The first pair of competitive U.S. men’s national team matches under Mauricio Pochettino get underway in four days time and several key inclusions were made in his roster.
Ricardo Pepi, Christian Pulisic, and Zack Steffen headlined Pochettino’s 25-player roster for the upcoming CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal round. The Americans will travel to Jamaica on Nov. 14 before hosting the Reggae Boyz in the second leg on Nov. 18 in St. Louis.
We select 25 players on the roster and we try to find the best balance, thinking not only about [performing] today if not to build something for 2026,” Pochettino said at a press conference Sunday morning. “That is the main objective. Of course the objective is always about to win because we need to be competitive but it’s important because we are not going to have too many camps to see players.”
Chris Richards, who returned to the Crystal Palace bench this weekend, was also called in for duty. Brandon Vazquez, Alex Zendejas, and Cade Cowell have all been included after positive endings to their Liga MX regular season schedules.
Tyler Adams, Josh Sargent, Cameron Carter-Vickers, and Haji Wright were not named to the roster. Adams only made his league debut with Bournemouth on October 26 while Carter-Vickers returned from a toe injury on Oct. 27.
Sargent is sidelined for two months at Norwich City due to a hamstring injury while Wright left Coventry City’s 2-2 draw with Sunderland on Saturday after rolling his ankle.
Pochettino surprisingly only called in one left back and right back with Antonee Robinson and Joe Scally claiming those spots. Both players have continued to excel at club level for Fulham and Borussia Moenchengladbach respectively.
Christian Pulisic will headline the attacking options for Pochettino as he continues to play a major role for AC Milan. Brenden Aaronson and Malik Tillman have also enjoyed productive first halves of the season at club level while Tim Weah is finding his form at a perfect time.
The USMNT have won 20 of 33 all-time meetings with Jamaica and are currently riding a seven-match unbeaten streak. Haji Wright’s brace propelled the Americans past the Reggae Boyz in the semifinals of last season’s Nations League semifinals as the USMNT won 3-1 in extra time.
Longtime club manager and former England head coach Steve McClaren took over as Jamaica head coach last July. He’s led the Reggae Boyz to a 2-2-0 record in his first four matches in charge.
Here is the full USMNT roster for November’s CONCACAF Nations League series vs. Jamaica:
GOALKEEPERS: Diego Kochen (FC Barcelona Atletic/ESP; 0/0), Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew; 2/0), Zack Steffen (Colorado Rapids; 29/0), Matt Turner (Crystal Palace/ENG; 47/0)
DEFENDERS: Mark McKenzie (Toulouse/FRA; 15/0), Tim Ream (Charlotte FC; 64/1), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace/ENG; 23/1) Antonee Robinson (Fulham/ENG; 48/4), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati; 30/3), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach/GER; 17/0), Auston Trusty (Celtic/SCO; 3/0)
MIDFIELDERS: Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United/ENG; 46/8), Gianluca Busio (Venezia/ITA; 15/1), Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis/ESP; 17/0), Weston McKennie (Juventus/ITA; 56/11), Aidan Morris (Middlesbrough/ENG; 9/0), Yunus Musah (AC Milan; ITA; 43/1), Tanner Tessmann (Olympique Lyon/FRA; 4/0), Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven/NED; 16/0)
FORWARDS: Cade Cowell (Guadalajara/MEX; 10/1),Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven/NED; 31/11), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan/ITA; 74/31), Brandon Vazquez (Monterrey/MEX; 9/4), Tim Weah (Juventus/ITA; 41/6), Alex Zendejas (Club América/MEX; 9/1)
“2011 US played consecutive games against mexico. gold cup got bradley fired. followed by a friendly which was klinsi’s first. even a similar dynamic of domestic coach goes down in flames at tourney followed by friendly games under new management.”
As usual, you’re leaving some things out.
my point is not whether bradley had a miserable year before getting fired. or klinsi was only keeping his job because flynn was in the hospital and wanted to personally pick the new guy. the precise explanation provided to him (or that we can think of) when he got the pink slip.
my point is the degree of transition from one coach to the next in terms of personnel. both bradley/klinsi and klinsi/arena saw dramatic personnel changes, eg, “the dropping of the germans” under arena.
my explanation is spotless and your little vague handwaving doesn’t lay a glove on it. as i said, a chunk of even the few poch left off his first window are hurt players he had back for his second window.
“My explanation is spotless” left out in ‘11 it was a midweek game and European players had games 3 days before and 3 days after so most didn’t come. In ‘17 left out it was a January camp outside of an international window so half the roster wasn’t available but the March window was 9 of 11 starters the same. Thanks for that accurate depiction Donald.
“i can propose people but i can’t point to track records on people we won’t call. i can remind people of his track record since he’s roster-hogging.”
More evasion.
In other words it’s a question of whose soccer judgement people trust more:
Yours
or
Pochettino’s
you’re also not getting my point here. my point is the “experience paradox” essentially. that half the excuse for not calling the folks i propose, is, they’ve not been called up before. which is then argued in favor of the ones he has called — even if they suck.
it’s not comparative analysis. it’s saying we shouldn’t change a thing because we called them last time, which begs the question especially when you lose. did your HS coach leave the same 11 out when you lost a game? unless you’re gonna win state, no.
since people are just making stuff up.
