{"id":272974,"date":"2025-10-02T22:31:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T22:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/272974\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T22:31:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T22:31:19","slug":"usmnt-squad-sees-pochettinos-world-cup-vision-come-into-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/272974\/","title":{"rendered":"USMNT squad sees Pochettino&#8217;s World Cup vision come into focus"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/r1344124_600x600_1-1.jpg&#038;h=80&#038;w=80&#038;scale=crop.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\"\/>\n<p>Jeff CarlisleOct 2, 2025, 01:34 PM ET<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"icon-font-after icon-close-solid-after\" href=\"#\">Close<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for ESPN FC.<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"e6b65d49-258c-b730-b7db-df75c6b1f714\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=660\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. men&#8217;s national team<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/46464434\/pulisic-mckennie-headline-us-roster-october-friendlies\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">roster for the October international window<\/a> has a much more familiar feel to it than any squad since last March&#8217;s Concacaf Nations League team. As such, it looks like Mauricio Pochettino&#8217;s <a data-league-guid=\"34f478c4-cf9a-35da-abd5-33db021e09d2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/league\/_\/name\/FIFA.WORLD\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FIFA World Cup<\/a> plans are coming into focus.<\/p>\n<p>Granted, part of the challenge that Pochettino has faced since taking over last year is due to circumstances beyond his control. He couldn&#8217;t completely dictate player availability during last summer&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/league\/_\/name\/fifa.cwc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Club World Cup<\/a>, when the club commitments of <a data-player-guid=\"80f154c0-ef1f-6615-9238-d22a3d6cd0e1\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/256715\/weston-mckennie\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Weston McKennie<\/a>, <a data-player-guid=\"b78313ab-9fa1-2806-1aa4-7c6128e92806\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/266027\/timothy-weah\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tim Weah<\/a> and <a data-player-guid=\"d042c681-f39e-c980-c3d0-5dd928e85297\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/290230\/giovanni-reyna\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Giovanni Reyna<\/a> took precedence. Injuries to performers such as <a data-player-guid=\"97f92287-b26d-c59a-5d43-db2c63cb7603\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/222396\/antonee-robinson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Antonee Robinson<\/a>, <a data-player-guid=\"254b39a6-cfff-9b84-ef34-36ac07fc8f59\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/266291\/sergino-dest\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sergi\u00f1o Dest<\/a> and <a data-player-guid=\"2e8fce58-86b5-b7e1-174d-eb785db17a1b\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/282643\/folarin-balogun\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Folarin Balogun<\/a> limited their availability.<\/p>\n<p>But Pochettino has also been going about instituting a culture change, which can be neatly summarized by the phrase: perform or else. The past &#8212; and the reputations that come with it &#8212; doesn&#8217;t matter to Pochettino. Only today matters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s so exciting to [go] in every single camp because when you meet the player, always it&#8217;s about to really give the confidence and the possibility to fight for a place, and that is a thing that is really important that we are feeling now,&#8221; Pochettino said Thursday in a conference call with reporters. &#8220;That is not because your name is one or another, you are going to have the place [for] sure in the roster for the World Cup. That I think is an idea that we were fighting in the last year to try to fix, that changed the culture, changed the vision, changed the idea of, &#8216;OK because in the past I performed in some way or because I did well four years ago, now I am right to come and to use my place because that is my place.&#8217; I think that is changed a lot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This roster is sprinkled with players who have heeded that message. <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"539b3343-df3a-e111-6050-4eba24fc90b7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=167\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lyon<\/a>&#8216;s <a data-player-guid=\"624404ac-7173-3884-89f9-2c34f5c3c406\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/303308\/tanner-tessmann\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tanner Tessmann<\/a> has been in stellar form since the start of the <a data-league-guid=\"b7217910-7773-3ea8-bc69-30c19c579306\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/league\/_\/name\/FRA.1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ligue 1<\/a> season. The same is true for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/club\/_\/id\/369\/middlesbrough\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Middlesbrough<\/a>&#8216;s <a data-player-guid=\"a89e0328-2328-3d61-9e0f-173e5c026645\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/293826\/aidan-morris\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aidan Morris<\/a>. Both are in the squad.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/p>\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Tessmann and Morris are playing in a regular way every single week, and are players that they need to have the continuity and with continuity, they can help us to arrive and to perform,&#8221; Pochettino said.<\/p>\n<p>It also helps that some players like Robinson &#8212; who hasn&#8217;t played for the U.S. since last year due to a knee issue that eventually required surgery last May &#8212; have returned to health. Robinson has yet to reclaim his starting place in the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"14acbd22-f709-1525-c5ab-1cb3ec8d1696\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=370\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fulham<\/a> lineup, but for Pochettino, he&#8217;s played enough to bring him back into the fold, even as the U.S. manager said he would manage the left back&#8217;s situation in conjunction with his club.