'Besides Messi and Ronaldo, everyone deals with it' - USMNT ace Sargent opens up on goal droughts

Striker is arguably football's most rewarding position, and its most demanding.

Because the role is so clearly defined, it is ruthlessly measured. When all is said and done, your entire worth is based on one thing: goals. 

When the ball is hitting the back of the net, there is no more beloved player on the team. But if and when the goals dry up, a striker's worth all but evaporates.

Josh Sargent has seen both sides of that coin several times over. He's experienced the hot streaks and the cold ones, the misses and the makes.

However, as he returns to U.S. men's national team camp, Sargent happens to find himself in a fantastic run of form as he looks to claim the USMNT's No.9 jersey.

Before heading to Austria to join up with the rest of the squad ahead of friendlies with Jamaica, in Wiener Neustadt, and Northern Ireland, in Belfast, Sargent scored three goals in five games for Werder Bremen, marking the best Bundesliga run of his young career.

It was perfectly timed. Before his purple patch, Sargent had netted just eight times in 58 Bundesliga appearances.

However, by rediscovering his scoring touch, Sargent became the fastest American to reach double figures in the Bundesliga, beating out Bobby Wood's record of 62 matches by two games, and the second-youngest American to reach that mark in Germany's top flight, behind only Christian Pulisic.

That makes his recent streak all the sweeter as he looks to finally become the goalscorer that Werder Bremen and the USMNT believe he can be.

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"I think the biggest difference is that everything just comes very naturally," Sargent says of his good run. "It just seems to happen with ease. You don't have to try so hard.

"When you're in that slump, when you're not scoring goals, it feels like no matter what you do, it's just impossible to score. I'd say the biggest difference is everything just seems very easy."

"If you ask any player, besides [Lionel] Messi or [Cristiano] Ronaldo, everybody deals with it," he added. "It's life as a footballer. You have times you're doing really well and times you're not doing so well.

"It's definitely hard at times, of course, but I think it's important to have a good group around you to help you stay focused, and if you keep working hard, I think things will work out for the better."

Sargent's goals have come at a great time for the USMNT, who continue to hold a very open competition at striker. The 21-year-old Sargent remains the frontrunner for the spot, although the list of candidates grows by the day.

Jozy Altidore and Gyasi Zardes will remain in the mix, despite not being in this camp, while Daryl Dike's recent run at Barnsley has seen him shoot up the rankings. You can even add in newer faces like Nicholas Gioacchini, Sebastian Soto, Jesus Ferreira, Jordan Siebatcheu and Matthew Hoppe, all players that are still looking to make a push for their own USMNT spots.

"I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm the No.1," Sargent says. "We have a very deep pool. And I've said it a lot of times and it's very repetitive, but I really do believe if you know you work very hard, good things will happen, so I'll continue to do that and not really worry about what so many people are saying on the outside and I think everything will work out well."

For head coach Gregg Berhalter's 4-3-3 system to thrive, he'll need a No.9 who can finish. Berhalter's tactics require a lot of heavy lifting from wide players and plenty of creativity from the two No.8s, leaving the No.9 with one goal in mind: finding the back of the net.

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Thus far, Sargent has scored five times in 12 USMNT matches, including a brace against Cuba in November 2019. But Berhalter still expects more from the 21-year-old as he looks to take the next step as a goalscorer.

"We want goals from him. It's really simple: our forward needs to score goals," Berhalter says of Sargent, who is expected to start against Jamaica on Thursday.

"When you look at our forwards, since we've taken over they've scored, and that's something that we're going to expect from Josh. More specifically, his movement in the penalty box, he's really good at hold-up play, really good linking other players up so that's going to be important.

"We really want him to have the mindset to put the ball in the back of the net. I challenged him in the Cayman Islands against Cuba to score goals and have that mindset and he scored a couple of goals.

"I think that was the last time he was with the team, and hopefully, against a difficult Jamaica opponent, he'll have the same mindset."

The good news for Sargent is that he may have two chances to show that mindset during the ongoing international break, as he was recently cleared to travel to Northern Ireland for the second friendly of this two-game slate.

Sargent, along with Gio Reyna and Chris Richards, were previously expected to return to Germany due to quarantine protocols, but will now continue on through the rest of the window.

That will give him another opportunity to make his claim for that top spot as the U.S. marches into a busy summer with Gold Cup, Nations League and, potentially the Olympics before World Cup qualifiers begin.

And, with a little bit of luck, maybe this recent hot streak will turn into something more for a player that will be vital to the USMNT should everything go to plan.

"It's a healthy competition as with anywhere else, everybody's going to be pushing each other, and everybody's gunning for that number one spot right now," he says. "There's a lot of young guys that want it, so we'll see whoever comes out on top."