sport news Gregg Berhalter defends omitting Jordan Pefok from USMNT squad despite ... trends now

Gregg Berhalter explained his reasoning Wednesday for leaving Jordan Pefok out of his latest USMNT squad, as the Union Berlin striker was snubbed despite a hot start to life in the Bundesliga.

Pefok, who joined Berlin from Young Boys this summer, has two goals and three assists in his first five league games, but Berhalter selected Josh Sargent, Ricardo Pepi and Jesus Ferreira ahead of him for this squad.

However, Berhalter offered clues for his decision, and it may be the case that Pefok has already earned a spot for Qatar ahead of the final World Cup tune-ups vs. Japan and Saudi Arabia.

'We're pretty confident we know Jordan's profile, we know what he can do,' Berhalter told reporters via Zoom. 

'And we didn't feel like we needed to see him in this camp to determine whether he could be on the [World Cup] roster or not.

'The decisions aren't easy decisions, and I understand that Jordan should be in consideration - he was. 

'In the end we decided to go with these three strikers to evaluate them.'

While Pefok has started well in Germany and tore up the Swiss Super League last season with 22 goals, Sargent and Pepi have had far drier years in terms of goals.

Pepi, who moved to Augsburg from FC Dallas last January, is nearing a year without a goal for club or country, and Sargent endured a difficult individual season on a woeful Norwich City side who were relegated from the Premier League.

Since then, he's

read more from dailymail.....