2011 US played consecutive games against mexico. gold cup got bradley fired. followed by a friendly which was klinsi’s first. even a similar dynamic of domestic coach goes down in flames at tourney followed by friendly games under new management.
when that occurred, 6 starters were kept on the roster, plus 1 bench player (7). 5 starters and 6 bench players were dropped entirely (11). out of an 18 man list. so 11/18 of the new coach’s players were guys who were not even dressed for the tournament elimination game.
similarly, in 2016 arena took over from klinsi after the CR/MX double loss. he had a january game in between.
he, again, kept 6 starters, dropped 5 of them off the roster. kept 2 bench dropped 10. so 15 new guys.
for comparison, uruguay vs. panama (since we had a caretaker between):
7 starters kept, 4 dropped (but basically all injured…..richards reyna adams balogun);
8 bench kept, 6 dropped.
my counts may not be perfect but you get my point.
so that’s 15 guys who got the coached fired who get kept, including 7/11 of the lineup. it runs roughly a 2/3 proportion in favor of before.
and that’s being indulgent considering some of the guys “out” are injured as opposed to a decision being made. thus mckennie and richards and such are now back.
i then hear “but he cut lund,” but you go back and look at june vs. now, and it’s basically lund, moore, seanjohn, and LDLT. that’s it. and remember lund survived the first call sheet. he’s only getting cut now.
that’s very light axe work of basically bench players.
so, it’s not even close to the same how it’s been before when the team screwed up and the coach got fired.
people can now return to the utter malarkey rhetoric about how the coach usually brings back the same people just got the last guy fired. on what planet. they usually swing some axe.
in part because i am not getting fired playing the same guys got the last guy fired.
in part because there is usually abundant tape of what just happened and what i want to know is what i DON’T KNOW about this team. so who else can i call?
they then circle back around to old team players if they think they went too far or can’t find anyone better. eg when GB took over he tried trapp and yeuill. circled back to bradley. then eventually landed on a healthy adams. he did not just keep playing bradley. bradley got dropped, revived, then dropped again when the results stayed the same.
“2011 US played consecutive games against mexico. gold cup got bradley fired. followed by a friendly which was klinsi’s first. even a similar dynamic of domestic coach goes down in flames at tourney followed by friendly games under new management.”
As usual, you’re leaving some things out.
2011 that friendly was played on August 10. Goodson had already started his season with his club having game 8/7 and 8/14, he was called in the regular window in Sept. Dempsey, yeah Klinzy dropped that dead weight. Fulham had Europa League qualification Aug 4 and EPL opener Aug 13. Adu was at the beginning of his downward slide, it would be akin to if Berhalter had started Sebastian Soto vs Uruguay to see if he could ignite him. Lichaj was never rated by Klinsmann. Bedoya got sent to Rangers and then mostly sat, Mo Edu was also on Rangers and didn’t come Aug 10 so I’m assuming Bedoya wasn’t called for the same reason having a match the 13th.
————————
Do you think there were guys not available for the January camp that played in the qualifying in November in 2017. By the time we got to qualifying in March it was 9 of 11 Klinsmann starters just Lleget and Villafana added replacing Tim Chandler and Fabian Johnson. Would anyone consider that an upgrade? How did dropping FabJo and adding MLSers work out for Arena in qualifying I can’t remember?
—————————
When you add context no one “cleaned house”. I’m sure in January when he calls his MLS roster you’ll scream “finally Pochettino cleans house”
arena dropped almost every german we had. are you seriously going to gaslight us that these transitions were just guys who were bedding into club? you even admit on a couple of your cherrypicks that guys were “rated” different or “began a downslide” ie were no longer viewed with rose lenses.
you are making my point for me — usually these coaches arrive with existing opinions what they saw, and rate people different — and it happens when they arrive. they don’t spend windows playing the last coach’s guys.
utter crap. i know you dislike me but you don’t get to literally make up what has happened before. or are we pretending that, for example, arena’s “german-dumping” didn’t happen?
Arena “got rid of” three players all of whom had injury issues during that time Williams, FabJo, Chandler. Hardly this massive roster turnover you described as “the norm”. You choose to compare numbers of January camp because it fit your narrative. When you look at competitive games they were nearly identical, minus Arena’s xenophobia. His starting group during qualifiers was basically the same as Klinsmann. Klinsmann used most of the same players as Bradley once it was a regular window not a Wednesday match in between league matches on the weekend. You tried to spread falsehoods and I fact checked you. I told you this summer the roster was going to be very similar and you didn’t believe me. I explained why it wasn’t going to change. In 2011 and 2017 the difference in level between fringe players was often Danish League vs Sweden vs MLS. All similar levels. Now our fringe players are in La Liga or Bundesliga. Musah has a lot of improving to do with his final ball, but he is so much more talented than Holmes it’s not even close. There will be some guys shift, I think Cole Campbell will be on the 2026 roster, but that doesn’t mean he needs to be there today.
IV,
When it comes to making stuff up, you certainly would know.
“Key points to remember about statistics and lies:
Misleading presentation:
Even accurate data can be presented in a way that distorts the truth through biased graphs, cherry-picking specific data points, or omitting important context.
Sampling bias:
If a sample group is not representative of the larger population, the resulting statistics can be inaccurate and misleading.
Correlation vs. causation:
Just because two variables are correlated statistically does not mean one causes the other. ”
_________________________________________________________________________
The player pool that Gregg drew from was/is very different from the pools that Bob, and JK drew from.
Very long story short, Gregg’s, Bob’s and JK ’s ”irreplaceable “ starters can be debated but for the most part:
BOB: Howard, Dolo, Boca, Michael, Jozy, Landon, Clint.
JK’s: Howard, DMB, Cameron, Clint, Jozy. Michael, JJ.
Gregg: Matt, Dest, Jedi, Adams, BA, Weston, CP, Weah
Doesn’t look very different if you’re talking numbers, does it?
Again, very, very long story short, the difference is that Bob’s and JK’s pool guys were older and more experienced.
Their backups or the alternatives to them if you prefer, were not that far off from them.
