Mauricio Pochettino brought several familiar faces back into the fold, and confirmed the ascension of some newer up-and-comers, in the US men’s national team roster released on Thursday for this month’s Stateside friendlies vs. Ecuador and Australia, in one of just four FIFA international windows remaining between now and next summer’s FIFA 2026 World Cup on home soil.
Past mainstays Weston McKennie and Antonee “Jedi” Robinson are back, while MLS alumni Aidan Morris (Columbus Crew) and Tanner Tessmann (FC Dallas) have earned returns with sparkling performances for Middlesbrough and Olympique Lyon, respectively. And an all-MLS goalkeeping competition beckons, with Matt Turner (New England) vying to regain the No. 1 job Matt Freese (New York City FC) won over the summer.
Pochettino remains focused on one concept above all, however: Stoking hunger and competition across every corner of his player pool as the days tick down towards what is widely seen as the most momentous event in the program’s modern history.
“I always believe that when the player joins us, it is to give and to provide the possibility to fight for a place in the World Cup. That is why, for us, it's always exciting,” the Argentine manager told reporters in a media availability. “It’s not because your name is one or another, you are going to have the place 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: change the culture, change the vision, change the idea of, ‘OK, because in the past, I perform 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.’ And I think that is changed a lot.”
Final chances to impress
Though English is his second language, ‘Poch’ dropped an impressive piece of vocabulary to explain what he’s looking for among his squad in their day-to-day work at club level: exigence, generally defined as a strong sense of urgency in response to a crisis or problem.
“The players that were not called today, they need to be desperate to perform better and to do better and to improve. But that is the exigence in their clubs,” he said. “And the players that were called need to arrive here and be desperate to perform, score, goals, saves, tackles, run more than the opponent, and to convince us to have the possibility to call again. That is the challenge.”
The USMNT boss suggested last month that his process of evaluating talent and auditioning newcomers is drawing to a close as the World Cup looms. Yet he still found space for James Sands, the NYCFC homegrown currently excelling on loan at Bundesliga side FC St. Pauli, to earn his first call-up in more than two years.
“You can ask me, why you call this guy, if in one year we didn't call and it's less than one year to the World Cup?” said Poch. “Because we really believe in giving the possibility, because he is playing, is one of the players that is playing in a regular way every week in his club, and he's doing well, and that is the most important thing.”
Roldan returns
Along similar lines, Cristian Roldan has gained a second straight nod despite being a very late addition to the September squad after two years away from the USMNT, the Seattle Sounders star departing a family vacation to fly cross-country on short notice and join the team when called.
He soon proved a quietly key midfield cog in the Yanks’ timely bounceback win over Japan at Columbus’ Lower.com Field. It seems the impression he made was as much about what he showed off the pitch as on it.
“I didn't know Cristian. OK, we were always assessing him and seeing and we knew about his CV and everything,” explained Pochettino. “Then when we saw, and the possibility to play, but in the way that he behaved in the group, with the teammates. I don't know if we are going to call [him] in November – I don't know, eh? Today is here. But that is a good example that, how you need to want to be involved, and defend and fight for your place in this amazing country, in this amazing sport that is soccer.
“You need to arrive and show your personality, and your character. And then, be available always,” he added. “You need to understand when you’re not playing, that maybe you want to play, but it is not right to behave in a different way. That process needs to be inside yourself, and you need to feel the pain inside, but outside, you need to provide your best support to your teammates, the staff, the national team.”
Opportunity knocks for Freeman
October’s matches are also shaping up as another big chance for Orlando City phenom Alex Freeman. The 21-year-old rocketed from unknown homegrown to MLS standout and USMNT starter this year, and with Sergiño Dest injured and Joe Scally left out again, is the only specialist right back on this roster, with McKennie, Weah and FC Cincinnati’s Miles Robinson as other options.
Though Poch declined to delve deep into tactical talk for fear of tipping his hand to this month’s opponents, the Yanks looked much more effective in a three-man back line vs. Japan than their more common 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 formations, and playing with wingbacks could maximize the skill sets of Freeman and Jedi.
“In that way, to build different ways to play, I think we can use different systems during the games, but also to approach the two games, in a different way,” he said. “Maybe Freeman is the wing, but after we have different animations in the way we can adapt the team and to play.
“It's going to be good, these two games, because we are going to face two very good teams like Ecuador and Australia. And I think it's important to have different possibilities.”
