Report: Bruce Arena Sends Sacha Kljestan Back to New York Red Bulls After Serbia Draw

After starting and playing 75 minutes in a 0-0 draw with Serbia, Sacha Kljestan is set to leave the USMNT January camp and return to the New York Red Bulls.

Per ESPN Columnist Jeff Carlisle and GOAL USA writer Ives Galarcep on Twitter following the game, USMNT head coach Bruce Arena announced that Kljestan is being sent back to the team as he awaits the birth of his next child. Midfielder Jermaine Jones is also being sent back to LA Galaxy.

Arena said Jermaine Jones is being sent back to the Galaxy and Sacha Kljestan (who is set to be a father again) will head back to #RBNY.

— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) January 29, 2017

Jermaine Jones will leave the #USMNT camp & join LA. Kljestan also leaving camp, ahead of birth of his next child. No replacements coming

— Ives Galarcep (@SoccerByIves) January 29, 2017

Based on the Tweets, it is reasonable to expect that Kljestan will not rejoin the Red Bulls at training camp immediately. The Red Bulls assist wizard joins Bradley Wright-Phillips as expectant fathers during the current pre-season.

Despite being on the bench for the match, neither Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles nor former Red Bulls captain (and current Chicago Fire midfielder) Dax McCarty appeared in the game.

During the match, Kljestan was given his traditional No. 10 role in a 4-2-3-1 formation in the friendly with Jozy Altidore at forward, Darlington Nagbe and Alejandro Bedoya at attacking midfielder, and Michael Bradley and Jones at defensive midfielder. However, the team failed to score against the Serbian squad made up entirely of players in the Serbian SuperLiga, with a combined five caps among them.