United States men's national team interim coach B.J. Callaghan is still relatively new to media duties, but he's plenty familiar with coach-speak. When leading a team, there are certain things you can and cannot say, and because of that, coaches tend to stick to familiar talking points.
Callaghan, though, deviated slightly this week when asked to name a specific player that has stood out to him. The coach-speak answer would have been to praise the team, to hail the group atmosphere that is bigger than one individual. That's not what Callaghan did, though. Instead, he pointed to one player: Jalen Neal.
"From the perspective of a player that has impressed," he began, "the situation that somebody like Jalen Neal was put into, coming in at half-time (against Jamaica) as a young player against, quite honestly, a really dangerous front four and a top, top international striker in Michail Antonio, I think his performance, I wouldn't say surprised us, but the calm and the maturity that he showed lends to a bright future for him. For me, that was a really great moment and something that we hope to continue to foster as he develops into what we hope is a big player for the U.S. men's national team."
This summer, Neal has become the USMNT's newest star. Playing at the Gold Cup, a tournament the U.S. uses as a chance to try out fringe players, Neal has passed his test with flying colors so far.
But who is Neal and how did he rise so quickly with the USMNT? GOAL has everything you need to know about the young defender...
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