Gregg’s and now Pochettino’s guys? CP is on another planet. Jedi, Dest, Adams, Weston and Weah are significantly better than the next guy. BA is almost useless but coaches love him. Matt is flawed but is saved because he has no Guzan, no Friedel/ Keller to push him. I left out Gio because he is never healthy and available and may never be. He also may not want it that bad. He should have enough money to retire if he’s been smart with it.
Gregg chose to ride with these guys for a long time and a lot of games. He chose to not rotate a whole lot for reasons best known to him but it’s clear that in the absence of more rising kid super stars the alternatives to them and for the remaining spots were not as reliably proven and consistent as the players Bob and JK had to pick from when they went looking.
Pochettino still uses Ream because, in part, there are no reliable alternatives. And you know it because you’re try to bullshit your way out of naming one and can’t pull it off.
Pochettino is already in a situation where he must get results right away. For at least 6 million reasons, he does not have the grace period that Gregg, JK and Bob had.
Pochettino is allegedly on another level from any of the other coaches we have had. He now has a player pool that while more talented than previous editions is also very young, very inexperienced, lacking enough team leadership and a real team identity. They need someone to show them the way.
Gregg had enough ability to take them to a certain point but he couldn’t take them any further.
Pochettino has to take that undeniably talented core and do some remedial work on them and get them going before he knows who stays and who goes.
Unlike with Bob and JK, most of the these leftovers are still young and yet to reach their peak. They can be made better.
In a sense, the bitch snitty panty twisters are right. He’s not going to change the players any time in the next minute.
He’s going to try and fix them first. He makes the big money because he supposedly knows how to develop young players. This is difficult to do in a national team setting but I’m going to enjoy watching him try while you will just be choking on your snit.
When you take over a troubled company , immediately firing everybody in sight is not always the best answer.
If he can’t do that, then he’s going to have to throw out the babies in the bathwater and that takes a lot of time. Unless you already have that alternative team ready to go? Names?
US last fall starting october were 2W 2L to finish 2023. US are then 4W 6L 2T this year, 2024. we went from october 14 last year to october 12 this year without a friendly win. we fired the coach. can the pro-status quo posters quit trying to gaslight me and everyone else on the likely result of More of the Same? or worse, The Same Plus Added Fun With B Team Disappointments?
put it differently, when we hired a more rarefied version of the same tactics coach, i expected personnel heads to roll. you have to change something or it’s definitional insanity. and pretending like bringing in B teamers who lost in the gold cup semis is the fix is delusional.
i am waiting for this to turn the corner. it didn’t do it last window. and this roster sheet doesn’t scream change is coming.
WCQ last time was 2-0 and 1-1. NL semi in march was 3-1 but 1-1 regulation with a last minute own goal and 2 OT goals.
But someone has to actually be better than the not very good old guy. CCV just as many mistakes in far fewer minutes. EPB hasn’t played since Sept 28, 2023. Richards continues to get injured, he’s missed half the matches since Jan ‘22 with injury. Miles Robinson wasn’t great at the Olympics has been ok, poor passing. Trusty, part worst defense in EPL history, been called in by multiple managers and then doesn’t play? Then a bunch of teenagers that play lower level football. Your strategy is just throw spaghetti at the wall and see if someone sticks. There’s no guarantee and actually a lot of evidence that the options he chose are the best options A’s underwhelming as that might be.
your game is to pretend no one new could possibly better no matter how many times we then watch richards or reyna or fossey do it. and you get to hide behind the fact that 5 seconds later those players are themselves regulars and you can almost act like you were defending them even when you were calling me crazy to suggest them.
we have been trying it your way since GB got the job. poch is now continuing Team Continuity. the part you leave out is the crap results. what i had ingrained in me is if we’re losing anything, even the big rivalry games, it’s not fully ready. and i can cook some more. and we’re losing a lot.
you also neglect that a lot of the people i am suggesting are pre-approved US age group pipeline guys. campbell, sullivan, luna, dietz. literally the only difference between them and say cowell in terms of pedigree is who has been allowed over the drawbridge just yet. which begs the question.
personally my experience your status quo thing plus favoring first team numbers results in the perverse outcome where the brendan aaronsons of the world who go to some weak team and put up numbers, have more caps than the tim weahs of the team, who are higher esteemed, go to the best clubs, and still manage to score the odd goal for them.
or, for example, we can favor the delightfully chaos creating cowell, despite the shanked disappointments, over campbell, who looks like twice the future player, regardless whether cowell scores in the easier MX league.
what you’re doing is precisely backwards of what winning teams do.
Richards and Reyna are hurt. When healthy they should be picked 100%. Even when Gio is barely getting minutes he should be called. Don’t lump me with the others. Fossey played well against New Zealand. Something in his training, attitude, or club situation caused Poch not to bring him this time. I don’t know the situation so until I hear more I’m not going to judge what happened there. But you also used to rave about Johnny and Lund after one match.
————————
You then name a bunch of guys that can’t replace Ream because they aren’t CBs. This whole thread was about Ream. Your one suggestion is Dietz. Fine bring Dietz, what assurance do you have he can play CB at that level. Was he the best CB at the Olympics? Oh he didn’t beat out Zimmerman or MRob? So you are saying Mitrovic purposely sabotaged the team playing worse players because he’s a snob? Does that make any sense? Ream is there because he is better than the next option at this moment. Not because he’s great but because he stinks less.
