As head coach of the U.S. men’s national team — and well-credentialed to hold that position — Mauricio Pochettino is well within his right to make executive decisions to leave certain key players off this summer’s Gold Cup roster, prioritizing their health after a long club season.
He also wears the blame for any potential repercussions of such decisions.
With the mission-critical 2026 FIFA World Cup just one year away — and no competitive minutes available to prepare past this summer’s Gold Cup — Pochettino has taken on an enormous risk in his reported decision to rest the likes of Christian Pulisic for the entire tournament.
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In a vacuum, Pochettino’s decision is an entirely reasonable one. Pulisic is 49 minutes away from his career high for a single season, and with more and more games being added to the schedule every year, the strain on players has increased drastically.
To further this point, Jeff Carlisle of ESPN reported that Pulisic has been playing through a hip flexor issue since March.
Regardless of whether the player or coach made this individual decision — with the federation claiming it was a collective choice on a conversation started by Pulisic and his camp — Pochettino clearly does not value team chemistry as an important part of a World Cup performance.
He even said so himself.
“Sometimes we give too much importance in being together,” Pochettino said. “Sometimes the group doesn’t work in this way or build in this way. I think in this circumstance we need to consider that there’s still one year until the World Cup.
“It’s true that it’s possible to have an opportunity to have all the players maybe you have in your head [together] for the next year, but at the same time it’s so exciting to see different players — young players, maybe players who will make their debut in the national team — who can challenge different names that everyone considers will arrive at the World Cup.”
That’s a bold admission by Pochettino that his roster experimentation and tinkering is more important than chemistry between the expected starters.
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Resting key players for less prestigious competitions like the Gold Cup is certainly a decision that previous USMNT head coaches have made in the not-so-distant past, so what’s the big deal?
That is precisely the big deal. Past USMNT coaches have made this very same decision, and it has cost them dearly.
Some of the most vocal main critiques of the USMNT failures from the past few cycles hinge around decisions exactly such as these. There has often been a clear lack of chemistry between the U.S. players, often leading them to fail at being greater than the sum of their parts. The USMNT has, on multiple occasions over the past few years, been beaten by lesser teams on paper, but those who perform with a togetherness the U.S. squad could only dream of.
Add in the perception amongst the fanbase that the USMNT players have been treated with kid gloves in recent years — certainly, at least, under previous head coach Gregg Berhalter, who was well-known publicly as a “player’s coach.”
For all his long and glittering resume throughout top-level football management, Pochettino is in his first career national team job. He lacks the ability to draw from past experiences in situations like these.
But Pochettino also has unfettered access to those within U.S. Soccer who have been through situations like this, those who will know that a glaring lack of chemistry has felled the USMNT repeatedly in recent years.
With the significant majority of his career spent in a club environment where week-to-week fitness management was of paramount importance, Pochettino is clearly making decisions reminiscent of his days at Tottenham, PSG, or Chelsea.
If Pulisic is really injured, or at least hampered physically, why the heck was he repeatedly logging meaningless minutes for AC Milan through the entire second half of the season, at to sacrifice USMNT appearances this summer?
Pulisic started all of Milan’s final 11 league matches of the season, despite the club being out of the European race for most of that. He played the full 90 minutes of their last two league games, despite coming after Milan had been beaten in the Coppa Italia final, their last real meaningful competition. Any potential fitness issue clearly wasn’t enough to keep Pulisic off the field in meaningless club minutes, so it shouldn’t factor in as an excuse here.
Instead of blaming nonsensical whiffs of a potential fitness concern, it would behoove Pochettino to use his long stretches of time between national team windows to do a deep dive into the mistakes made by his predecessors.
If he needs some help narrowing down where to look, here’s some help: A brief on how Gregg Berhalter’s use of a B-squad at the 2021 Gold Cup may have earned a trophy but left the USMNT underprepared for the 2022 World Cup the following year. A bit of research into how Bruce Arena’s decision to experiment at the 2017 Gold Cup only just predated their disaster at the end of 2018 World Cup qualifying. Or a peek at how Jurgen Klinsmann’s decision to rest Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore at the 2013 Gold Cup failed to prevent a crippling injury to Altidore at the 2014 World Cup which contributed to their Round of 16 exit.
No, decisions like this do not come with direct, perceptible consequences, but they do make a difference. They have made a difference in the past, and they will continue to make a difference in the future.
On the day of the Gold Cup roster release, U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker issued a statement which seemed to indicate that this decision was more from the player than the coach.
“Christian and his team approached the Federation and the coaching staff about the possibility of stepping back this summer, given the amount of matches he has played in the past two years at both the club and international level with very little break.
“After thoughtful discussions and careful consideration, we made the collective decision that this is the right moment for him to get the rest he needs. The objective is to ensure he’s fully prepared to perform at the highest level next season.”
The biggest issue with the USMNT in recent years has been players achieving new and great things at the club level but cannot seem to perform at the same level for the national team. Why could that be? Because they’re not able to gain any kind of consistency or rhythm with the USMNT when each and every international window is treated in such throwaway fashion.
Pulisic is USMNT captain, and his actions set the tone for the rest of the squad. If the players are serious about changing the narrative around their priorities when it comes to the national team, this is not the way to go about it. Actions speak louder than words, and in this instance, the decision is not becoming of a captain.
It’s entirely possible that Pulisic and others come back rejuvenated and enjoy a strong 2025/26 club season that, in turn, leads to a run of form that carries over into the 2026 World Cup. In that instance, Pochettino will be vindicated, as all managers are when their decisions lead to successful outcomes.
But if the U.S. looks devoid of ideas in the final third against a bunkered opponent months down the road, think back to moments like this where Pochettino failed to learn from the mistakes of those before him. Given such history, the potential benefits from calculated risks like this feel significantly devalued by the potential pitfalls.
With such monumental stakes riding on the team’s performance at the 2026 World Cup, Pochettino can ill afford to have a squad that is unprepared for the moment. Proper preparation, as we’ve seen countless times in the past, is paramount to these career-defining moments.
Preparation that Pochettino is consciously deciding to throw away.
