The USMNT needs what Cristian Roldan brings to Seattle Sounders every week

Cristian Roldan should be on the United States men’s national team roster for this year’s Gold Cup. That’s a bold proclamation, but the youngster is already one of the best central midfielders in MLS. There are other young prospects with more hype, but they don’t have an MLS Cup victory or as much professional experience on their resumes. Roldan is more of an under-the-radar type, and his playing style is one that his coaches and teammates love.

He has an odd career arc. Roldan was a Gatorade National High School Player of the Year but somehow was barely recruited by colleges. He then earned a Generation Adidas contract in MLS, leaving the University of Washington after just two seasons. That was followed by a draft day free fall to No. 16 overall, where the Seattle Sounders traded up to acquire a talent they knew better than anyone else.

Now in his third professional season, Roldan is the only member of head coach Brian Schmetzer’s ideal XI who doesn’t have senior national team experience. Roldan is just 21, but he should not have to wait too much longer.

In his rookie year, Roldan’s role was in question. The Sounders knew they needed him on the field, but their central midfield pairing was set — MLS Best XI regular Osvaldo Alonso and experienced Mexican international Gonzalo Pineda. Then head coach Sigi Schmid played him as a right midfielder in the box-to-box role and as a defensive mid. Now Roldan has a firm role on a side whose goal is to compete for trophies every single season.

It was Pineda, who by 23 had collected nearly 1,000 minutes repping El Tri, who mentored Roldan as a rookie. The veteran helped his eventual replacement learn the professional game and the role that suits Roldan best. Pineda is now Seattle’s assistant coach in charge of the attack.

“I’m very curious about how he can perform with the national team,” Pineda told SB Nation. It is a sentiment shared by those who follow the Sounders. Roldan’s position, at its simplest, is as a central midfielder. He combines the primary skill sets of a defensive midfielder and an attacking one at the same time.

What he offers the Sounders — and could offer the USA — is the tactical awareness and bite of their top defensive mids, while also adding strong passing in a possession game. His 105 passes against the bunkering New England Revolution on April 29 were a demonstration that Roldan knows his role is also about controlling tempo and possession.

His current mentors are Alonso and Nicolas Lodeiro. Alonso is one of the best defensive midfielders in the league, while Lodeiro is the attacking midfielder who changed Seattle’s fortunes in 2016, taking it to MLS Cup.

Alonso is Cuba’s best player. Only his defection to, and now citizenship with, the United States keeps him from representing his home. He knows the Gold Cup — he was at one when he defected. He is fully confident that Roldan is ready for that level.

“He’s got great talent. He’s showing by the year here in Seattle he can play at a high level. He’s a great player. He can pass. He can dribble. He can score,” Alonso smiles when he talks about Roldan. “I would be very happy if he gets the opportunity to join the national team. It would be good for him.”

If the United States is serious about replacing the aging midfield of Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones, Dax McCarty, Alejandro Bedoya, Sacha Kljestan, and others, the Gold Cup is probably the time to do so. MLS has several young talents who can play as the defensive mid or in a box-to-box role. Roldan, Tyler Adams, Ian Harkes, and Kellyn Acosta should all be on the shortlist to make the step up. But so far, Acosta is the only one of that group with a senior cap.

Gold Cups and January camps are the time to test those young talents. It’s the time to see if what they are doing in league play translates to the national team. And on current form, it’s getting harder to justify not giving Roldan his shot. Roldan is Jones with fresher legs and better passing range, Bradley with better defensive range, and McCarty with the ability to surge forward in attack.

But Pineda is cautious. Now a coach, he thinks like one, and he thinks his young protégé still has work to do.

“He’s very smart tactically. We all know the effort that he puts in every single game. He runs for everyone. He covers. He fills a lot of gaps, but the most important thing is that he’s very smart tactically. I think he reads the game really good,” Pineda said. “I think if he can be a little cleaner on his passes and he can be thinking a little more about long passes, he’s doing that with Jordan [Morris], I think he’s doing better in that case, he’s getting better every day. I can see that, but he has to be better. This is because I can see the potential in Cristian. He can be better, but he has to improve in those qualities that are excellent for us and he continues to improve.”

