With key USMNT stars Tim Weah and Christian Pulisic unavailable this summer season, Pochettino has turned to Main League Soccer for assist.
America’s oft-maligned home league is a shocking boon for Pochettino, with three of the highest USMNT gamers of his tenure — winger Diego Luna and strikers Patrick Agyemang and Brian White —hailing from MLS. They made the lower with 12 different MLS gamers and a handful of up-and-coming American stars plying their commerce across the globe.
Listed here are the important thing takeaways from Pochettino’s shocking roster:
The USMNT continues to be managing its manner by way of an harm disaster
We knew Weston McKennie (Club World Cup), Yunus Musah (personal reasons), Josh Sargent (“footballing reasons”) and Christian Pulisic (got a bit tired) would miss the Gold Cup. However these high-profile absences had been anticipated to be countered by high-profile additions, together with the returns of Antonee Robinson, Sergiño Dest and Folarin Balogun from long-term accidents.
Nonetheless, Robinson, Dest and Balogun, after showing in Pochettino’s 60-man preliminary squad, did not regain their health and can miss the Gold Cup.
These are large misses for the USMNT, they usually can’t be backfilled with like-for-like replacements. Pochettino should experiment with youthful, rawer expertise of their absence.
MLS is operating the USMNT’s midfield for a change
Seven of the 9 midfielders Pochettino chosen for the Gold Cup got here up by way of MLS. 5 of them — Vancouver’s Sebastian Berhalter, Philadelphia’s Quinn Sullivan, Houston’s Jack McGlynn, Salt Lake’s Diego Luna and San Diego’s Luca de la Torre — nonetheless play within the league.
That is a wild switch-up from the best way issues had been below former USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter. He known as up loads of MLS gamers, however he tended to leverage them in protection, not within the heart of the park. Not one MLS participant made Berhalter’s USMNT midfield throughout the 2024 Copa America. What a distinction one 12 months — and one teaching regime change — could make.
The Philadelphia Union’s academy is doing heavy lifting
Most MLS groups have built-out youth academies, however not all of these academies are created equal. The Philadelphia Union’s program stands head and shoulders above the remaining, and this USMNT roster proves it.
A whopping seven gamers — Matt Freese, Nathan Harriel, Mark McKenzie, Quinn Sullivan, Jack McGlynn, Brenden Aaronson and Paxten Aaronson — got here up by way of Philadelphia’s academy. This system, led by longtime Philadelphia scout Jon Scheer, generated greater than 30 % of the USMNT’s squad for the Gold Cup.
These seven USMNT gamers are simply the tip of the iceberg for Philadelphia’s academy. Its most well-known product, 15-year-old wunderkind Cavan Sullivan, continues to be too younger to characteristic for the USMNT however not too younger to sign an eye-popping contract with England’s Manchester City. We’ll see Sullivan crack these USMNT lineups in a couple of years.
The USMNT will play friendlies in opposition to Turkey (Saturday, June 7) and Switzerland (Tuesday, June 10) earlier than kicking off its Gold Cup marketing campaign on June 15 in opposition to Trinidad and Tobago in San Jose.
