The U.S. men’s national team will officially begin its new era under Mauricio Pochettino this October, opening the door for some first-time players, and providing a return for others.
Pochettino will officially be on the sidelines as the USMNT faces Panama and Mexico in the coming weeks. The former Tottenham, Chelsea, and PSG boss begins his new chapter on the international level and has already admitted that the door to being part of the long-term USMNT plans remains very much open.
Richie Ledezma, Luca Koleosho, and Diego Luna are three players who have excelled at club level when given the opportunity. All three will certainly be chomping at the bit to get into Pochettino’s plans as early as October.
Mark McKenzie, Cameron Carter-Vickers, and Auston Trusty have all been in the USMNT plans under Gregg Berhalter, but will now hope to do the same under Pochettino. With the USMNT centerback corps continuing to grow, a positive first impression could do wonders for all three players.
Here is a closer look at which American players deserve more of a USMNT look under new head coach Mauricio Pochettino:
Richie Ledezma
Four years since his last USMNT appearance, Richie Ledezma could very well be back on the radar.
Ledezma has earned a new opportunity with PSV, playing consistently at right back under Peter Bosz. The 24-year-old has made six appearances across all competitions this season, excelling for the reigning Eredivisie winners.
After previously breaking into the USMNT plans as an attacking midfielder, Ledezma’s shift to right back comes at an important time with Sergino Dest sidelined.
Luca Koleosho
Italy looks to be where Luca Koleosho’s heart lies, but the arrival of Pochettino could sway the winger to consider a USMNT career.
The 20-year-old dual national continues through the EFL Championship campaign with Burnley, scoring twice in five appearances so far. He scored one goal and added one assist for the Clarets in the English Premier League last season, earning an immediate opportunity under then-manager Vincent Kompany.
Koloesho has not represented the United States at any level since 2019, mainly featuring for both of Italy’s Under-19 and Under-21 sides. A world class manager like Pochettino though could be what shifts Koleosho’s focus to the USMNT though, especially with the 2026 World Cup taking place in North America.
Mark McKenzie
Mark McKenzie has been in the USMNT mix since debuting in 2018, but now could finally lock his spot down under Pochettino.
After making a move to Ligue 1 this past summer, McKenzie now has a new opportunity in a top-five European league. The former Philadelphia Union homegrown defender has earned three caps over the last two years combined, despite being a regular player in Belgium with KRC Genk.
The USMNT’s revolving door of centerbacks means McKenzie will certainly get his chance in front of Pochettino.
Rokas Pukstas
There is a bounty of youth in the USMNT player pool and Rokas Pukstas is one knocking on the door.
Pukstas is in his fourth season with Croatian side Hajduk Split and is coming off a career-best year for the club. The Oklahoma native scored eight goals in 32 appearances last season before logging 11 appearances to date in the current campaign.
Not many 20-year-olds are playing consistent first team football, but Pukstas is an exception.
Diego Luna
Attacking options are something the USMNT always needs, and Diego Luna could be a big boost to the position.
Luna has scored seven goals and added eight assists in 30 combined appearances for Real Salt Lake this season. The 21-year-old is a powerful dribbler and facilitator, something the USMNT lacks on a consistent basis.
Luna’s snub from the U.S. Olympic Team last summer is something that Pochettino will certainly know about heading into his first few camps in October and November.
Duncan McGuire
Back-to-back double-digit goalscoring seasons for Orlando City’s Duncan McGuire warrants him a new USMNT opportunity.
McGuire has tallied 25 goals in 66 combined appearances for the Lions, which has led to the young forward earning a new contact with the club. Despite interest from England last summer, McGuire has remained in MLS and continues to score at a very high rate.
Folarin Balogun, Haji Wright, Josh Sargent, and Ricardo Pepi are the USMNT’s top four strikers right now, but McGuire could force his way into the mix with a strong end of the year.
What I want to see Vs. what I think we’ll see are two totally different things.
Being the first camp under this management team I don’t expect drastic changes to who gets called up. That said there are a couple injuries and situations where the US needs to look at new options.
Regulars ( 16 ): Balogun, Sargent, Pepi, Pulisic, Weah, McKennie, Musah, Reyna, Tillman, Cardoso, Jedi, Ream, McKenzie, Richards, Scally, Turner….
Likely (4): Schulte, Trusty, CCV, De La Torre, Wright,
New (6): Tesseman (As a CB), Neal, Maloney, Paredes, Busio, Coliocho
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The MLS crowd will get an opportunity as part of the January camp cup-cake. Till then I don’t expect anyone not listed above to get any call-ups.