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I’d 100% take Luna over Cowell, or Campbell over Cowell. I frequently use the name Buff Arriola for him, but I don’t choose the roster. Some guy with far more experience as a player and manager than I have does. As I told you when the hiring process started the roster was going to stay pretty similar, not because it’s perfect but because it’s mostly the best players. And every team brings their best players, unless there’s some sort of discipline issue. There is no hidden gem out there playing average in an average league that will star at the NT level. Gio was a star at the YL it was just a question of when was he physically ready. Richards was a star at the YL it was a question of health and he was physically ready. Cavan Sullivan and Mathis Albert are stars at the YL it’s a question of when are they physically ready. Campbell is a star at the YL he’s adapting to the physicality of the adult game, he’s I think very close.
re fossey, what you’re missing is he was a SEPTEMBER VARAS selection, not OCTOBER POCH. i think he was left off completely in october. so this cannot possibly be an eval of how he did or didn’t do when he was completely omitted.
i see it as more akin to green or holmes where someone gets capped, plays fine, but for some reason disappears. and you can pretend something someplace else might have gone wrong, but aren’t games what really matter? this is part of why i ask whether we care how the games go. most teams don’t go around looking for excuses to bench or drop players like reyna, for example.
even lund, who admittedly laid an egg last time, we did this weird thing where he got in games last fall, looked good, then was unused bench for like 8 months, then suddenly back in the games under poch.
do you see how this is different than the normal rewards system of, say, pulisic plays 10 minutes. does well, plays 30. eventually starts.
my impression is with like musah, it was straight into the lineup. turner was like that.
the interim period in there where they get called right back up and prove their quality and consistency is missing. the coaches’ minds already seem made up right away. either 0-100mph. or one cap then gone a year. no matter how the game goes.
i think i am sensitive to this because my college experience was bench scrimmage bench first game good sub second game start third game. you get your shot, you do or don’t do something with it. you do something with it, you get more and more usage.
between that and favoring aaronson who got cut over the guys who made U20, what we do is perverse. the normal, common sense approach is elevate the biggest prospects and best veterans first.
I hate it when facts get in the way of a good rant. Fossey was called in in October, he developed a slight knock. I believe the 2nd or 3rd day he was just training inside on the exercise equipment and left camp before Mexico. My guess is the injury is still lingering and his club asked or Poch left him home to rest (as is common). From content creators who watch club matches what I’ve gotten is he’s not great, plays hard isn’t overly skilled, average defensively. I’m a little surprised Reynolds has gotten a call more than Marlon.
—————————————
Who was Musah competing with when he joined? Acosta, Lleget, Yueill? Of course he jumped right into the lineup.
————————————-
Aaronson didn’t make the U20 team. Since then Llanez (out of soccer), Mendez benched in Portugal goes to Juarez doesn’t play, Servania lackluster loan to Austria, tons of injuries, Pomykal tons of injuries. Meanwhile Brenden beats out veteran DP from El Tri becomes starter for Supporters Shield winners, sold to Austrian champs wins league plays Champions League, sold to Leeds, loaned to Bundesliga more Champions League. Since Tab picked that roster Brenden has been a steady upward trend and those other MFs are a near straight drop. That’s not counting Soto who is out of soccer currently or Konrad in the Swiss league on the bench.
JR, come off it dude, you’re the one who first said it was an evaluation decision — that he got rated down on september — and are now saying it’s an injury thing.
and don’t say “facts” are a problem then say “i guess” on why he got left off. that’s not a fact.
cause what i am looking at is a wingback option we haven’t brought back, who generally was seen as playing well, and the difference i see is the coach changed. and meanwhile people pouting about how we don’t really have wingback options to try. fanboys strain very hard to make excuses to do exactly whatever our coaches say. then we lose and the fanboy still thinks he’s smart.
IV,
“i don’t think we have basic defense sorted. we shouldn’t be getting cute until we can play ok team defense for a change.”
No shit. After two friendlies we’re not already a lean mean killing machine?
“because the concept, after all, seemed to be send jedi down the left green but stay back home at RB. in which case dest is poorly suited. ”
Seeing as how Dest has yet to play for anyone, let alone Pochettino, you are making a lot of assumptions about Dest.
You don’t know what kind of player he is going to be after major knee injury.
dude, have you not been watching us for like two years? it’s not a one window problem.
and i am not slotting him in anywhere. i am responding to folks below who are further along towards doing so.
IV,
I never assume anyone coming off of major knee surgery will be what they were.
Gregg is gone. Those windows were his.
The new guy hasn’t done anywhere near enough yet , with his windows, to require your consistently tiresome, granular rehashing of the good old days as if they are about to be repeated.
They might be but you don’t know that yet.
Ream for example. He’s either going to continue to be useful or not.
There is no point in pre-emptively criticizing his continued use, when none of us know how long that use will be.
first, ream doesn’t just get called, he gets played.
second, as i discussed below, i think ream gets played because of a sort of snob myth where he was ever a big deal. he was a “cut” in 14. he played a part in 18 qualifying which was unsuccessful. in 22 he was dropped as a LB and barely made it on the team for injuries. i am at a loss how that makes you like the Old Steady Hand any more than the other CB options who manifested themselves roughly the same time last cycle. and play for better teams at this point than he does. or do the snobs forget FFC saw fit to can his tookus?
third, we have a finite amount of roster space and burning it over and over on a poor player begins to eliminate other options or reduce their chance of busting in. and then at the end of the cycle i have to listen to some dingbat tie up their absurd ream love in a bow and say, “no one else has experience.” well, you handed him most of the caps.
particularly when the stats are we tend to lose and ship goals when he plays, zero understanding why. and people can offer their abstract theories what he offers but normal soccer process is does this help me win games and stop goals.
“i am at a loss how that makes you like the Old Steady Hand any more than the other CB options who manifested themselves roughly the same time last cycle. and play for better teams at this point than he does. ?”
No one said Ream is the Old Steady Hand.
All I know is he played the best 4 games of his career at the WC in Qatar.
