Jurgen was watching, and Sacha is back.
On Monday morning US national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann called New York Red Bulls playmaker Sacha Kljestan into his training camp ahead of their upcoming World Cup qualifiers at St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Friday and home to Trinidad & Tobago on Sept. 6, ending the Californian's two-year exile from national-team involvement.
US Soccer simultaneously announced that defender John Brooks will not join the team in camp due to back problems.
Kljestan has earned 46 caps and scored four goals since making his USMNT debut in 2007. He last appeared for the US in a 2-0 friendly loss to Ukraine on March 5, 2014 in Lanarca, Cyprus.
He narrowly missed out on both the 2010 and 2014 World Cup rosters, and drew headlines in 2012 for appearing to express his frustration with being regularly overlooked by Klinsmann while excelling in Europa and Belgian league action for Anderlecht. Kljestan tweeted out “12/12 points in Europa League and qualification for the knockout stages. Well done boys! Are you even watching???” but later deleted the post.
Kljestan has amassed five goals to go along with his MLS-leading 15 assists in 26 matches for the Red Bulls this season.
Sitting in second place in their CONCACAF qualifying group with two games remaining, the USMNT need positive results in their last two games of the round to be assured of passage to the final Hexagonal stage.
FULL US ROSTER
GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Middlesbrough), Ethan Horvath (Molde FC), Tim Howard (Colorado Rapids)
DEFENDERS (8): Kellyn Acosta (FC Dallas), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), Steve Birnbaum (D.C. United), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Omar Gonzalez (Pachuca), Fabian Johnson (Borussia Monchengladbach), Michael Orozco (Club Tijuana), DeAndre Yedlin (Newcastle United)
MIDFIELDERS (10): Paul Arriola (Club Tijuana), Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (Philadelphia Union), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Jermaine Jones (Colorado Rapids), Sacha Kljestan (New York Red Bulls) Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers), Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund), Caleb Stanko (FC Vaduz), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)
FORWARDS (5): Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders FC), Rubio Rubin (FC Utrecht), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes), Bobby Wood (Hamburg SV)