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The new manager needs to assess the player pool and see (first hand) what he has to work with. They’ll need to organize formation and put in place some general tactics. Finding & incorporating new players to push the “regulars” takes time that they just don’t have before this window.
Fotmob listing Richards out until late October with hamstring injury.
I’m going with a 26 man squad callup. Players I would like to see and who are playing well.
GK: Schulte, Freese, Steffen
D: Reynolds, Fossey, Scally (try at CB), Tolkin, Jedi, Z-Man, Richards, CCV, Trusty
M: Maloney, Cardoso, Busio, Musah, Mckennie, A. Morris, B. Aaronson
AM: Tillman, Pulisic, Luna, Reyna
ST: Balo, J. Morris, Weah
Sargent always gets injured
Wright has cooled consiberably and looked awful this past weekend.
New development of Weah possibly playing #9 at Juve.
Weah is out with an ankle injury. Unlikely to be healed in time.
IV: if no one is playing that way there isn’t much the USNT can do about it. Can you name a stay at home FB in our pool? Maybe an MLS team that leaves their FBs deep? I mean honestly Berhalter tried it with Ream and Lovitz as our LBs and it did not go well. You can’t call up a defense first FB if there aren’t any in the system.
I think it’s time to give Busio more run. He impressed me at the Olympics, had a great year last year in Serie B and was arguably the best player on the field last weekend vs Genoa
to me the B and U23 are similar teams and that’s about his level. he is kind of heir to the roldan quasi-throne of inexplicable regular callups.
to me people keep wanting to call disappointing prior selections up based on improved numbers instead of because they actually see growth in their games. to me we have finite opportunities and it wastes them to give disappointments infinite looks. at a point they almost become regulars-without-performance. like they get dumped for the last NT performance but are soon brought back by what i assume are the analytics people, repeat repeat repeat. we need to start picking people for toolkits that they use for the nats, and if it doesn’t show for us, so what how your club season goes, on to the next guy.
also, on busio in particular, what’s his position? he’s not an adams 6. he’s not a reyna 10. people keep wanting to call hustling two way mush that neither helps pitch shutouts nor sets up many goals. what’s the point. what exactly does he “do” for us?
So your solution is to call Duane Holmes? He doesn’t even start in league matches for a team with 5 pts thru 6 matches.
He’s an 8, but could also play in a double pivot imo. We can’t habe enough players that can.play both ways, is good on the ball and always looks for penetrating passes unlike some of our regulars, and has a knack for goals too. I disagree that his level is the U23 or Serie B level. He was good against Milan and Genoa, and thays after coming back from injury. You underrated him imo, and are over thinking where he could fit in to the senior team, but that seems to be your m.o
The first guy I’d personally look at is Diego Luna, and I’d look at him as a 10.
I know this is heresy, but I’ve always personally rated him above Gio Reyna. Fire at will if you wanna, but let’s have this conversation again in five years.
Tanner Tessmann needs to be integrated somewhere. I personally like him as a 5/6 tweener in the David Luiz mold. I don’t ever see Tessmann getting the Sideshow Bob hairdo but he’s a similar player, IMHO.
I agree in general. I think Luna’s talents are wasted on the wing. He needs to be in the middle. He makes me think of the elder Reyna, but maybe a better dribbler. Considering Gio Reyna’s injury history, I’d put Luna ahead of him, too. He certainly should be brought into camp.
Here’s what I don’t get though. RSL has signed 2 #10s this season in Crooks and Goncalves. There must be something they are seeing in his game that fans are not, that says he’s not a 10. Both he and RSL have cooled in the last couple months not sure what’s going on.
“There must be something they are seeing in his game that fans are not, that says he’s not a 10. ”
Either that or they know he’s leaving soon.
what i would say is if you need a “reyna” in the pool you could probably use 2-3 of that technical, tablesetting “type” who sends the attack on goal or occasionally gets their own. that way (a) we can create centrally without reyna and (b) with reyna we can sub and maintain a consistent style.
i see a few candidates for the role, reyna, pulisic-as-mid, ferreira-as-mid, quinn sullivan, green, pukstas, campbell, cremaschi, luna. i personally feel like AM got way too lumbering and sloppy under GB. it was like we felt self-conscious about the aggressive 433 and turned the MF into something kind of like what klinsi did as of brazil. bunch of scrappers posing as AM. but we weren’t that good on defense actually. so neither fish nor fowl, reyna is the only guy creating stuff and the MF is swiss cheese in transition without adams. it badly needs to be either more creative and precise, or mop the defense up spotless.
to me the musah/weston concept kind of went back to the lousy 2018 cycle mids after the older players got flushed. they’d lost jones’ teeth. and except for a fading bradley there was no one to set up goals. and they did badly. and when that team needed to sub there was no one off the bench to go score something, eg, down goals in couva.
