Should Benny Feilhaber Play Right Back for the U.S. National Team?

U.S. men’s national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann has announced the roster for the coming World Cup qualifying matches against Jamaica on September 7 and September 11. Despite injuries to Landon Donovan and Michael Bradley, Klinsmann did not summon New England Revolution midfielder Benny Feilhaber. At 27, Feilhaber is still young and promising, but Klinsmann seems to think less of his talents than previous USMNT coach Bob Bradley did. Feilhaber played in three of four U.S. matches in the 2010 World Cup finals, but has only appeared for the national team once over the course of 2011 and 2012. Yesterday’s roster announcement must be particularly frustrating for Feilhaber, since the roster includes such relative international newcomers as Joe Corona, Graham Zusi, and Brek Shea, all of whom play in the midfield.

Feilhaber’s omission from the current USMNT roster is in some ways unsurprising. Klinsmann has openly encouraged U.S. internationals to move from MLS to Europe, and Feilhaber has done just the opposite. After stints in Germany, England, and Denmark from 2006 to 2011, Feilhaber moved back to MLS last season. His play with the Revolution so far has been mostly solid, but hardly spectacular. This season, for example, he has played over 1,800 minutes but has only one goal and two assists to show for them. Those are notably poor numbers for a team’s highest-paid player.

The good and bad of Feilhaber were on display in Saturday’s scoreless draw against Philadelphia at Gillette Stadium. I’ll use a sequence in the 10^th minute as a representative example. Feilhaber collected a deflection near midfield and started an attack by dribbling and playing a pass towards the right sideline to Fernando Cardenas. After an exchange with right back Flo Lechner, Cardenas ultimately played the ball back to Feilhaber, who prepared to receive it with his back to the goal and his two strikers in an onside position behind him. So far so good. But rather than hold the ball and wait for Cardenas and/or Lechner to make a run, or turn and try to find his forwards, Feilhaber, under very little defensive pressure, one-timed a back heel pass through his legs and directly into the line of Philadelphia defenders. Yes, it was an attempt to be creative, but the pass was also risky and ultimately ineffective, a needless turnover that killed a promising buildup.

Despite frequently making these kinds of high-risk, low-reward passes in the final third, Feilhaber possesses many of the qualities Klinsmann professes to value, such as creativity, quickness, and an ability and willingness to apply defensive pressure all over the field. His efforts tracking back on defense have been particularly valuable to his club team over the past couple of seasons. More importantly, Feilhaber is a skillful player with an excellent understanding of the game and good vision. Despite his poor assist and goal numbers this year, Feilhaber leads New England in fouls suffered at 65, which is one measure of his skill on the ball and his savvy. Yes, he’s prone to turnovers, but he likes to play the ball on the ground and to unlock defenses through possession rather than booting the ball to the flag. As I understand it, that’s precisely the kind of player Klinsmann is looking for.

So why not try to get Feilhaber on the field? If the national team’s midfield is too crowded, there may be a spot at right back. Tim Chandler, once considered the right back of the future for the U.S., has twice turned down call-ups and appears to be out of the picture. Steve Cherundolo is an excellent player, but he’ll be 35 during the next World Cup Finals. Other good options at right back include Eric Lichaj and Steven Beitashour, neither of whom were called up for the Jamaica games. Fabian Johnson can also play right back—and did against Mexico in the U.S.’s most recent friendly—but he is more suited to playing on the left.

Playing Feilhaber at right back would allow the U.S. team to field a highly skilled player who can not only defend, but also start buildups and confidently attack opponents with the ball at his feet. The thought of both him and Johnson flying down the flanks and raining crosses into the box, or placing more pinpoint passes to players like Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, and Landon Donovan, is intriguing to say the least. The downsides of the experiment would include the fact that Feilhaber lacks experience at the position, and the fact that he sometimes holds the ball too long and is prone to giveaways. Still, if Klinsmann really wants to get the maximum number of highly fit and skilled players onto the field at the same time, and to play a more assertive and attacking brand of soccer than is typically associated with our national team, then Feilhaber should at least be considered as a possibility at right back.