Dempsey's omission just one of many confusing decisions by Klinsmann

If you had actually, physically scratched your head every time Jurgen Klinsmann released a roster in his tenure as United States men's national team head coach, you would by now, more than four years into it, be bald as a cue ball.

On Nov. 13 – yes, Friday the 13th – the USA begins the third phase of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, the first one in which the Yanks have been required to participate. A home game against Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is on the calendar in St. Louis then. Followed by an away game in Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday, Nov. 17. Klinsmann announced his squad for these games on Friday.

For the official kickoff of a new World Cup cycle, he selected a jumble of young and old and middle-aged players without any discernible policy governing his selections. On the one hand, he called in debutants like New York Red Bulls central defender Matt Miazga and Portland Timbers attacking midfielder Darlington Nagbe. On the other, veterans like midfielders Jermaine Jones and Kyle Beckerman and forward Alan Gordon, who are 34, 33 and 34, respectively, were brought back. And recent captain Clint Dempsey wasn't on the roster at all.

Miazga's play has been so strong in his first season as a starter for Major League Soccer's Supporters' Shield-winning Red Bulls that he has allegedly drawn interest from Chelsea. You can take that report with a dump truck of salt, but it's telling for his form all the same. Nagbe has long been a darling of the Portland fans and a prospect for the U.S. But he was born in Liberia and while his family fled abroad and eventually settled stateside when he was 11, his citizenship didn't come through until September.

"Those are two players that have been on our radar for a long time," Klinsmann said in a statement. "Matt is a youngster coming through our system. He played for the Under-20s and he played for the Olympic team. In Darlington Nagbe we have a player who we've been following for quite a while and he finally became eligible for the United States. It's good to see that we have players coming through and give us more of an option."

But if those inclusions made sense, and a case can even be made for sprinkling in a few veterans, there's no apparent justification at all for Dempsey's omission. He has recovered his fitness and form, both of which had been sort of elusive in recent months, scoring four goals in his last three Seattle Sounders games. And his team's playoff campaign will fall neatly outside the international window.

"At this point in time, I want to give the younger strikers a chance to prove themselves and this is a good stage to do it," Klinsmann explained.

OK, Jurgen. Sure. But then how do you explain including Gordon? He's 34 – two years older than Dempsey – and has played for the U.S. just twice, as a late substitute, three years apart. So if you're looking to the next generation of strikers – even though the other four on the roster are all between ages 26 and 21 – why include him? Why not Juan Agudelo? Or Andrew Wooten, Rubio Rubin, Jerome Kiesewetter or any of the other strikers in the pipeline? Why not even give Charlie Davies a chance of remaking his national team career? At 29, he's scoring regularly for the New England Revolution and still five years younger than Gordon.

It all has something of Landon Donovan's unceremonious pre-World Cup ouster to it. Back in May 2014, as Klinsmann readied his team for Brazil, Donovan, the greatest national teamer of all time – statistically and obviously – was inexplicably ditched from the final roster in favor of Julian Green, a totally unproven 18-year-old who was carrying an injury so severe that he wasn't available until the fourth and last game of the tournament.

Klinsmann, as usual, insists that it isn't a big deal, that his famously fiery former captain has no issues with this. "I communicated with Clint about it and it's all fine," he said.

There are other decisions that merit scrutiny. If this is a time to experiment up front, why not do the same in the midfield? Why not try some others in favor of those who are aging or have yet to demonstrate that they can handle the international level, in spite of ample opportunity?

Mix Diskerud, for instance, keeps getting called into the corps of midfielders. Yet in 36 appearances, the 25-year-old, who is coming off a tepid season with New York City FC, has yet to deliver more than a few handfuls of significantly helpful moments. His spot took up room that might have been better spent on Lee Nguyen, Graham Zusi, Sacha Kljestan, Dax McCarty or, of course, Benny Feilhaber, fellow mid-careerists who produced far more for their MLS sides than Diskerud did this year.

And then there's Fabian Johnson's return. Klinsmann kicked him off the team following the 3-2 extra-time loss to Mexico in a playoff for a spot at the 2017 Confederations Cup in early October, lambasting the right back for asking to be subbed off when he wasn't injured. Johnson was sent home before the following friendly against Costa Rica but has evidently managed to crawl out of Klinsmann's doghouse – his Champions League goal for Borussia Moenchengladbach on Tuesday surely didn't hurt.

Still, if Klinsmann was trying to make a point about what he deemed an egregious transgression, does what amounts to a one-game suspension drive it home?

You will have noticed a lot of question marks in this article, just as there continues to be a bevy of them in the national team.

Try to resist taking it out on your hair.

United States roster for Nov. 13 and 17 World Cup qualifiers

GOALKEEPERS: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Bill Hamid (D.C. United), Tim Howard (Everton).

DEFENDERS: Ventura Alvarado (Club America), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Fabian Johnson (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Matt Miazga (New York Red Bulls), Michael Orozco (Club Tijuana), Tim Ream (Fulham FC), Brek Shea (Orlando City SC).

MIDFIELDERS: Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Mix Diskerud (New York City FC), Miguel Ibarra (Club Leon), Jermaine Jones (New England Revolution), Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers), DeAndre Yedlin (Sunderland).

FORWARDS: Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC), Alan Gordon (LA Galaxy), Jordan Morris (Stanford), Bobby Wood (Union Berlin), Gyasi Zardes (LA Galaxy).

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.