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Antonee is not playing too much, but I think the challenge is to help him to evolve and to start to feel the confidence again, and to come back and to play in a regular way in his team that this is going to be great for us,&#8221; Pochettino said.<\/p>\n<p>Others, such as <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"f7f801ac-4d05-4840-e4a2-c573d04a1d52\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=105\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Atalanta<\/a>&#8216;s <a data-player-guid=\"2362bba7-e1c6-3585-8d4a-d78775ad6eaf\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/307527\/yunus-musah\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Yunus Musah<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/club\/_\/id\/268\/borussia-monchengladbach\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach<\/a>&#8216;s <a data-player-guid=\"1661f567-6feb-09ce-81e2-8d26050dcf16\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/272135\/joe-scally\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joe Scally<\/a>, have yet to reach the level Pochettino is demanding. When asked to explain their absences, the coach bristled, and responded by saying, &#8220;Next time you provide your list on your roster and after we can debate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added, &#8220;You can ask me why <a data-player-guid=\"dc5f8d51-332b-0ab2-b4b0-c97efdc624e0\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/45843\/lionel-messi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[Lionel] Messi<\/a> is not in the roster, no? This type of player; [Diego] Maradona, Pel\u00e9, I don&#8217;t know. But when you&#8217;re talking about different names, I think you need to respect the players that are here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Pochettino went on to say that he doesn&#8217;t explain his decisions to players, regardless of whether they get called in. This avoids sending mixed messages of him saying how much he appreciates a player but then not calling them in.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/>After months of experimentation, Mauricio Pochettino&#8217;s USMNT squad for the October friendlies looks much more like the team that will contest next summer&#8217;s World Cup.\u00a0(Photo by John Dorton\/ISI Photos\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think in my philosophy, in our philosophy, or in the way that I grow, feeling the sport the way I do, players don&#8217;t need to know,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And if the player needs to know, it is because they don&#8217;t really feel the sport in the way that I feel &#8230; You really know when you play, and when you don&#8217;t play, you also deep down, you know why.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This philosophy outlines the biggest difference between Pochettino and his predecessor, Gregg Berhalter. Berhalter was much more communicative in his dealing with players. This isn&#8217;t to say one way is better than the other; sometimes players need the constant flow of feedback, other times they don&#8217;t. But following the debacle that was the 2024 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/league\/_\/name\/conmebol.america\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Copa Am\u00e9rica<\/a>, it was clear that the USMNT needed a firmer hand, with <a data-player-guid=\"4d70b696-ec86-7ac2-2239-881e594c538f\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/222776\/tyler-adams\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tyler Adams<\/a> &#8212; who is missing this camp because he and his wife are expecting a baby in the next few days &#8212; going so far as to say the U.S. &#8220;has to compete.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Competing has been part of Pochettino&#8217;s mantra since he first took over, and how players show that quality in this month&#8217;s camp will see the pecking order within the U.S. player pool begin to shake out.<\/p>\n<p>A player like <a data-player-guid=\"4e537717-24b3-a77d-8d12-9cde8792bed6\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/225607\/christian-pulisic\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Christian Pulisic<\/a> &#8212; who has been in electric form of late and leads <a data-league-guid=\"9c1e0753-2757-3b78-a6ed-1b595caf8191\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/league\/_\/name\/ITA.1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Serie A<\/a> with four goals &#8212; is one of the few players whose spot is secure, although Pochettino would never say so. The situation of a player like McKennie, long a mainstay in the U.S. quad, is less clear-cut. He&#8217;s back in the squad after seemingly being out of favor with the U.S. manager. Where he stands in the midfield pecking order is still to be determined.<\/p>\n<p>There are also positional battles to be waged. The goalkeeper situation remains wide open, especially with the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"69c60f39-684f-de4e-dd16-cffcf2bca76d\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=189\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New England Revolution<\/a>&#8216;s <a data-player-guid=\"878117f8-9033-3976-be0f-11ca78bd2597\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/303794\/matt-turner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Matt Turner<\/a> being recalled to challenge <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"d902d6f8-8673-29e3-15d9-3ef4c12ce9d0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=17606\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York City FC<\/a>&#8216;s <a data-player-guid=\"56bd8f73-7610-b0d5-fe90-b517cd9ae61d\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/252974\/matthew-freese\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew Freese<\/a>. The group of forwards remains in flux, although Balogun looked to have gained some separation during the last window in terms of starting spot. There&#8217;s also the competition between Weah and <a data-player-guid=\"693220b6-bb0c-62e4-1e9d-065b9001a448\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/212824\/alejandro-zendejas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alejandro Zendejas<\/a>, although Pochettino hinted that Weah may see some time at right wingback, where he has featured on occasion at club level.<\/p>\n<p>All of this sends a signal that the time for experimentation is largely over. The culling of the player pool has begun. Now we&#8217;ll see which players perform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff CarlisleOct 2, 2025, 01:34 PM ET Close Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":272975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-272974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115306947487166337","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}