anyhow, luna doesn’t stick out to me as particularly gifted, but good enough, give him his shot, see if he can bridge the gap that say mihailovic hasn’t, be another technical mid option.
fwiw cole campbell played 90 in UEFA’s youth version of UCL.
schulte, celentano, frei, schwake, kochen
dietz, EPB, trusty, tomkinson, okoh, mckinney as CB, banks, wiley, gressel, cannon, n. brown, fossey, lund, jones
tessmann, green, holmes, maloney, mighten, pukstas, q. sullivan, luna, buck, cremaschi, mid morris
yow (hurt?), forward morris, white, d. vazquez, b. vazquez, koleosho, campbell, mckinney as winger
Buck is gone until England dries up for him.
EPB has returned to the bench but still hasn’t gotten in a match, back to not dressing last couple weeks. Thomkinson couldn’t get on the field in League 2 last year and they couldn’t get him a loan this year so he’s in the English U21 league. He was also pretty terrible for U23s before Olympics. Mighten hasn’t played since March, now on loan in Denmark and not playing (hurt?). Okoh still just playing Austrian 2 division. Banks still just in the German 4th. Gressel doesn’t play FB anymore doesn’t have the pace. He plays in MF or as a “Wing”. DVazquez only has 4g 3a in MLS Next probably too early for a full call. Anrie Chase and Damion Downs would be more ready dual nats if you’re just looking to cap guys. Kobe Henry has been on the bench for Reims first team but hasn’t played. Yes, Yow is injured knee not expected back til late October. Everyone else sure.
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Did you miss Cole Campbell’s first pro goal on Saturday?
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Also there’s no way Poch doesn’t bring in most of the usual suspects.
re “banks is in the 4th division,” banks is on augsburg’s B team. every II team german kid by definition is 3rd or 4th, you made this same silly argument on reyna (and i remember people making it about green and richards before that). their teams cannot be promoted to the 2nd, and when the players make the first team they go from fanboy “nothings” to german first division and easy interest that day.
this is different than say CFC shopping around slonina on loan and his taker is 3rd division and he only does ok there. sorry but that suggests the “peter principle” and/or “this is where he belongs” (at least for now) far more than a guy on a german second team that simply is in whatever division they’re allowed to be entered.
put differently, campbell is half a second from the B.1, and if dortmund won’t do it other teams will. vs. good luck slonina seeing the field for CFC outside of a summer cash-cow tour game.
before i get started, LDLT never even sniffed the field for celta this week against atleti. are you as harsh about the regulars’ club situations? some of them couldn’t find the field with a map.
david vazquez, to me, the sticky boots he has fit well with a quick transition pinched winger concept.
henry i keep noticing where he plays and waiting for years for anything to come of it. like a great many people “in europe” i left off.
IV: I think there’s a difference between a 17 yr old CB playing in the 4th division which in Germany is still Amateur (U23s) and Slonina who has played as a regular in MLS. Campbell has moved on from the Amateur level and is playing in. 3Bundesliga, those teams are all professional and with only 20 teams the league has more depth. In 4th division and U19 levels in Germany it’s regional so some teams are just small towns. The Houston Dynamo II vs Victoria Tx probably not a fair match. FYI Bayern and Dortmund IIs usually aren’t in the promotion spots either so it’s not like Netherlands where sometimes Jong Ajax or Young Feynoord win the second division.
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Henry has battled some injury issues. If you are going to take a flyer on a young guy without first team experience I’d lean his way, and if you’re just trying strong arm a dual nat I’d go with Chase because he’s got first team time. I haven’t seen Henry play since he went Europe and have never seen Banks so if you’re going on talent pick the best not the one with the right passport.
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And as I said no way Pochettino calls that many non-regulars.
Honestly, I would leave every single player off from last camp. Even Pulisic. Minus a few guys that proved themselves. Need to put the fire back in this team. No one is safe no one has a starting role.
dit,
Pochettino has said he has enough time. But he doesn’t have time to waste.
Fans might enjoy having some of the players publicly humiliated but that kind of grand gesture is a waste of time.
It may not look like it but the USMNT are all pros, They know goddamn well why Gregg got canned and they know their asses are all on the line. After all a lot of them loved Gregg in part because they are bench warmers at their clubs
and he would play them.
The Copa America roster contained most of our best available talent, give or take. Had they performed to the best of their capability Pochettino might not be here.
Pochettino needs to see for himself, ASAP, whether Gregg was the problem or the players were the problem. If Gregg was most of the problem then Pochettino’s job is much easier.