“or do the snobs forget FFC saw fit to can his tookus?”
I thought club form did not matter? And that USMNT form did? Your hypocrisy is showing.
If you want to name me the ballplaying CB other than Ream who has emerged since Qatar that is clearly perfect replacement for Ream, I’d love to know who that is.
V: you’re missing my point entirely. if i see ream and a few usual suspects over and over no one else has any opportunities or oxygen. i can propose people but i can’t point to track records on people we won’t call. i can remind people of his track record since he’s roster-hogging.
“i can propose people but i can’t point to track records on people we won’t call. i can remind people of his track record since he’s roster-hogging.”
More evasion.
In other words it’s a question of who’s soccer judgement people trust more:
Yours
or
Pochettino’s
striker: i am convinced people have ream confused with someone else like boca or something. they keep acting like he’s the ageing scion of the backline, some former great player that we are being graced with his twilight years.
on planet reality, he got his first cap AFTER the 2010 run we had. he got benched at GC 2011. he disappeared for years from the NT, and was not on the world cup 2014 roster. he was in and out of the crash landing 2018 cycle team, finally getting dropped after the 2-0 home loss to costa rica.
GB then brought him back in earnest as a LB in 2019. the 19 team kinda sucked and he had some nightmares like canada. he got dropped before gold cup 21, disappeared for qualifying, and resurfaced as a CB injury replacement at the world cup. his play there was miraculous considering his spotty history.
since then he’s been treated like a fixture during what i see as a fairly “down” period in post-couva US soccer history, 22-24. is this a positive coincidence? i have explained before where among regular backs the team has some of its worst nights when he plays.
i think people think he was like a 2014 cycle starter and a EPL star for years or something. most of that time period FFC was in the championship or up for maybe 1 season then yoyo back down. he’s been confused with boca or something. he came in after the really good world cup, missed the next roster, we didn’t qualify when he played more, in and out of even GB’s lineup, last minute replacement for miles and richards last time.
this is my concern with club form and the lack of roster turnovers. it is this odd situation where not just pulisic but a fair amount of “never wases” seem untouchable.
we can barely win a game for a year and the roster looks almost identical. what the heck. and can we please quit badly overrating and locking in utterly mediocre players??????????
Ream is there because he can pass and none of the other CBs or Turner (even just hitting it long Turner struggles at)can. Many but not all of the times he’s in tough spots are because others make mistakes that put him in tough spots. One of the reasons he went missing between 14-19 was Brooks played LCB and could pass. The difference became though that when Ream got beat he tried to get back in the play. JAB often just pointed at someone else. Ream is there as the lesser of evils. If Richards could stay healthy and either Trusty or McKenzie could be consistent Tim would be retired from the NT but those things haven’t happened yet.
i mean, where’s your memory? how many goals has he personally shipped in recent windows? like passed it straight to the other team. or got torched.
set aside the theoretics, focus on recent results — which were not good — and remember his role in them.
this is really not difficult. USSF has a horrifying abstraction problem right now. team gets worse and worse but can justify everything to me on paper. we need to play like pep. we need to start x y z. those are cute theories. paper clearly ain’t working in games, dude.
and if you’re gonna obsess about technical backs, then why the heck are the mids a bunch of diesel tanks? this needs to go more emphatically in either a productive or destructive direction. in between is 1-1 mush.
I’m just telling you why he’s there, it’s not hard to figure out. It’s right there for Trusty or McKenzie to take but neither can play better than the guy making mistakes. Richards clearly is preferred he made the team having not played for a month, but he can’t stay healthy. You used to hype Sam Rodgers, he’s been demoted all the way down to the Norwegian 2nd level. Don’t stink you can start for the USNT, but know one seems to be able to meet that low bar. The U20s couldn’t handle Mexican U20 pressure this summer are they going to step up against men?
the shorter version is ream, while seeming to be part of the past juggernaut, didn’t make a world cup team until 2022, at which point he gets excuses made for him as the old man on the team when this is really his first rodeo for which he’s either prepared or not. in reality, he looked bad most of 22 cycle and hasn’t impressed much 26 cycle either. on any other player, QED. next.
but we have “club snob” on the brain so he has like this aura from FFC even though in reality 90% of his career there it was a very marginal yoyo team. and meanwhile either he wasn’t making the team or the team as a whole wasn’t cutting it.
re passing, this is exaggerated. like i said before, i think it was 2 years running end of his first MLS stint he would win both “defender pass of the year” and also “defender gaffe of the year” in year end voting on another soccer reporting site.
sorry but my personal experience with being stuck with “passing backs,” technical guys light on speed and defense, but liked for supposed technique and composure, is you cannot make any mistakes and expect help. they could be center and you wide, and ironically you end up cleaning their messes atop trying to create things.
i am going to repeat myself. you just named two of the worst marking CBs in recent memory whose uplift coincides with our defense going to crap. that is not worth the odd nice pass every 10th game. because my experience they are shipping goals every 2-3 games, which nets negative. this is the constant running problem with y’all touting offense from defense, is a lack of analytic rigor on costs vs. benefits.
IV,
Your always, mean spirited, nitpicky, narrow minded reaction to Ream is very weird. You act as if Ream is some sort of problem.
He’s not.
He’ll play for Pochettino as long as he can handle whatever it is Pochettino wants him to do out of that role.
Or he won’t.
In which case he will be replaced.
It’s interesting how you continually fail to ever put context into the discussion when discussing a USMNT player, as if Ream all by his lonesome self is responsible for the team’s failures and turmoil.
He was well regarded at his clubs but, for most of his USMNT career, he basically did not fit into whatever they were doing.
I gave up on him being anything back in 2011. No one was more surprised than me that he was even at Qatar.
