Josh Sargent keeps scoring for Norwich, but are his USMNT prospects fading? | OneFootball

On Saturday, Josh Sargent did again what he's done all season for Norwich City: Score important goals.

And this one may have been the most game-changing of all of them, a classy finish from a precision counter-attack in second-half stoppage time that gave the Canaries all three points in a 1-0 home win over West Bromwich Albion.

The goal was Sargent's 13th in the league this season, coming in a match that put Norwich up to 10th in the table, five points back of sixth and still with a faint hope of qualifying for the promotion playoffs.

But whether EFL form matters to Sargent's future U.S. men's national team prospects under manager Mauricio Pochettino feels at best questionable following his showing with the USMNT last week.

Granted, Sargent did score one apparent early goal for the U.S. that was correctly ruled offside. But otherwise he was not particularly active or even evident in the Americans' 1-0 loss to Panama in the Concacaf Nations League semifinals. And the element of danger improved noticeably when he gave way to Charlotte FC's Patrick Agyemang midway through the second half.

Then in Sunday's third-place match, Sargent did not even make it off the bench with the USMNT trailing late. Instead it was Vancouver's Brian White who got the call to enter for the Americans in search of an equalizer that never came.

A lenghty drought

In fairness, some of Pochettino's comments and decisions suggested he was using the Nations League as an evaluative tool, regardless of how much American fans cared about winning the competition.

But the next time he convenes camp, it will be only 12 months from when he has to decide on his final squad for the 2026 World Cup. And that's a stretch 54 months shorter than Sargent's international goal-scoring drought will be by then, having not found the net in a national team jersey since a Nations League win over Cuba back in November of 2019.

While the injury picture -- including the current absences of Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi -- may help Sargent at least remain in the summer plans, beyond that we may have reached the point where the situation is beyond Sargent's control when others are healthy.

At the very least, he may have to prove he can be a regular scorer at higher level than the English second-tier.

The summer transfer window should present opportunities to do that. According to a report from EFL Analysis earlier this month, A handful of Premier League clubs are showing interest in Sargent, who entered Saturday averaging 0.58 goals per 90 minutes in EFL play.

But a return to Germany or a move to another Big Five European league that came with steady goal production could probably also reinvigorate his profile far more than continuing to be the Canaries' leading man.