Remember when there were so many prominent analysts attempting to convince you the CONCACAF Gold Cup was a vital tournament given the arrival of the World Cup just a year later and the subsequent absence of competitive games available to the United States men’s national team?
Remember how Christian Pulisic’s decision to rest through the tournament caused a verbal civil war within American soccer?
We’ve all been reminded the USMNT and new(ish) coach Mauricio Pochettino are running out of time – 255 days now until the home World Cup begins – to establish a coherent system and hierarchy within the roster of available players.
Think someone might want to tell Poch about all this?
MORE: A full look at the 23-player USMNT roster for the September 2025 international window
The roster Pochettino and his staff assembled for a pair of exhibition games next month — September 6 against South Korea in New Jersey, three days later against Japan in Columbus — looks like something one might see for a January camp, or during an international window immediately after a World Cup is complete when there are nearly four years before anyone must worry about excelling in the world’s biggest sporting event.
In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Pochettino talked about the importance of using these two games and the associated training to examine more players, albeit for the last time in this cycle. This, despite the fact there are only three additional international windows prior to pre-World Cup preparations.
“This is the last camp to have the possibility for us to see new players, new faces,” Pochettino said. “For me, all the players are important. The individual situations are important to analyze. We have a roster of 60-65 players of guys that we are going to be under assessment every week. For us it’s about analyzing performances and give a roster with good balance.”
Among 22 on the initial list, there are four who have yet to earn their first cap, plus two more who’ve played just once for the national team. Although such vital team members as wingers Christian Pulisic and Timothy Weah and right back Sergino Dest return, core players including midfielders Weston McKennie and Yunus Musah are absent. Pochettino indicated getting them and midfielder Johnny Cardoso more time to establish themselves with their club teams was a priority.
“Players need to feel the threat from your teammates, and they need to defend their place with every single possibility that you join the national team. But also when you perform in your team,” Pochettino told reporters. “I think that is important, that we assess and judge when they are in their teams, performing. For different reasons, our players struggle to perform and to play the last few weeks or the last few months. I hope that for our players to step up and start to show our real quality and arrive in the last months to compete in the World Cup in their best form.”
These are the most curious decisions Pochettino made with the roster.
Most confusing USMNT call-ups for the September 2025 window
The MMA midfield missing its two M’s
Although Tyler Adams is again with the team, McKennie and Musah will remain in Italy with their clubs. Even though neither is settled entirely at the club level currently, the USMNT facing two quality opponents without two midfield regulars looks like an opportunity squandered. That’s especially true with emerging starter Malik Tillman injured and Gio Reyna only having completed a club transfer within the past week.
Although Cardoso consistently has underperformed in the USMNT midfield, he is playing now at Atletico Madrid, one of Europe’s biggest clubs. Tanner Tessman starts at Lyon, one of the biggest clubs in France’s Ligue 1. Aidan Morris has excelled for Middlesbrough in England’s Championship division, earning his team’s player of the match honor twice in three games.
All were left off in favor of Columbus’ Sean Zawadski, who has been playing in the middle of a three-man back line for the Crew.
“We don’t have too much time because we started last October…and I think for us it’s so important to know the players. In different camps in the past we really know what they are, what they can provide to the team, and now the chance is for different players in that position, like Sebastian Berhalter or Luca de la Torre or Zawadski to give them a chance.”
The goalkeeper vacuum
The return of 2022 starter Matt Turner to Major League Soccer and the New England Revolution appeared to resolve a lot of concerns relative to a position that once was the most dependable in the program. Turner allowed only one goal from open play in the group stage at Qatar. That earned him the opportunity to transfer to Premier League power Arsenal, but he struggled to find regular playing time in Europe. Since rejoining the Revs, he’s allowed only a goal per game and led them to their first two wins since May. Joining the USMNT for these two games would have cost him only one MLS start.
Yet he was excluded by Pochettino.
Zack Steffen, with 30 caps, is healthy after missing the Gold Cup with an injury and leads MLS in saves per game. He also is not on the squad.
In their place are Jonathan Klinsmann, son of the former national team coach, who has earned only 17 starts in three MLS seasons and is playing now in Italy’s second division, yet to earn his first international cap; FC Cincinnati’s Roman Celentano, also uncapped, and Matt Freese of the New York Red Bulls, who started in the Gold Cup and has seven total international appearances.
Pochettino said it was important to promote “continuity” for Turner in New England and to gain the opportunity to see more players in the USMNT setting.
Sideways with the forwards
Such prominent strikers as Ricardo Pepi and summer star Patrick Ageymang, are unavailable because of injury. Folarin Balogun only just returned from injury in late August. So why not involve Haji Wright, who has scored three goals in three games for Coventry City in the Championship – giving him an excellent start toward a sixth consecutive season with double-digit league goals?
Alejandro Zendejas has scored just once in his last six games for Club America in Liga MX, and three times in his last 19, but he was invited. Zendejas was, earlier this summer, not being included in the Gold Cup when coming off a season with 16 goal contributions in 27 games.
Why make it a priority to allow McKennie and Musah to remain with their clubs but not Damion Downs, who hasn’t started yet, and hasn’t scored, after transferring from Germany’s FC Koln to Southampton in the Championship?
Pochettino insisted there’s a plan, and everything he said indicated a belief that games in October, November and next March would offer sufficient preparation to build a winning formula for the World Cup.
“They need to know that they need to perform, and they need to know what they need to do to be our focus. And now, after, for us to select the best players to play in the World Cup,” he said of his player pool. “Now, it’s about that, it’s not to talk about things that are not important.
“We have experience, we have the quality and the capacity to see and to detect and to analyze and to create the best plan to arrive in the best condition. Now it’s up to the players.”