But he played the four best games of his entire USMNT career at Qatar. They would have been in deep doodoo without his performance.
As far as I’m concerned he wiped out his previous years of mediocrity.
Going forward, besides you, who knows?
Obviously you have a replacement in mind.
So who or what is it?
“MEX—César Huerta (Raúl Jiménez), 49th minute: Tim Ream did well to track down and dispossess Jiménez as the striker ran onto a long pass from midfield. But Jiménez recovered and tackled Ream, sending the ball toward the penalty spot and Huerta. The Pumas forward sidestepped Miles Robinson and lured a shot to Matt Turner’s right. MEX 2, USA 0 FINAL”
since you keep “pretending” i am on some sort of personal vendetta rather than simply pointing at the guy who cost us the goal that basically ended the last game.
IV,
I never said Ream was perfect since Qatar.
You’re avoiding the question because you have no answer. Like I said, name me Ream’s replacement. You can’t can you?
As for the specific incident you mentioned, what was remarkable about it was Raul’s tackle. I think he catches any USMNT defender with that, regardless. I will say that being Ream’s team mate for a while, he has probably trained against him a ton and knows his moves..
Raul just had an all around world class day and was the only thing worth watching the whole shit game.
“since you keep “pretending” i am on some sort of personal vendetta rather than simply pointing at the guy who cost us the goal that basically ended the last game.”
Big whoop.
No one disputes a need for successor.
But if you’re going to go on one of your tiresome bitchy snit fests about Ream, then name his fucking ready made successor. Wil Trapp? Dax McCarty?
Becaus,e the guy who replaces him ? I don’t think anyone wants him learning on the job at the USMNT level.
V: if you played soccer at all, it was offense. as a defender, to me, slowly dribbling a ball out of the box when i just won it is asking to get tackled. you don’t have to hoof it — maybe look for a wide outlet or someone open — but you need to release that quickly someplace because you are so deep in your own end and any loss of possession so dangerous (and you know attackers are behind you, but not necessarily where).
it’s kind of like a CB who wins an aerial play and then brings the ball down to feet in his own contested box. you are asking to have it kicked in your own net. you clear the sucker and it never hits the ground before you do, ideally.
if you have been in these battles you know what he’s trying is a Bad Idea. it’s like a hoops center bringing the ball down below his waist to dribble when the zone defense is collapsing on him. you are asking for it.
that many US fans don’t seem to catch the umpteen dumb defensive mistakes we make hints at they didn’t play much defense. that we keep making them hints at our coaching has the same bias.
part of it may also be that we are promoting the idea of building from the back which IMO teaches foolish risktaking in the back and easy goals the other way. defenders may think they have some skill — and i was a forward before a wing or wingback — but there are places to do it and places not.
IV
“part of it may also be that we are promoting the idea of building from the back which IMO teaches foolish risktaking in the back”
What’s your point? Life is about risks and Ream got caught. It happens. Get over it.
Teams nowadays mostly play out of the back. The good teams know how to vary that if circumstances dictate, like if you have an Ederson or an Allison . And swift dangerous forwards waiting to pounce.
The USMNT don’t have an Ederson or an Allison and they actually haven’t been a good team for a long time.
At the end of the day you want the USMNT to play the way your select team played.
Curious, name me a top 5 league successful club or country( not necessarily top 5) that plays very much like your select team.
Jamaica called up that Newcastle CB/CDM Isaac Hayden and Bailey is back and Steve McClaren will be recruiting duel nats from England Jamaica eligible.
JR.
I’m assuming that the current pecking order is:
RB is Dest (when healthy) , Joe , (open)
LB is Jedi, Joe, (open)
Since he hasn’t brought any along I’m assuming Pochettino isn’t going to test out any of the various fullback candidates, left or right, this go around.
You pray Jedi stays healthy. If not you can then slide Weah or Weston, etc. to Right Back when Joe has to slide over.
I’m okay with that philosophy.
dest would get destroyed in a 352 or 343 formation where he had 2 way wing responsibilities and could be beaten on the counter with a lot of purposeful green wide space for which he was the primary cover.
i am not a fan of the 433 we do (or whatever 4321 variation, if people want to be pedantic) or the 343 this looks like. i don’t think we have basic defense sorted. we shouldn’t be getting cute until we can play ok team defense for a change.
but i think it would be more sensible in poch’s version of the 433, with the kind of assymetric rotation he was doing with jedi, to have dest up more in the weah or musah spots. either RF or the CM/RM sliding spot. then have a real defensive back behind him more effective staying home, eg, weah, or some other good marking back.
because the concept, after all, seemed to be send jedi down the left green but stay back home at RB. in which case dest is poorly suited. you then want dest in the role that does cover the right side open space. which we seemed to have shifted to players already formed higher upfield.
IV,
“i don’t think we have basic defense sorted. we shouldn’t be getting cute until we can play ok team defense for a change.”
No shit. After two friendlies we’re not already a lean mean killing machine?
“because the concept, after all, seemed to be send jedi down the left green but stay back home at RB. in which case dest is poorly suited. ”
Seeing as how Dest has yet to play for anyone, let alone Pochettino, you are making a lot of assumptions about Dest.
You don’t know what kind of player he is going to be after major knee injury.
Poch mentioned Tim Ream can act like a LB and Musah has operated as a WB or RB for Milan.
(a) you’re already forgetting who we ended up playing as wings last time when we had some injuries and sent pulisic back. you can’t double book everyone wide if something happened, and subs are standard wide because it’s a lot of work. GB used to have the same issue acting like aaronson was his swiss army fix at multiple positions, which doesn’t work if he is already starting someplace else.
(b) if they are starting someplace else you can shift pieces around but you’re replacing tired with tired. which doesn’t help if you need fresh.
