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Posted

USMNT June roster (club; caps/goals)

Goalkeepers (4): Matt Freese (New York City FC; 0/0), Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew; 3/0), Zack Steffen (Colorado Rapids; 30/0), Matt Turner (Crystal Palace; 51/0)  

Defenders (8): Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew; 3/0), Sergiño Dest (PSV; 33/2), Alex Freeman (Orlando City; 0/0), DeJuan Jones (San Jose Earthquakes; 10/0), Mark McKenzie (Toulouse; 19/0), Tim Ream (Charlotte FC; 68/1), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace; 24/1), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati; 32/3),  

Midfielders (10): Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United; 47/8); Tyler Adams (Bournemouth; 44/2), Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver Whitecaps; 0/0), Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis; 18/0), Luca de la Torre (San Diego FC; 24/1), Diego Luna (Real Salt Lake; 4/0), Jack McGlynn (Houston Dynamo; 4/1), Quinn Sullivan (Philadelphia Union; 0/0); Malik Tillman (PSV; 17/0), Sean Zawadzki (Columbus Crew; 1/0)

Forwards (5): Patrick Agyemang (Charlotte FC; 4/3), Folarin Balogun (Monaco; 17/5); Damion Downs (FC Köln; 0/0), Brian White (Vancouver Whitecaps; 4/1), Haji Wright (Coventry City; 15/4)

Posted

I just took a quick nap and even though I hadn’t been reading about soccer today, I had a dream that saw a USMNT release show and someone fairly past their prime was announced and then they announced CLINT DEMPSEY as a veteran player in the locker room and a super sub off the bench. 

Just be glad that that was only a random dream. 

Posted

i for one like these developments

there must be a sense of competition for place

i have ignored mls for 16 years until poch just gave me a reason to pay attention

i would much rather go to war with a band of brothers and let the chips fall where they may

sa kennedy (paywall)

Spoiler

Friday, May 23, 2025

Mauricio Pochettino sends a message with USMNT shakeup

by Paul Kennedy

Never in its modern history has the USMNT been in such a state of flux a year out from the World Cup.

Successful qualifying campaigns usually took care of things, forming a nucleus of key contributors.

There is no qualifying campaign in 2025. Just the Gold Cup. And the USMNT will head into the Concacaf tournament coming off disastrous performances at its last two major events.

Circumstances have left USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino without the team's core group, or what had been the core group coming out of the 2022 World Cup.

Where do we begin?

We've known for months that the USA would be without Weston McKennie, Tim Weah and Gio Reyna, whose clubs won't release them because of their participation in the Club World Cup, which starts the same day as the Gold Cup.

It isn't certain, though, that Pochettino would have even called up Reyna, who played just 21 minutes at the Concacaf Nations League finals in March and is out of favor at Borussia Dortmund.

The bombshell came on Wednesday with the news that Christian Pulisic would not be playing at the Gold Cup. On Thursday, U.S. Soccer released a statement from sporting director Matt Crocker that “Christian and his team" asked for a summer break, given his heavy load the last two seasons at AC Milan, and it was "the collective decision that this is the right moment for him to get the rest he needs."

ESPN reported that Pulisic has been dealing with a chronic hip flexor injury, but that didn't stop widespread outrage on social media and among pundits that the face of the program would sit out the summer -- and the federation would let him.

Following Thursday's release of the 27-player camp roster -- a maximum of 26 players will go to the Gold Cup -- Pochettino said on a media call that he backed the decision.

"Many people can say it's really important for us to be all together for the last time before the World Cup," he said. "We decided the best for him, the best of the team, the best for the national team is the decision that we made."
'Sometimes we give too much importance knowing to be together'

Pochettino downplayed the importance of having the USMNT together. It will get up to five weeks and eight matches (two friendlies and six Gold Cup games) in what is only the fifth gathering since he took over -- and with only five more (if you include a January 2026 camp) to follow before the team for the 2026 World Cup is picked.

"Sometimes we give too much importance knowing to be together," he said, "and sometimes the group maybe sometimes doesn't work in this way or build in this way."

But Pulisic's absence was just the tip of the iceberg.

Also absent will be Yunus Musah for what Pochettino described as "personal reasons" -- as late as Monday, he said Musah was still in the squad -- and Antonee Robinson, who missed the Nations League with a tendon injury in his knee and has been training infrequently this spring with Fulham. ("The situation still is not clear," according to Pochettino, following recent visits Robinson made to specialists.)