Spot on assessment Vacqui. Mexico and Panama will give Poch a very good assessment of what he has and if major player overhaul is needed. Hope GGG was as much the problem that we all mostly stated. With what Pulisic brings lately not sure who would want him omitted from any roster.
Ledezma has gotten physical stronger, but he just doesn’t have the recovery speed to play the corners.
I thought he held up ok against Juve defensively. Was beaten a couple of times, but wasn’t repeatedly burned like some had suggested. And his ability going forward was very promising, he repeatedly would send in early and quality crosses, something the USMNT hasn’t seen in a long time.
JB: He was burned a lot in the first 20-25 minutes and Juve was running almost everything down his side. He settled in a bit and Juve started coasting which also helped. It’s not that a guy goes by him but he’s putting a foot wrong or turning his back and then there’s the space that high level players exploit with a pass or a shot. Call him in as a MF or a wing but he’s not NT RB level at this point.
Let’s call this an overly optimistic post.
i am befuddled that the US that has had guys like dolo, beasley, and hedjuk, good tactical balance, of late seems obsessed with the eddie lewis/brad davis end of the spectrum. all hit no field. and they are generally not stud wingbacks in terms of production, either.
the cruyff mentality has won out. cruyff’s bunch had a single euros win and were world cup bridesmaids. the mentality around the team has regressed.
and, anyway, if we’re getting cute in the attack, fossey and gressel “actually do” what people think ledezma “might do.” which, in a high scoring league, 0G 0A on a good team.
IV: it’s kind of a world wide thing. FBs are more offensive today than defensive for a lot of clubs and NT. Allows teams to get numbers into the final third but still keep your midfielders in place to prevent quick counters down the middle. Very few teams play with two stay at home FBs.
IV,
“the cruyff mentality has won out. cruyff’s bunch had a single euros win and were world cup bridesmaids. the mentality around the team has regressed.”
Look down on Cruyff and his bunch do you? I guess you had better coaches at your select teams? There is nothing wrong with Dutch talent or coaching. Their problem is personal. They spend too much time stabbing each other in the back. But if you think you are better than
Cruyff and his “bunch” you might want to look at what Cruyff did with Barca, before Messi got there and how influential that man has been on the entire game.
“and, anyway, if we’re getting cute in the attack, fossey and gressel “actually do” what people think ledezma “might do.” which, in a high scoring league, 0G 0A on a good team.”
Bullshit. We don’t know what Richie can “do” yet. He ust got back and who knows what how good or bad he can be. We know what Fossey and Gressel can do where they are but those are just clubs remember? Club play is useless, remember?
This is not a conventional situation and we’re a long way from knowing exactly what pigeonhole Pochettino wants to put these guys in, if in fact that is what he wants todo..
JR: do you feel like taking the eddie lewis path with wingback has benefitted us? i feel like in every big tournament we get burned wide.
like i said, monkey see, monkey do. it doesn’t net out positive for us but we’re gonna imitate and do it anyway. and keep exiting round of 16.
to me if they want to take risks wide why not also take risks with the AM as real attackers? like do the offense on steroids.
OR
match a defensive formation and the wingbacks to the mentality how we pick mids, which is, basically, mostly two way bangers.
Playing right fullback is about a lot more than recovery speed.
Besides Richie, for now, is an emergency fullback. If he stays with it he might actually learn how to play the position
trusty has 2 total caps. he’s someone who’s been around but not really gotten his shot for whatever reason. i differentiate that from someone like mckenzie who has caps in abundance and he gives up some goals sometimes and i am still waiting for the point.
i say that because to me, mckenzie has 14 caps and is kind of becoming one of the new roldans of the recent unit. experienced, routinely called, but if you asked why he’s out there, people struggle to explain it other than status quo bias sounding stuff or he plays in europe at an ok level.
so i agree on trusty but not mckenzie.
i do think CB needs a strong look because there is some outright crap incumbents and then there is a lot of inconsistent play or injury fade. miles has not returned to being miles. richards is not spotless. whatever positive blip ream had in qatar is over. etc. etc.
i don’t think 9 is a problem except maybe get vezquez involved. but most of the rest of the team i would assume GB had it all wrong and start fresh. and that doesn’t mean jedi and dest and weston and co. get “flushed,” it means they get rotated onto the field like everyone else and prove they are better than the next guy.
tim howard’s assessment is maybe 3 teams in the world could win playing the offense we were trying to do — and we weren’t one of them. and then he echoes my xerox theory and links it to lack of effort. that things got a little too routine and comfortable and the regulars were not scared of losing jobs and motivated to play hard in games or to keep their job. because he’d start them again next time regardless.
start over from fresh tossing aside all favoritism or assumptions, and just work towards seeing who the best guys in the back are. ditto keeper, wingback, mid.
