What to watch in U.S. men's national team games at Ireland and France

As the U.S. men's soccer team heads on its European tour, it's a good time for a few observations on the squad and its potential.

• Josh Sargent and Tim Weah are the men of the hour, and for good reason. Weah's first U.S. senior team goal earned attention in Paris, and calls for playing time under new Paris Saint-Germain manager Thomas Tuchel. The spotlight will grow when Weah faces PSG teammate Kylian Mbappé in the U.S.-France game on June 9 (3 p.m., ESPN and UniMás).

• Sargent's senior team debut — and debut goal — raised the question of where he stands in the national team striker depth chart. Is that fair for an 18-year-old who turned pro a few months ago? Yes, in part because the depth chart is pretty short. Pencil him in at No. 4, behind Jordan Morris, Bobby Wood and Jozy Altidore.

• Who's No. 1? Morris is out for the year with a torn ACL, Wood's Hamburg just got relegated out of the Bundesliga, and Altidore will be 32 when the 2022 World Cup kicks off. It's probably Wood, followed by Morris. But Altidore might be one of the few veterans worth recalling for next year's Gold Cup. He might lose a step of pace, but he still knows how to score.

• Michael Bradley might not be one of those veterans. That's far less of a hot take than it would have been before the World Cup qualifying disaster, but it still matters. For a long time, he was the best American central midfield general available. Now that Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams have arrived, it's a lot easier to ease Bradley out.

• Wood has a chance to impress not just the national team, but also potential new clubs in Europe — and maybe MLS too. If he plays Saturday against Ireland (3 p.m., ESPN2 and UniMás), he should have chances to score.

• A minor downside to McKennie's game against Bolivia: He committed six fouls. Not every referee will be so lenient with persistent infringement in national team games, especially against Concacaf opponents.

• Weah, 18, gave props to the player who started his goal sequence by springing Antonee Robinson for a dash down the left flank. But Weah acknowledged he didn't know who that player was. It was Erik Palmer-Brown. The centerback made a simple pass to Robinson, who started his run from inside the U.S. half.

• Keaton Parks stood out while in Philadelphia, and not just because he's a 6-foot-4 central midfielder. He has good feet, with passing skills honed in his native Texas and his current club team, Portugal's Benfica. He's worth keeping an eye on.

• Here's one vote for Zack Steffen to be the lead goalkeeper for the games in Europe, and not because he's a Coatesville native. Steffen has been arguably the best American goalkeeper in MLS over the last 12 months, at just 23 years old.

• Who plays in front of Steffen will be an interesting question — in particular, whether Cameron Carter-Vickers and Matt Miazga will be the starting centerbacks. They didn't play against Bolivia, and that might mean they're more likely to play against Ireland and France.

• It will be good to see DeAndre Yedlin return to right back for the national team. That's one position where there's no doubt who tops the depth chart.