That makes five World Cup 2022 starters plus Reyna who won't be at the Gold Cup. But the list of absentees did not end there.

Joe Scally, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Tanner Tessmann and Josh Sargent, who all started one or both games at the Nations League, were dropped in what Pochettino called "football decisions" without getting into the specifics of their situations.

With just nine out of 20 outfield players from the Nations League team picked for the Gold Cup, that has created unprecedented turnover in the USMNT "A" squad from one window to the next.

Diego Luna, Jack McGlynn, Max Arfsten, Patrick Agyemang and Brian White, none without previous experience on the "A" team, have emerged as Pochettino favorites and return from the Nations League team.

“My feeling in all these camps — from October, November, January and March — I think many players, they took the chance and deserve again to come back,” he said. “Because they not only performed and behaved well in the camp, after that they kept performing in their teams.”

Back for the first time since Pochettino took charge are Sergiño Dest and Folarin Balogun, both absent for much of their 2024-25 seasons with injuries. Getting their first call-ups since last fall are Malik Tillman, Brenden Aaronson, Luca de la Torre and Haji Wright, the latter three World Cup 2022 holdovers.

Uncapped Alex Freeman, Sebastian Berhalter, Quinn Sullivan and Damion Downs have never attended a senior national team camp. In the case of Freeman and Berhalter, they were on no one's radar three months ago, but they have parlayed a strong start to their seasons with their MLS teams into a shot on the national team.


'You have the possibility to defend your place'

Pochettino looks at it as more than a shot, it's their job to lose, as he explained in laying out what will be first conversation he'll have when the USMNT gathers June 1 in Chicago ahead of friendlies against Turkey and Switzerland:

"Listen, guys. You have the possibility to defend your place. When you are now in the national team, it is not because you are here to try to replace people that (are) sure that (they are) going to be here. No, you have the possibility to defend your place. How you are going to defend your place, that is the important thing for us. You need to fight, you need to show attitude, the right attitude, but not only that, perform, and be brave, and follow the rules that we set in the group."

While Pochettino seemed to downplay the importance of having his players together for a long time in defending the decision to allow Pulisic to skip the Gold Cup, he was quite clear about what he expected of his players when they are with the team. ("Rules" came up several times.)

"I think what we want to create in our national team is people desperate to come, but desperate to come to perform,” he said. “To perform means follow the rules, create a good atmosphere, be part of the team. Be able, in every single aspect, [to meet] our demands."

Pochettino said there is no more time to waste: "If you arrive to the camp and you want to spend a nice time, play golf, go for a dinner, visit my family, visit my friend, is that the culture that we want to create? No, no, no, no, no."

"What we want to do," he added, "is to go to the national team, arrive and be focused. And spend all my focus and energy on the national team. Because we need to create this culture about winning and we need to chase our aim. If we want to be good in one year’s time, we need to think that today is the most important day."

 

Posted

I kind of don’t care about most of the team right now. I don’t care about the Gold Cup. I don’t care about the players in the Club World Cup. Basically, I don’t care about the USMNT and the run up to next year’s World Cup.

I would have liked to have seen Nottingham beat Chelsea today, but they failed and are now in the Euro Freshman League (not the actual name).

Having a “Golden Generation” peak at the age of 21 and then coast along kind of gets boring. We know this group’s ceiling and it’s meh.

 

Posted

I hope this doesn’t qualify as a hawt take, but tbh my interest in this World Cup cycle is waning pretty badly right now. This version of the USMNT isn’t extremely likeable and chronically underachieves, Poch doesn’t seem to give a fuck, ticket prices will be astronomical, and it’s going to be one giant corporate fuck fest. FIFA is a giant corrupt piece of shit, Infantino is a disgusting human being, and there’s the kind of cloak room aspect that I won’t get into because this isn’t the right place. There was a time when I was really looking forward to this and would have told you I’m ready to pay whatever price to go to a game. But at this point, I can’t predict the future, but I think it’s equally likely that I barely even pay attention next year. 

Posted
On 5/23/2025 at 3:55 PM, Hagbard Celine said:

i for one like these developments

there must be a sense of competition for place

i have ignored mls for 16 years until poch just gave me a reason to pay attention

i would much rather go to war with a band of brothers and let the chips fall where they may

sa kennedy (paywall)

  Hide contents

Friday, May 23, 2025

Mauricio Pochettino sends a message with USMNT shakeup

by Paul Kennedy

Never in its modern history has the USMNT been in such a state of flux a year out from the World Cup.

