PHOENIX — A new era of men’s soccer is starting, but be warned: It won't be perfect.

Not yet.

Rather, let newly appointment manager Gregg Berhalter do the talking.

He will be leading the U.S. Men’s National Team in its first game of the 2019 season Sunday at State Farm Stadium. The young group will face Panama, another young team, but gauging their success will take time, and fully implementing Berhalter’s style of play will take longer.

“We certainly want to be able to see the concepts,” Berhalter said. "And it gives us now a good blueprint to move forward. So what we’ll do is, we’ll analyze the game, analyze what concepts are pretty welcoming, what concepts need developing and it will give us a blueprint to go forward.

He continued: “It’s going to give us information. Right now we have no body of work to go on and this is the start of our body of work.”

Berhalter, who joins the national team with five seasons in MLS at Columbus Crew under his belt, has put together a roster with some familiar faces — including Crew’s Zack Steffen (goalkeeper), Wil Trapp (midfielder) and Gyasi Zardes (forward) — some veterans and a lot of young players.

There are just a few who have double-digit caps: Michael Bradley leads the way with 142, Zardes has 40, Paul Arriola has 17 and Trapp 11. The rest have between zero and six, making the squad almost completely new.

But, Berhalter is using this to his advantage.

The players, who come from various different styles of play across MLS, have been adapting well to the new system and, as he said just a day removed from their contest, “they are excited to be challenged, they are excited to work and they are excited to give it an opportunity.”

“One thing I’ve learned is you have players coming from diverse environments,” he added. “Some clubs they play a certain way, other clubs play another way and it’s getting them all together, getting them on the same page. It’s more clear when you can tie into a common mission and you can get the guys focused on one philosophy.

“To me, it’s not just in one element. We’re trying to do that in team presentations, we’re trying to do that in team-building activities, we’re trying to do that in our training sessions — really ingraining what we’re looking to achieve on the field and continually talking about it."

Berhalter said he doesn't think the U.S. team will ever line up with teams like Brazil and Spain, at least not in his lifetime. He wants to compete with these teams by using the group's common mission.

“The strength in our group is going to be in the collective," he said. "We’re going to have to be better and we’re going to have to be better from a collective standpoint and the team building and team camaraderie and the system of play — all of that can help give us an advantage."

Realistically, this won't come together after one match or after their next against Costa Rica on Feb. 2. For now, Berhalter is focused on measurable goals, progress week in and week out until the identity of the team fully forms.

"For us, it’s going to be about how can we get into our structure, how can we get into our shape, how can we open up and get into our offensive organization — that I think will be a little bit of a challenge but something that we relish in," he said.

Kickoff between the U.S. and Panama is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET. on Sunday. The match will be televised on ESPN2.