Esmir Bajraktarevic, Diego Luna impress in positive USMNT debuts

The U.S. men’s national team welcomed 11 new players into its ranks during Saturday’s 1-0 friendly loss to Slovenia, and while many delivered strong shifts in San Antonio, the playmaking abilities of two were highlighted by head coach Gregg Berhalter.

Esmir Bajraktarevic and Diego Luna were among the bright spots for the USMNT in Saturday’s opening match of 2024. Luna started and played 77 minutes while Bajraktarevic came off the bench and played 29 minutes in the final period of the match.

Although the USMNT failed to find a tying goal against Slovenia, Berhalter praised his youthful team for coming together as a unit and delivering a hardworking shift over 90 minutes.

“The whole camp was about the collective,” Berhalter said postmatch. “It was about, how do you take a group of guys that have never played together and try to put them together and get them organized enough that they can represent themselves on a field in a proper way? And I think that was accomplished.

“I thought Diego Luna was aggressive all game,” he added. “The midfield, I think got into it more in the second half and ended up doing a good job…it was just about speed of play in the first half, the defensive transition moment that we had that gave up the goal wasn’t great. But overall, I’d say everyone had decent performances.”

Luna remained on the left side of Berhalter’s 4-2-3-1 formation while Bajraktarevic replaced Bernard Kamungo on the right side after the hour mark. A current Real Salt Lake first teamer, Luna created two offensive opportunities, while also drawing three fouls in his shift.

Bajraktarevic, 18, linked up with several teammates in his cameo, setting up John Tolkin for a pair of scoring chances while also coming close to finding the back of the net himself in the second half.

Both Luna and Bajraktarevic made things difficult for the Slovenian back line in the second half and deserved more from their individual outputs.

“Both have a lot of individual quality, both have the ability to combine, to dribble, take players one-v-one,” said Berhalter of Luna and Bajraktarevic. “If you think about it, in world soccer right now it’s very difficult to find one-v-one players, so it’s nice when you see that type of quality. What we do as coaches is encourage that. All week we’ve asked them to take players on and be aggressive, combining and getting in the penalty box. So, happy with their performance.

“Long term, we hope these are players that continue to progress, continue to make their mark at their club teams and perform at a high level,” he added. “And then hopefully it leads to more appearances with the senior national team.”

Heading into a busy 2024 schedule, Luna and Bajraktarevic are just two of Saturday’s debutants eager to make the USMNT’s Olympic squad this summer. Jack McGlynn, Sean Zawadzki, Patrick Schulte, and Duncan McGuire also made their senior debuts in Saturday’s match while experienced players like Aidan Morris and Miles Robinson are also eligible to feature in Paris.

U.S. Under-23 men’s national team head coach Marko Mitrovic will have plenty of key decisions to make ahead of July’s start of the Olympics, but Saturday’s performances from Luna, Bajraktarevic, and others will certainly be a positive for him to take.

“When you look at guys like Esmir and Diego, they certainly came in and show that they have a lot of individual ability, but they’re also hard-working, they also play for the team. So some really good talent there,” Berhalter said.

“When Jack McGlynn came in, I thought he had some good passing range, Aidan defensively I thought was excellent, breaking up a lot of plays,” he added. “So all in all, for them to experience what it is like to play at full senior level is valuable, and I think it’s going to help them as they move forward with the Olympic group.”