Successful qualifying campaigns usually took care of things, forming a nucleus of key contributors.

There is no qualifying campaign in 2025. Just the Gold Cup. And the USMNT will head into the Concacaf tournament coming off disastrous performances at its last two major events.

Circumstances have left USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino without the team's core group, or what had been the core group coming out of the 2022 World Cup.

Where do we begin?

We've known for months that the USA would be without Weston McKennie, Tim Weah and Gio Reyna, whose clubs won't release them because of their participation in the Club World Cup, which starts the same day as the Gold Cup.

It isn't certain, though, that Pochettino would have even called up Reyna, who played just 21 minutes at the Concacaf Nations League finals in March and is out of favor at Borussia Dortmund.

The bombshell came on Wednesday with the news that Christian Pulisic would not be playing at the Gold Cup. On Thursday, U.S. Soccer released a statement from sporting director Matt Crocker that “Christian and his team" asked for a summer break, given his heavy load the last two seasons at AC Milan, and it was "the collective decision that this is the right moment for him to get the rest he needs."

ESPN reported that Pulisic has been dealing with a chronic hip flexor injury, but that didn't stop widespread outrage on social media and among pundits that the face of the program would sit out the summer -- and the federation would let him.

Following Thursday's release of the 27-player camp roster -- a maximum of 26 players will go to the Gold Cup -- Pochettino said on a media call that he backed the decision.

"Many people can say it's really important for us to be all together for the last time before the World Cup," he said. "We decided the best for him, the best of the team, the best for the national team is the decision that we made."
'Sometimes we give too much importance knowing to be together'

Pochettino downplayed the importance of having the USMNT together. It will get up to five weeks and eight matches (two friendlies and six Gold Cup games) in what is only the fifth gathering since he took over -- and with only five more (if you include a January 2026 camp) to follow before the team for the 2026 World Cup is picked.

"Sometimes we give too much importance knowing to be together," he said, "and sometimes the group maybe sometimes doesn't work in this way or build in this way."

But Pulisic's absence was just the tip of the iceberg.

Also absent will be Yunus Musah for what Pochettino described as "personal reasons" -- as late as Monday, he said Musah was still in the squad -- and Antonee Robinson, who missed the Nations League with a tendon injury in his knee and has been training infrequently this spring with Fulham. ("The situation still is not clear," according to Pochettino, following recent visits Robinson made to specialists.)

That makes five World Cup 2022 starters plus Reyna who won't be at the Gold Cup. But the list of absentees did not end there.

Joe Scally, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Tanner Tessmann and Josh Sargent, who all started one or both games at the Nations League, were dropped in what Pochettino called "football decisions" without getting into the specifics of their situations.

With just nine out of 20 outfield players from the Nations League team picked for the Gold Cup, that has created unprecedented turnover in the USMNT "A" squad from one window to the next.

Diego Luna, Jack McGlynn, Max Arfsten, Patrick Agyemang and Brian White, none without previous experience on the "A" team, have emerged as Pochettino favorites and return from the Nations League team.

“My feeling in all these camps — from October, November, January and March — I think many players, they took the chance and deserve again to come back,” he said. “Because they not only performed and behaved well in the camp, after that they kept performing in their teams.”

Back for the first time since Pochettino took charge are Sergiño Dest and Folarin Balogun, both absent for much of their 2024-25 seasons with injuries. Getting their first call-ups since last fall are Malik Tillman, Brenden Aaronson, Luca de la Torre and Haji Wright, the latter three World Cup 2022 holdovers.

Uncapped Alex Freeman, Sebastian Berhalter, Quinn Sullivan and Damion Downs have never attended a senior national team camp. In the case of Freeman and Berhalter, they were on no one's radar three months ago, but they have parlayed a strong start to their seasons with their MLS teams into a shot on the national team.


'You have the possibility to defend your place'

Pochettino looks at it as more than a shot, it's their job to lose, as he explained in laying out what will be first conversation he'll have when the USMNT gathers June 1 in Chicago ahead of friendlies against Turkey and Switzerland:

"Listen, guys. You have the possibility to defend your place. When you are now in the national team, it is not because you are here to try to replace people that (are) sure that (they are) going to be here. No, you have the possibility to defend your place. How you are going to defend your place, that is the important thing for us. You need to fight, you need to show attitude, the right attitude, but not only that, perform, and be brave, and follow the rules that we set in the group."

While Pochettino seemed to downplay the importance of having his players together for a long time in defending the decision to allow Pulisic to skip the Gold Cup, he was quite clear about what he expected of his players when they are with the team. ("Rules" came up several times.)

