The MLS offseason seems to grow a little shorter every winter. The 2026 campaign will kick off just 77 days after Inter Miami CF’s MLS Cup 2025 presented by Audi win over Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Saturday, and it’s essentially less than half that for most players, who begin reporting to preseason camps in early January.
This year at least, that’s just fine for the league’s contingent of US men’s national teamers aiming for a spot on the 2026 FIFA World Cup roster.
“I already started my offseason program,” Charlotte FC and USMNT center back Tim Ream told reporters after Friday’s World Cup draw. “I took 10 days off after November camp, and I'm right back to it.”
The veteran defender pointed to the words of Diego Luna, a teammate 16 years his junior, from a recent interview with Goal.com in which the Real Salt Lake starlet spoke of the coming weeks as “my preseason to my preseason,” given the crucial importance of a strong start in the new year.
“I saw that Diego said that this is the biggest offseason of his career. And I would echo that,” said Ream, 38, who’s been playfully dubbed ‘Grandpa’ by his USMNT colleagues. “I've been playing for 16 years, I'm going into my 17th, and my 17th offseason is the biggest of my career, without a doubt. You have to still be able to push yourself to go out and work out and do the things, and make sure that you’re flying and ready to go and ready to play 90 minutes as soon as preseason starts.
“Listen, I played 45 games this year between club and country. I can rest when I retire, and right now is not the time.”
Sense of urgency
Even with no domestic matches nor the usual January camp for the next two months, that sense of urgency will remain palpable for everyone in the USMNT orbit.
Beyond tactics or results, the conscious cultivation of that mindset stands out as the defining trait of head coach Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure to date, particularly when it comes to his readiness to provide opportunities to MLS-based standouts.
Luna earned his first call-up from Pochettino less than a year ago. Yet both his performances and mentality prompted the Argentine boss to fast-track him into the World Cup reckoning. Much the same can be said of Matt Freese; the New York City FC goalkeeper notched his first cap in June but finished the year with 13 of them and appears to have secured the starting job for the time being.
‘Poch’ also sped the meteoric ascent of Alex Freeman, the Orlando City homegrown and 2025 MLS Young Player of the Year, who’s vaulted not only into roster contention, but a fight for the starting job at right back/wingback, as has his left-sided counterpart Max Arfsten of the Columbus Crew.
So too has a more familiar face like Cristian Roldan — an unused reserve at Qatar 2022 who wasn’t even on the preliminary roster for September’s international window before earning a late call and making the most of it — rocketed back into the central-midfield mix via outstanding displays for Seattle Sounders FC in MLS, Club World Cup and Leagues Cup action.
"We need the right players"
Pochettino rarely misses an opportunity to drive home his messaging about the importance of constant competition and his disregard for reputations or prior status. Friday’s FIFA World Cup draw was no exception, as he revealed his recent enjoyment of the film “Miracle” about the US hockey team’s 1980 Olympic heroics and its main protagonist, coach Herb Brooks.
“He said, ‘we don't need the best players, we need the right players to make the team a strong team,’” enthused Pochettino, “and that is what we want to provide to this national team: the right player to build a powerful team with the possibility to fight with any team in the world. ‘Good’ and ‘right’ are completely different.
“People ask me, which is the legacy? Is it to win the World Cup?” he added. “I think it is that: to try to settle this idea that the national team needs the right players, not the best players.”
When Friday’s press conference concluded in downtown Washington, D.C., Poch hightailed it to the airport to catch a flight to South Florida so he could watch three more World Cup hopefuls in MLS Cup: Sebastian Berhalter, Tristan Blackmon and Brian White.
By now, the players have clearly gotten the memo.
“I've echoed this a lot: that none of us – still, at this point – none of us are guaranteed a spot at this World Cup,” said Ream, who already lived this experience as a late-breaking arrival to the 2022 World Cup squad after more than a year on the outs earlier in that cycle.
“I think that's the biggest message, is that we have to continue to earn that opportunity and earn that call-up.”
