How will USMNT line up vs Panama in possible World Cup-berth clincher?

The United States men’s national team could qualify for the World Cup by the time the final whistle blows on Sunday’s home qualifier with Panama, this we know.

Over-simplifying: Should Costa Rica drop points against El Salvador at 5pm ET, the Yanks can sew up a spot in Qatar with a win from their 7pm kickoff.

Who will be on the pitch if and when that happens requires some guess work.

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By now there are few certainties when it comes to Gregg Berhalter’s lineup choices. The man who Initially viewed Tyler Adams as a right back now sees the RB Leipzig midfielder as so important to the center midfield that he removed him with 10 minutes left in an ascendant but scoreless match rather than trust the player take a yellow card and miss the next match through suspension, a risk inherent when the player was put on the pitch in the first place.

Coaches evolve, players, too. We go on.

So Adams will start against Panama. Christian Pulisic is a virtual certainty, too. After that, given Berhalter all of the injuries and illness within the squad and the trust he showed in Aaron Long and Erik Palmer-Brown by inserting them into a crucible for the hottest 10 minutes of what’s essentially the side’s biggest derby? Well, who knows what’s going on.

We do know that Shaq Moore has been called up to give Berhalter a right back after Reggie Cannon tested positive for COVID-19 and DeAndre Yedlin picked up a yellow-card suspension. Surely, with all due respect to Moore, Berhalter was hoping to plug the new call-up into a final match at Costa Rica that would only be about positioning on the table, but now he’s right into the fire unless Berhalter goes to a back three and plays Paul Arriola,