"I think what we want to create in our national team is people desperate to come, but desperate to come to perform,” he said. “To perform means follow the rules, create a good atmosphere, be part of the team. Be able, in every single aspect, [to meet] our demands."

Pochettino said there is no more time to waste: "If you arrive to the camp and you want to spend a nice time, play golf, go for a dinner, visit my family, visit my friend, is that the culture that we want to create? No, no, no, no, no."

"What we want to do," he added, "is to go to the national team, arrive and be focused. And spend all my focus and energy on the national team. Because we need to create this culture about winning and we need to chase our aim. If we want to be good in one year’s time, we need to think that today is the most important day."

 

After reading that I agree with you. 

Posted
On 5/25/2025 at 9:30 PM, tokamak said:

I hope this doesn’t qualify as a hawt take, but tbh my interest in this World Cup cycle is waning pretty badly right now. This version of the USMNT isn’t extremely likeable and chronically underachieves, Poch doesn’t seem to give a fuck, ticket prices will be astronomical, and it’s going to be one giant corporate fuck fest. FIFA is a giant corrupt piece of shit, Infantino is a disgusting human being, and there’s the kind of cloak room aspect that I won’t get into because this isn’t the right place. There was a time when I was really looking forward to this and would have told you I’m ready to pay whatever price to go to a game. But at this point, I can’t predict the future, but I think it’s equally likely that I barely even pay attention next year. 

 

 Come back to this post on June 11th, 2026 and tell us you still feel that way. 

My dad HATED soccer so I never even knew we had the World Cup in the US in 1994, much less that we had a game 20 minutes from my house. I have a 7-year-old who is now super into soccer and I will be taking him to as many games as we can possibly go to. 20 years from now, the memories of having that experience is going to far outweigh any cloak room aspects that are happening in our current time. 

I don't disagree with any of the other things you mentioned, but my unsolicited advice is not to let those things rob you of an awesome experience we will likely not have again in our lifetime. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

The only thing I worry about as far as the World Cup and attending is how much will it cost me? I totally want to go, there will be 7 games an hour from me, but I am pretty sure it will cost me no less that $1500 a person to go. I hope not, but that's what I feel.

Posted
1 hour ago, LurkingHorn said:

 

 Come back to this post on June 11th, 2026 and tell us you still feel that way. 

My dad HATED soccer so I never even knew we had the World Cup in the US in 1994, much less that we had a game 20 minutes from my house. I have a 7-year-old who is now super into soccer and I will be taking him to as many games as we can possibly go to. 20 years from now, the memories of having that experience is going to far outweigh any cloak room aspects that are happening in our current time. 

I don't disagree with any of the other things you mentioned, but my unsolicited advice is not to let those things rob you of an awesome experience we will likely not have again in our lifetime. 

You may very well be right. Like a lot of other people I had big reservations about holding the tournament in Qatar, and I still ended up watching damn near every minute. The tournament itself is far too compelling not to.

I won't keep belaboring the point, but right now there is pretty much no aspect of this that is trending positively for my interest level. A year is a long time though, so we'll see.

Posted
1 hour ago, Captain Ron said:

The only thing I worry about as far as the World Cup and attending is how much will it cost me? I totally want to go, there will be 7 games an hour from me, but I am pretty sure it will cost me no less that $1500 a person to go. I hope not, but that's what I feel.

That is crazy talk. 

Posted

one thing is certain

95% of the tickets to us matches will go to people who do not deserve them

group (exhibition) games for big names will be accessible for $1000

r32 and r16 with big names will be $2-3k on the secondary market with no face value access for the unconnected

quarters and beyond basically forget about it unless you have walkaway money AND connections, otherwise secondary market will be $5k just to get in, decent seats $7-10k

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

I'm signed up with FIFA for the ticket announcement or whatever. What are my actual odds at landing a couple of tickets to a US group stage game? I honestly don't know any other way to try to get them except paying crazy fees on the secondary market. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted (edited)

Having shitty Fox with broadcast rights doesn’t help.   They are awful.  Rob Stone is fine, but Lalas is fucking horrible so is Stu Holden.   They will probably force Toucan Lloyd on us too  

I miss promos like this.

 

 

Edited by Ted Lange
Posted
On 5/27/2025 at 10:47 AM, Captain Ron said:

I'm talking about going to all of the games, not just a single one.

Ah. Makes more sense. That's not too bad then is it? 

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