Two days after saying that he would be “very cautious” with forward Clint Dempsey, United States men’s national team head coach Bruce Arena elaborated on Dempsey’s U.S. future in a Facebook Live video on Wednesday.
“It was great to see him play in the opening game in Houston for Seattle,” Arena said. “We want to follow him again this weekend and really see where he’s at physically, if he’s getting a little bit sharper, if he’s increasing his workload on the field.”
Dempsey scored in his first competitive game since being shut down for six months last August while recovering from an irregular heartbeat. His playing time had steadily increased in preseason before finally playing a full 90 minutes in the Sounders’ regular-season opener.
“We know he’s obviously a very good player and he’s got a great history with the national team,” Arena said. “But we want to be smart about Clint and make sure that he’s ready to play international soccer. The next two weekends will be very important, so we’ll follow him closely.”
Dempsey and the Sounders will travel to Montreal to take on the Impact on Saturday (4 p.m. PT; JOEtv ROOT Sports outside Seattle, KIRO Radio 97.3 FM, El Rey 1360AM) at the Olympic Stadium. Dempsey scored the game-winner against Montreal in 2016 and has tallied six goals in his last four matches dating back to last season.
Dempsey is the United States’ second all-time leading goalscorer, and should he be at full strength, Arena expects Dempsey to back be in a U.S. kit sometime soon.
“I’m happy to see that he’s back on the field,” Arena said. “I’m confident he’ll be part of the national team at some point in 2017.”
