A young U.S. midfield defined a scoreless draw vs. Wales, while a slew of newcomers showed promise on their debuts.

It probably was the most eagerly anticipated friendly in American soccer history and although the result—a 0-0 draw with Wales—didn’t inspire, the potential of this young U.S. national team was evident during much of a rainy night in Swansea.

Coach Gregg Berhalter’s side hadn’t played in 285 days—it was early February—and the program’s highly-regarded contingent of young, European-based players hadn’t been in camp for a year. Finally together this week in Wales, they then had only two full days of training ahead of Thursday’s exhibition against the 20th-ranked Welsh.

“It’s all about expectations,” Berhalter said before the match. “What I’m expecting [Thursday] is a team that will go out there and compete, a team that will go out there and hopefully execute some of the concepts. I don’t think it’s going