(c) if we do it any like last time he’s asking someone like musah or weah to slide around on the right a lot. tucked in defense, wide offense.
(d) similar “people have short memories,” ream was dropped by the US as a LB (after the swiss whooping and others) and only brought back at the very end last cycle as a CB injury replacement. i get the coach or analytics people may have noticed he like some others has played different spots but he’s so glacial at this point it’s not the same as weah or musah or mckennie being multi-utility.
i get the idea we want to 343 this week but if jedi is up and ream starts then we may get exposed that side.
IV: see my comment to Vacqui below, I think we are basically in agreement.
“Odds are you don’t need more than 2 FBs over a game set.” I think most US managers over the last 15 yrs would disagree although most needed to learn that themselves.” and my original reaction comment “ confused a little by the lack of FBs and honestly not a lot of WBs either.” The only thing this roster seems full of is CBs and GKs. It feels like there are a lot of attackers until you try to put one or two of them as a#10.
JR: you look at the roster allocations: 686 — and it’s pretty obvious he intends to play 343, 352, or something like that. 3 back line. 2 CB subs. jedi is really the left wing in the 4 or 5 mids, who will be asked to track back as well.
in that context scally is likely one of the 3 stay at home backs. last time he had a MF sliding out on offense as a right wide option. so the real right wing will be that person, mckennie, musah, or weah. or he may have weah high then one of those 2 playing a sliding role behind.
as someone who played some 352 in club and college, are you kidding me that we don’t need a sub? that wide role is fun but exhausting. you need a couple subs for them on a good day. you need injury contingencies. and even if we start with pinched guys in the 2 high wing roles, you might want some other chalk on boots options besides wingbacks.
that and i just don’t like a roster that seems entirely devoted to 1 flimsy, new concept we don’t even know if it works. what’s plan B? particularly considering we’ve not played this recently, or at least with any effectiveness. not sure why we couldn’t call a 433 type roster and then just start 343 one night for giggles from within that roster. we both know jedi is going to be nominally on whichever line has “4” or “5” so you don’t need more mids.
IV: like those before him Poch will have to learn, in the international game you can’t just go across the hall to the reserve team for depth like you could at Spurs or PSG on Friday afternoon if someone was hurt or on suspension. But it is a lesson all must learn.
all due respect to the “can’t just go to the reserve team” slam, but it is our younger players rather than our older players, who have NOT been evaluated and “ranked” in the way you suggest. zendejas, cowell, and others got caps and were dropped with the B team. yet you somehow suggest THEY are the answer? like the guys we brought in and didn’t like.
our U23s and U20s are not the AAA, the B team is. the B team have been brought in and looked over and sorted as second rate. and yet that’s where we like to fish now.
to me, duh, i want to see the draft picks who haven’t been in AAA 5 years aged 26. i want to see the first rounder we drafted 2 years ago hitting .350. the one who has never seen the bigs and we don’t know for a fact is a .220 hitter with big league pitching.
but this has become a backwards game where the .220 hitter is the “experienced guy who knows how we play waiting his turn.” who gives an eff if the kid is hitting .350 with 20 homers in his league.
you keep saying that a new kid with no or low caps is “reserve,” but in our system, we don’t actually know where they fit. a “dortmund reserve” like reyna might be the star of the US team, when integrated in our system. but if he never plays he never slots in anyplace. and you can then tell me how if we give cowell or zendejas 20 chances they might score once.
no, i saw a similar diss today about green where someone seemed to confuse being a starter in a second division with being on a B team. my response is it displays soccer ignorance. it’s like comparing say a kid off a MLS reserve team with a productive starter from the english championship. we can pretend they are both equally scrubby because there is some inferiority to their club life, but my bet is the english guy is a stud and the MLS reserve kid is marginal to be in MLS or USL. it’s a complete misreading how situations compare.
to me, get everyone in one place, compare them in practice and games. quit doing it on paper.
Copy & paste roster, with the same starters, we can guess in 2 guesses who the starters are gonna be. Poch & staff will hug & kiss every coach on the opposing country, win or lose, just like El Tri match/game. This is what many Americans soccer fans find acceptable. There are no depth issues @ any position, for those who understand personnel. We have enough players at every position it’s not funny. No country elevates teens to play against grown men.
Steffan and Ream are a no for me. Steffan family issues, no real reason why he couldnt make US team and then inured and was sent home smh.
I mean I don’t see Zach playing so I don’t care too much since they have four keepers. Poch said “we aren’t trying to convince anyone they’ll only get invited if they’re committed” so that makes me feel better about Kochen. Probably means Koleosho is off the table since his team has been shopping him for years to Italy, Canada, and US. It would take huge “guts” to put the teenager out there in a meaningful game though I’d guess we still see Turner.
JR,
It seems like the USMNT has , in no particular order, Yow, Paxton, Diego L., the Booth boys, Paredes and maybe Campbell pushing for attacking wing spots.
These guys are all reasonably young.
I’m all for the more the merrier but is Koleosho that much of an upgrade over what those guys might become?