TIV I am hoping Neal from LA Galaxy pans out to be a Top prospect for European cubs. JAN camp turn over that gave Slovenia a goal still is remembered in my head. I want Trusty to go back to EPL or France. I wish we would move on from Ream, if we call him up have him be a back up for LB or RB.
WE NEED LUCA KOLEOSHO!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N82MWgyxYQw
Also, we need to secure Diego Luna
Koleosho is very like Cade Cowell. Good in open space, and Cowell is more physical.
We should secure Luna who is far better in tight spaces.
if we’re gonna play transition ball what you need is 2-3 AM who can win a ball then hit you a 30 yard pinged pass on a dime to a forward who knows how to get out and run then finish the rock. and that dime may need to be interior and not just send them out to the flag. i do not believe that’s musah or weston at AM. i think that could be weston at forward, who can play garbageman wide.
I think it is the defense that the USMNT needs to compete outside CONCACAF. Too often the US loses games because of defensive lapses. In particular, the wingbacks neglect their defensive responsibilities, the CBs fall asleep or make poor passes, the midfielders failing to defend or making poor passes in the defensive third, and the Keepers making mental errors and poor passes.
No matter the offense, if the US continues to give up goals like it has in the past 8 years, it will continue to fail in bigger competitions.
Pochettino’s first order of business is fixing the defense that by far outweighs the importance of which forwards he chooses,
i personally am pro defense, you ship nothing you are in a position to win every week. but it’s either that or you find the best handful of finesse or speed attacking players who can score in bushels as a group, and unleash them to score as many as they can.
to me this goes off the rails when adams is gone and we settle for a musah/weston driven midfield, which is neither leakproof in transition nor that high scoring. for some reason we have been stuck back about 2015 on the idea of two-way mediocrity, idealizing the “8.” this runs better with 10s or 6s. stop people or score on them.
the hustle people advocate is better suited to counter soccer defense driven. if we want offense, to me, that’s more raw speed or technique. dribbling virtuosity. passing accuracy. finishing skill. less about effort than execution. we talked a big game on skill then really didn’t roster it in bulk or use a lot of it to go to goal. passing sideways is overrated “skill.”
Keeper and D are the major issue. Completely affects how you have to play, and with what we have that needs to be more compact TBH. Tyler Adams covered up so, so much.
As far as us having the players to score in bushels? Our players are what they are, and over rating them, compared to others is a fan constant..
We have talent, just not to the level some folks want to accept.
how do i put this. if we want to emphasize offense. you need some pure skill or blinding speed attackers. fair point, do we have that beyond a guy or two in the pool. i personally think mckennie is miscast as an 8 and musah should be either a 6 or a wingback. and that’s what we run the offense through. nope.
it’s either that or tighten this way the heck up and get out of a 433. i’d be fine with it. but what are the odds poch does that?
so, i accept your criticism, but if this isn’t going to be uruguay north or italy west, then you need to be more interested if we have hidden attacking talent buried someplace. if you really believe, nah, then this is toast. if you can’t pitch shutouts and you only have the offense for a single goal most nights, well, that’s last window in a nutshell. canada 2-1, NZ 1-1.
so you have to try harder some end. and if it’s offense, well, take the risk that some of the guys might be better attackers if a little soft. go for 3-2.
Dennis,
Bruce Arena is an acidic, sarcastic, condescending, sort of coach. Very unpleasant. But at his best he recognized that the American soccer player had a number of traits in abundance and Bruce took full advantage of those strengths.
American players still have those traits. And if I can see that, then I’m certain Pochettino can as well. I have to believe that he is a better coach than Gregg.
If he is then he can improve their defensive performance. The USMNT have enough talent to play solid team defense until the cows come home. However, if the USMNT scored zero goals ( vs. a good team) between now and the end of 2026, I would be surprised but not shocked. And if you don’t score, it is much harder to tie and it is impossible to win, barring penalty shootouts.
The best national teams I have watched don’t think much about defense or offense. per se. They think about what they need to do to get the result they need; be it a draw or a win. North Americans tend to think of offense and defense as separate entities because that is how our sports are set up.
Pochettino will immediately improve the USMNT defensive performance.. But the good teams have to do both , score and defend.
Good teams do not lose a lead in a World Cup game. Good teams know how to close out a game. That’s good team defense.
But they can’t do that WITHOUT a lead to defend. Which means they have to score, somehow.
You want to show well in 2026?
Improve the defense AND the offense.
You can’t have one without the other and claim to be a good team.