As a young, successful forward, Christian Pulisic has monopolised the attention on Americans in the Bundesliga, but many of his fellow "U.S. boys," as the local media like to refer to them, are quietly having excellent campaigns, too. Here's a check on the German-based players in Jurgen Klinsmann's U.S. squad.
Christian Pulisic | Borussia Dortmund
For all the money the Black and Yellows have spent on new attacking recruits -- more than €70 million on the likes of Emre Mor, Ousmane Dembele, Mario Gotze and Andre Schurrle -- the most important fresh impact has arguably been provided by a teenager who started the campaign on the fringes of the first team: Pulisic. Two goals and four assists in 12 games in the Champions League and Bundesliga for manager Thomas Tuchel's refashioned team are evidence of his remarkable progress.
Many observers expected him to have a hard time getting past the new star names on BVB's roster, but his willingness to learn and adapt to Tuchel's highly choreographed moves in the final third have seen him effectively edge out World Cup winner Gotze, who's being deployed in a deeper role. Pulisic has been a revelation this season, one of the best attacking midfielders in the league.
John Brooks | Hertha BSC
The 23-year-old missed two weeks in September with a groin strain but has since come back strongly, turning into "Hertha's defensive boss" and "the next [Jerome] Boateng," in the eyes of broadsheet Der Tagesspiegel with impressive performances. The comparison with the Bayern Munich World Cup winner is apt in many ways. Brooks is the same size, moves around in the pitch in a similar way and is also prone to the odd lapse of concentration, just as Boateng used to be during his time at the Olympic stadium at the beginning of his career.
Hertha coach Pal Dardai believes that regular participation in training -- free of injury -- has been one of the keys for the player's development. Brooks certainly seems to be coming of age in 2016-17: he's taken on added responsibility by commandeering his fellow defenders. "Being the last man, you have to open your mouth and help those next to you and in front of you," he said.
Timothy Chandler | Eintracht Frankfurt
Chandler has been one of the main beneficiaries of the managerial change at the Commerzbank-Arena in March. Frozen out by Armin Veh, the 26-year-old has re-established himself as a first-team regular (nine starts in 10 league matches) under manager Niko Kovac and already amassed more minutes on the pitch than in the entire 2015-16 campaign.
On Saturday, an assist on a Mijat Gacinovic header in a 1-0 win over Cologne helped the Eagles rise to seventh spot in the table before the winter break. Frankfurter Neue Presse described him as "a symbol" for Eintracht's strong run this season, noting that his energetic performances have seen him rated among the Bundesliga's top full-backs by Kicker magazine. Key to Chandler's comeback has been the improved fitness regime that Kovac has introduced, but he's also been able to shine more because of a tactical change: a flexible back-three/back-five system has shored up the defence (four clean sheets) and given him more space to attack down the wings.
Julian Green | Bayern Munich
Green's hopes for a breakthrough under new coach Carlo Ancelotti at Allianz Arena have proved founded -- up to a point. Plenty of impressive preseason action brought the 21-year-old closer to the first team than last year; he's been included in five of Bayern's 10 Bundesliga squads as well as in one Champions League tie (vs. Russian side Rostov) but didn't get any actual game time in either competition. It's been a different, more encouraging story in the DFB Pokal, the German Cup, however: the striker came on against Carl Zeiss Jena in the first round and started for die Roten in the 3-1 win home win over Augsburg in the second round, scoring the opener.
While the quality of other forwards on the Bayern team make it hard for Green to see too much involvement, his case is not being helped by Ancelotti's adherence to a 4-3-3 system. It takes away one forward position, limiting his chances further.
Aron Johannsson | Werder Bremen
It's been a frustrating start to the season with precious little action on the pitch -- a total of 187 minutes -- for the 26-year-old striker at the relegation-threatened club from the north of Germany. Two unremarkable substitute appearances in the two opening defeats (against Bayern and Augsburg) were followed by a silly red card for using insulting language toward the referee in a 4-1 defeat vs. Borussia Monchengladbach.
During Johannsson's two-week suspension, Werder's results started to improve under new coach Alexander Nouri, and his time on the pitch has been limited to 20 minutes in the 3-1 loss at surprise package RB Leipzig. At the moment, Johannson's path into the side is blocked by young Gambian striker Ousman Manneh and ex-Arsenal forward Serge Gnabry.
Fabian Johnson | Borussia Monchengladbach
In a campaign marked out by consistency, Johnson's form has fluctuated along with that of his club. Fifteen games in all competitions, eleven of which he started, underline his continued importance as a versatile midfielder. Johnson could have been more effective -- two goals and two assists is a meagre return -- but has been hampered by Borussia coach Andre Schubert mostly playing a 3-5-2 system that hasn't quite worked on either end of the pitch. Schubert has also tried out Johnson in a new centre-forward role in two league games, without tangible results, while main strikers Thorgan Hazard (brother of Chelsea's Eden) and Raffael were out injured. All in all, he's not quite hit the heights of the previous campaign yet.
Bobby Wood | Hamburger SV
Wood's Bundesliga year started off really well but then just as quickly went off the rails. He scored two goals in the two opening matches for die Rothosen before experiencing a drought that affected the whole team: no Hamburg player found the net for the next seven league games, a horrific record that plunged the northerners all the way to the bottom of the table.
He did score two goals in the cup, however, and the bad Bundesliga spell was finally broken in the 5-2 home defeat at the hands of Borussia Dortmund (two goals from Nicolai Muller), in a match that Wood missed because of suspension. He had elbowed Cologne's Dominique Heintz in the 3-0 defeat and was banned for three matches. Time will tell whether he'll fit the hard-pressing game of coach Markus Gisdol, who replaced the hapless Bruno Labbadia in September.