V: the only really like for like I guess would be Paredes. So is he better than Kevin? He’s had some trouble staying healthy like Paredes. He hasn’t exactly lit up The Championship so perhaps more hype than substance, he couldn’t get on the field for Italy U21 last window. Of course he’s behind Wilfred Gnoto of Leeds and some guy who starts regularly at Roma so not guys in MLS Next Pro or anything.
re “guts,” that read presumes our ongoing self defeating obsession with treating every window like it’s a world cup final to be played with the perceived first choice XI, even if that lineup isn’t actually winning.
to be honest, a cup quarter is not ideal, but we’ve burned the fall friendlies with pointless status quo. you have to try some new things “sometime.” are we gonna keep pretending all is well with this crap unit?
second, you’re using the language of absolute merit. but kochen has 20 other teams chasing him ( i exaggerate some, but…..), and if you fart around and keep inviting him to sit the bench and watch others play, he may pull an esmir or vargas or whatnot, and bail.
so, particularly in light of i am watching us lose half the time, maybe can we quit pretending this is a merit based juggernaut, and bend slightly to start cap tying the kid. we are starting to lose a lot of age groupers playing it your way while the first team is kind of meh.
third, half the problem i see is the roster seems to be picked on paper merit with the decision you want to make resolved by spreadsheets and ted cruz style school debating.
how about, god forbid, we call in some of these dual nationals or prospects, and TRY THEM OUT? like see in person if they are “better” or “worse?”
cause based on what i am seeing whatever abstract ideas we have in chicago or where poch lives, about how to win soccer games and who helps that happen……….NOT WORKING.
so maybe quit assuming your conclusion and instead set up more of a real competition for rosters, lineups, and playing time. play well and win games? stick around. cost us and lose games? bye.
but then i am listening to folks chat up ream after he sucked last window and cost us goals. abstraction gone amok.
Also since Ream is slower he needs to be a LB or RB I know the wi ngs he can get burned, but his CB days are over.
Ream started out as Left Back/ Holding midfielder and eventually migrated to center back.
Regardless of where he played he was NEVER accused of being fast.
1. He’s been around so long because he “reads the game” very , very well.
2. He has a great left foot.
If he can’t play anymore it won’t be because he’s too slow.
Ream is slow and a turnover machine it will be a combo of both.
Did ream read the game well when he did that idiot move in the pen box in 2011 GC against Panama, and they scored, was that “ream reading the game well”?
“Did ream read the game well ”
No one is 100%
Reading the game well does not mean you don’t make mistakes or that you don’t have to clean up the mistakes of others.
By your standard every current regular should not play for the USMNT again.
ok ream apologist
The number of CB’s called in to me screams a 3 man back line being used primarily in defense
i see a 343 or 352 with the assymetry thing again, jedi counting more as a mid going end to end, scally staying at home, one of the MF slides out wide right or weah plays a wider high slot.
so, really, from the 6 announced backs, 1 is a wing in disguise, and you have 5 backs for 3 spots.
i still think we are fairly overloaded on DM types and weaker on wide. wide players need subs. or god forbid we hurt someone. the amount of DMs makes more sense if we were playing 433.
-Wright injured his ankle at the end of the match yesterday.
-confused a little by the lack of FBs and honestly not a lot of WBs either.
-Richards???? Hasn’t played since September.
I wonder if Poch may regard Weah or McKennie as a wingback. It wouldn’t shock me overly if we see Weah start…as a right wingback. That would allow Poch to do what he seems to most like to do and drop one of his 6’s – probably Tessmann, who I think suits the role the best – into the middle between the CB’s, allowing that guy to serve as a long passer and a ball-playing CB in a three-man backline while his wingbacks provide width up the field. Trusty and Ream can both fill at LB, so I don’t think Poch saw any particular reason for Lund, who is kind of marginal, talentwise, for the roster at the moment.
I would have been surprised if Wright had been called in anyway unless Poch decided to change up his preferred formations, because Wright doesn’t fit well anywhere in the 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 formations that Pochettino prefers. Wright’s a very good second striker a very good finisher but he doesn’t play well with his back to goal and he is not known for his work rate or pressing so there’s no obvious spot for him on the roster.
I’ve thought all along Zendejas was a possible starter at RW if Pochettino plays the way he wants to play. It’ll be fascinating to see if Pochettino prefers Pepi or Vasquez…Vasquez fits Pochettino’s scheme better because of his intense work rate and physicality though Pepi is the better finisher.
He is going ro play in that 3-2-4-1 in attack with Pulisic and the other AM tucked inside with probably Weah and Robinson up high and then 4-3-3 in defense. He is trying to get two AM’s closer to the striker.
JR
– Weah, Pulisic, Musah , Weston, Trusty, can cover for FB/WB if needed.
– Tessman can cover as the ball playing CB is needed
Most interesting inclusion is Kochen
JR
+ Odds are you don’t need more than 2 fullbacks over a two game set. Jedi and Scally have shown themselves to be particularly durable. And if a need arises, others in the roster are more than capable of covering .
+ Pochettino usually prefers to work with as small a group as possible. Something about the intensity of his coaching. As fans we focus on our fave players but Pochettino right now seems to be thinking collective unit. The lean nature of this roster is probably how he plans to go into the WC.
By lean, I mean if you can’t go 90 right now you’re not on the bus, and the bus is not waiting for anyone.
+ Given the timeline it seems like he is getting down to WC prep business ASAP.
The first two games were basically Gregg’s old team.
He wants to dig up his ” Best 11″ asap. Then he will start on exploring other “fresh faces”.
You can’t improve your team until you actually have a team.
“Odds are you don’t need more than 2 FBs over a game set.” I think most US managers over the last 15 yrs would disagree although most needed to learn that themselves.
JR.
I’m assuming that the current pecking order is:
RB is Dest (when healthy) , Joe , (open)
LB is Jedi, Joe, (open)
Since he hasn’t brought any along I’m assuming Pochettino isn’t going to test out any of the various fullback candidates, left or right, this go around.
You pray Jedi stays healthy. If not you can then slide Weah or Weston, etc. to Right Back when Joe has to slide over.
I’m okay with that philosophy.
Interesting here. Only one RB and one LB. Trusty can play LB if needed. Depth at those positions is not great. Musah, Mckennie or Weah can play RB if needed.