Mauricio Pochettino sends a message with USMNT shakeup

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 “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, all 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 the 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.”

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