Juergen Klinsmann has hinted that he will have to make some very difficult decisions in regard to his selection for the USA national team.
The US takes on Costa Rica in San Jose on September 6 and Mexico in Columbus on September 10 in World Cup qualifying and Klinsmann admits there are some big calls to make after a lot of his key players only recently returned to club action in Europe.
"The beginning stage of every season is always full of surprises and difficulties of getting into a rhythm, especially for the bigger teams," he told USsoccer.com.
"It takes about 4-6 weeks to really get going, but already if a team has a bad result people talk about a crisis (laughs). You have to have a high tolerance level at the start of the season for all the discussion.
"From an individual side, we want to see from the players that represent the US team that they play and start to get a rhythm.
"If they are not playing from the beginning, it's kind of a yellow flag for us. We talk to those players and try to get an explanation.
"We had the opportunity during the Bosnia trip (4-3 win in Sarajevo on August 14) to have some good talks with Tim Ream (Bolton), Danny Williams (Reading) and Michael Parkhurst (Augsburg) to understand their situations.
"Going forward, our main consideration is if they are playing week in and week out in the top leagues in Europe. You basically monitor their games and also their minutes of playing time throughout the year to judge their sharpness and their playing level."
The US currently sits on top of the CONCACAF hexagonal group with 13 points from six matches, two clear of Costa Rica, and five ahead of main rival Mexico.
