A Mixed Night for Tottenham’s DeAndre Yedlin

Tottenham prospect DeAndre Yedlin again earned a call up to the United States men’s national team for the opening round of World Cup 2018 qualifiers.

Coach Jürgen Klinsmann has been calling up Yedlin at every opportunity despite the fact that the young American was iced last year by Tottenham and has only recently begun to acquire meaningful Premier League minutes while on loan with Sunderland.

The former Seattle Sounders player had shown enough promise in last summer’s World Cup to justify his continued inclusion, though American fans will tell you that Yedlin’s presence in the training camp is as much about where he plays professionally as anything else. There simply aren’t as many Americans being challenged by playing overseas these days. Any player who can break into a Premier League squad is a certainty to be called up.

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In any case, Yedlin has become something of a regular in Klinsmann’s starting XI for the US of late. Despite the fact that the 22-year-old began his career playing at right-back prior to joining Tottenham, Klinsmann has deployed him as a right winger more often than not. His pace and knack for a cross makes him arguably more valuable there, particularly for a US team that was already covered in the full-back position.

Friday, however, Yedlin returned to right-back for the Unites States’ game against St Vincent and the Grenadines. The initial results were frankly not pretty.

Yedlin fails to close down onrushing forward Oalex Anderson, performing a spin that only takes him further away from the 20-year-old Seattle Sounders prospect. Anderson proceeds to send the ball past Brad Guzan to take a most improbable lead against the hosts.

Thankfully for the United States and Yedlin himself, that lead was very shortlived. Not six minutes after Yedlin played his part in conceding Anderson’s goal for St. Vincent, the young Tottenham man was at the other end of the pitch, doing this.

Yedlin trades some neat passes with Michael Bradley before chipping the ball up for Bobby Wood to artfully redirect into St. Vincent’s goal. That equalizer began a rout that would conclude 6-1 in favor of the United States. It was the result everyone expected, even if the first five minutes were something of a scare.

On the surface, it would seem like this is the most meaningful proof yet of Yedlin’s suitability on the wing rather than at full-back. He has all the qualities of the former while lacking many of the latter.

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That conclusion is muddled, however, by the fact that Yedlin’s one appearance for Sunderland on the right wing was an utter disaster. The Black Cats fell 6-2 to Everton in that game, and Yedlin looked like a passengar for much of the game. His four games at right-back for Sunderland, however, have actually been pretty decent. Thus the enigma of Yedlin persists.

It’s difficult to say where Yedlin end up playing for Tottenham, assuming he ever gets another chance with the first team. It could be that he continues to play on the wing for the United States while being kept at right-back for Sunderland and Tottenham in the Premier League. The gulf between the quality of the two teams’ opposition is wide enough to justify the switch for the time being.