Two big pre-World Cup tests await the U.S. men’s national team later this month. And those games against Belgium (March 28) and Portugal (March 31) in Atlanta will go a long way toward clearing the picture of which players will be World Cup bound this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Chris Richards were among U.S. men\u2019s national team mainstays who were called up for those games. Other players like Tyler Adams, Sergi\u00f1o Dest, and Tyler Adams were left off due to injuries. And then there are others, such as Diego Luna and Noahkai Banks, who now face a cloudy future for the summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We are answering the biggest questions following Tuesday’s roster release:<\/p>\n
(Photo by John Dorton\/ISI Photos\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Back in January, USA coach Mauricio Pochettino said that for him, the World Cup starts in March. That was due in part because this upcoming camp is the last opportunity for the team to play together before Pochettino announces the official World Cup roster in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Pochettino called up 27 players for camp and explained that while this is an important moment in time with the World Cup less than 100 days away, this is not the final roster.<\/p>\n “Everyone is saying this is the last opportunity,” Pochettino said. “But it\u2019s not closed, it\u2019s open. It\u2019s still open. It\u2019s not the final roster.”<\/p>\n The U.S. has not played together since November, which Pochettino acknowledged is a long period of time apart. Since then, some players who were expected to be part of this March roster are unavailable due to injuries. Had they been healthy, perhaps the roster would have looked different.<\/p>\n “The combinations and the dynamic of the group can change depending on the selection,” Pochettino said. “That is so important for me. Of course, we are going to train like it\u2019s the World Cup. But I think it\u2019s important to see the combination of different [players], see how we work, how we create the same dynamic as the last few camps. That\u2019s the most important thing \u2013 with different players, see how we connect with each other.” – Laken Litman<\/i><\/p>\n (Photo by John Dorton\/ISI Photos\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n As for Wright, who was injured in Coventry City\u2019s match on Saturday, Pochettino explained that the striker position is “very competitive” and “not easy to select.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Patrick Agyemang, Ricardo Pepi and Folarin Balogun were called in for March. While not being part of this squad is a gut punch, Pochettino provided some hope.<\/p>\n “What I can tell the players today that didn’t reach the roster, it’s not that they aren’t going to have the possibility to be in the final roster,” Pochettino said. “And the players that are in the roster, they cannot think they are going to be in the final roster.”<\/p>\n Pochettino noted that mentally, it might be tricky for guys who were called up because there will be photos taken and marketing opportunities in Atlanta that will be used for the World Cup. But over the course of two years as manager, Pochettino has seen about 70 different players and when it comes to the final roster, he and his coaching staff will put their heads together to come up with the squad.<\/p>\n “The right 26, not the best,” Pochettino said.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Photo by John Dorton\/ISI Photos\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Since he was hired to lead the USA in September 2024, the former Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea boss has done his damnedest to root out any sense of entitlement among his more experienced players. He left a healthy McKennie out of several camps. He bristled publicly when Christian Pulisic asked out of last summer\u2019s Gold Cup squad. Yunus Musah, another 2022 World Cup starter, also skipped the Gold Cup because of personal reasons; the 23-year\u2013old has not been recalled since. (Musah was omitted for the upcoming friendlies against Belgium and Portugal despite scoring his first two goals for Italy\u2019s Atalanta earlier this month.)\u00a0<\/p>\n But Pochettino is also a pragmatist. He thinks Gio Reyna can help the USA and included him this month even though Reyna has logged just 26 minutes for Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach since the beginning of January. Asked if he\u2019ll prioritize current form or how a player has fared with the U.S. under his watch when it comes to making his final World Cup selections, the coach suggested that every decision is made on a case-by-case basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It’s an art, because every single player is different and can add different things to the team,” he said.\u00a0 “It’s not fair to judge all the players in exactly the same way, because all are completely different: different characters, different profiles, different quality, different talent.” \u00a0– McIntyre<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Two big pre-World Cup tests await the U.S. men’s national team later this month. And those games against Belgium (March 28) and Portugal (March 31) in Atlanta will go a long way toward clearing the picture of which players will be World Cup bound this summer.\u00a0 Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}