In recent years, the quantity of American players at top European clubs has increased considerably.
That appears to be an unequivocal win for the U.S. men's national team, but one of those players has spotlighted a potential downside.
Though players like Juventus midfielder Weston McKennie have made major strides at the club level, the USMNT has been mostly stagnant since reaching the last 16 at the 2022 World Cup.
The nadir came this summer when the U.S. crashed out of the Copa América in the group phase. After that tournament on home soil, head coach Gregg Berhalter was sacked and eventually replaced by Mauricio Pochettino.
Pochettino has been in charge for just four matches thus far, but McKennie believes the Argentine is already starting to stamp his authority on the USMNT.
"I think honestly, [Pochettino] put the, kind of, savageness back into the team, that South American feeling, which is obviously going into tackles hard, not caring who you're playing against, maybe a little bit of dirtiness, I guess you could say, without contradicting the sport itself, but a little bit of dirtiness in the game and that grittiness that the USA is always known for," McKennie told CBS Sports.
McKennie grew up watching USMNT teams that had to prove they belonged on the international stage. In the 1990s and 2000s, the U.S. sent teams to the World Cup that were full of players based in the U.S. or smaller leagues in Europe.
Now the USMNT draws from a mostly European-based pool of players, including clubs like Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan. According to McKennie, players who come to the USMNT from the highest level of the European club game may feel they have less to prove.
"I think, obviously, since a lot of the players are playing in Europe now, play at decent clubs and big clubs, respectable clubs, it's very different than it was back then," the 26-year-old added. "All those guys, they had something to prove all the time, to these bigger teams and I think that's what is kind of missing right now."
McKennie believes Pochettino will be able to help the USMNT rediscover the urgency that teams of the past had.
"The fact that we have all these guys who are in Europe – we're there, we're doing it day in and day out and we're at respectable clubs and big clubs versus back then, they were trying to make it to those clubs so they're out there every game like, 'Yo, this is America. This is what we're known for. You guys doubt us and you guys say we're not good enough and whatnot,' and then we go out there and do what we do best," McKennie said.
"I think that'll be, definitely, something that [Pochettino] can help with and instill in us again."