Every member of the Sounders talks about three things when they speak of Roldan — his rapid improvement to key player on an MLS Cup winner, his ability to play at a higher level, and his hunger to get better.

Schmetzer makes that hunger most obvious.

“Last game, his running was maybe a couple hundred meters less than Nico [Lodeiro],” Schmetzer said after a nil-nil draw with Atlanta United. “But his speed at which he ran was higher than Nico’s, and in a couple other categories he was higher than Nico and Nico is usually the guy that is top on those lists. Cristian was pretty fired about that so he asked our sports science department, Dave and Ravi and those guys [the analytics staff], for his stats from 2015, 2016, and up to day in 2017 to see how he compared in his rookie year, his sophomore season, and this year and how he’s formulating a plan so that the level he put himself at at the last game, how he stays there. It’s all on him. We don’t have to do it. He’s hungry to learn. He’s eager to learn. That was to me just another sign of being a good pro.”

Roldan is putting in that work. He is typically one of the last players to leave the training field. He works with Alonso and Lodeiro during the managed sessions and his age contemporaries like Morris, Sounders 2 players, and academy talents until forced to head to the lunch room or video room.

He knows he may have a U.S. national team future, and the players he studies, not just watches, are among the best.

“I think when I watch Argentina and Uruguay and Paraguay and Brazil,” Roldan told SB Nation prior to the last international break. “I will look at Paulinho, Fernandinho, and [Javier] Mascherano, all these players that are in the big leagues. I will take a look at what they are doing because there’s a lot of different situations that they get put in but I like to critique and analyze them a bit more. I will definitely visualize certain players and try to put some of their qualities in my game.”

The statistical case for Roldan’s importance to Seattle is easy to make. He is among league leaders as a central midfielder in tackles, interceptions, crosses blocked, dribbles, keeping possession, passes, and accurate long balls. He is a true two-way player with incredible range.

Chris Henderson, former U.S. national team player and current Sounders vice president of soccer and sporting director, points out one of the significant issues facing Roldan: He’s eligible to represent the U.S., Guatemala, or El Salvador.

“I think Cristian has come on so strong in a pretty short period of time,” Henderson said. “He keeps improving. As an American, I would love to see him with the American team. I know he’s eligible for two other countries, so for me I would prefer him to play for the U.S. as a former player.”

Roldan is following all of those teams. He last spoke with U.S. national team head coach Bruce Arena around the January camp but did not get the call. Schmetzer regularly says that his conversations with Arena are about capping Roldan.

That call has yet to come. Roldan follows the situation with all three sides and has friends playing for each nation. But eager U.S. national team fans can relax a bit. Guatemala is suspended from international play until July 2017, while El Salvador is going through coaching changes.

And his heart is clearly in Seattle. He adopted the region as a second home. Morris is his best friend, and his younger brother, Alex, is at Seattle U.

Pineda, despite his critiques, thinks that Roldan can become a regular with the full U.S. side. He also thinks that his experienced international training partners — like Lodeiro, Clint Dempsey, Chad Marshall, Alvaro Fernandez, and Roman Torres — will aid him in his improvement.

“I think that helps a lot, but also the most important thing about Cristian is that he’s hungry,” Pineda said. “He wants more. He always wants more. He’s always working on something else. Every single day, he’s putting in 100 percent and that’s the best environment that he needs. What he shows, the way he tries to push himself every single day, that’s the best environment that he needs. All of those guys — Dempsey, Nico, Ozzie, Roman Torres, Marshall are valuable. All of them help him, but the most important part is that he helps himself every single day.”

When Roldan helps himself, he helps the Seattle Sounders. In his two-plus seasons, the team has never been worse than seventh in goals against. This 21-year-old is as much a part of the team’s success as the more famous players around him.

“When you have the ball, you have more chance to score a goal and a chance to finish the game,” Alonso explains. “I think Cristian, me, Nico, Clint, Jordy, we have success getting the ball and finding a way to score a goal.”

That’s as elite of company as a player can find in this league. Roldan is ready for the next test of his talent. It’s time for Bruce Arena to give him that test. Cristian Roldan will reward the United States coach with hard work in practice, incredible range, great tactical vision, and a mind hungry to learn.