The 20-year-old attacker made his first senior appearance for the States as a 59th-minute substitute in Tuesday night’s 1-1 friendly draw with New Zealand.
While the US national team could only manage a 1-1 draw with New Zealand in Tuesday night’s friendly in Washington D.C., there were still some positives for head coach Jurgen Klinsmann to take from the match.
Sunderland youngster Lynden Gooch was handed his senior international debut on the night as a 59th-minute replacement for Kellyn Acosta and responded by delivering a lively showing on the right wing for the final half-hour, serving up a handful of dangerous crosses and impressing with his direct running.
Speaking to MLSSoccer.com after the final whistle, Klinsmann was full of praise for the 20-year-old attacker’s performance and seemed to suggest that there could be several more caps coming his way in the near future.
“Lynden Gooch confirmed what we saw in training already,” said the former Germany and Tottenham Hotspur striker. “He’s fearless, he takes people on, very physical as well, doesn’t shy away from physicality. So there are a couple of things that we saw that we didn’t know before the camp.”
Gooch was given his first USA call-up for this month’s friendlies against Cuba and New Zealand after enjoying a promising start to the season with Sunderland, making seven total appearances for the club since surprisingly being named in the line-up for the 2-1 opening-day defeat at Manchester City.
The California native, who joined Sunderland’s academy in 2012, had previously only featured once for the Black Cats as a second-half substitute in last season’s 6-3 League Cup win over Exeter City, but he has arguably been one of their most impressive players through the opening stages of this term thanks to his tireless running and creativity in the final third.
Despite his clear potential, he has had to deal with some setbacks at the international level over the past 18 months after failing to make the squad for either the 2015 Under-20 World Cup or the Under-23 side’s subsequent Olympic qualifying campaign, but his recent Premier League breakthrough has seen fans and the media alike quickly rush to label him as one of the USA’s top attacking prospects.
While it may have only been a friendly, the way he performed on Tuesday night certainly bodes well for the future, and the versatile forward is now hoping that his display will have helped push him into Klinsmann’s plans for next month’s crucial World Cup qualifiers against Mexico and Costa Rica.
“I think the first time I got the ball I was positive and I put a cross in the box. And just chased down defenders and just tried to energize the team a little bit,” Gooch added to MLSSoccer.com. “Hopefully I caught Jurgen’s eye and hopefully I can be involved next month.
“I think I did really well. I think on another day with more time, maybe I would’ve been able to create a goal or maybe score a goal. I had a shot that was blocked that was a bit unlucky. But I don’t think I did a lot wrong today.”
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