in which Klinsmann chose youth over experience is at center back. Ventura Alvarado and John Brooks, both 22, are the presumed starters even with the return of stout LA Galaxy center back Omar Gonzalez, 26, who was called in for just the third time in 12 months. Matt Besler, who is 28 years old and started every game for the U.S. in Brazil, didn't make the cut.
It's possible Besler and others could be added to the group later on, though. If the U.S. advances, Klinsmann can make up to six changes. "It's important to have that option," the manager said. "We will definitely have that in the back of our minds."
But the coach made clear that he's starting the competition with what he believes is his strongest possible squad.
Dempsey still figures to captain it. While Klinsmann said the incident that led to the 32-year-old's ban was "something that nobody wants to see," he didn't sound ready to rip the armband off the Texan, either.
"It's a mistake, and mistakes happen," he said. "On the other hand, it's part of the game too. So we'll take a little bit of a step back and we'll discuss it in person in a relaxed way."