One of the major absentees from the U.S. men’s national team’s November roster was midfielder Tyler Adams.
Adams, who has featured in each of the last three matches for AFC Bournemouth, was not included in Mauricio Pochettino’s 25-player roster for the upcoming CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinals. The veteran midfielder had missed most of Bournemouth’s season to date after undergoing back surgery following the 2024 Copa America last summer.
Despite logging 60+ minutes in Bournemouth’s 3-2 Premier League loss to Brentford on Saturday, Adams will stay in England and receive a break from international duty, which could provide a boost for his long-term availability for club and country.
Pochettino knows the importance of Adams, who he reportedly targeted as a transfer option during his one-year stay at Chelsea. With the 2026 FIFA World Cup less than two years away, the Argentine wants to provide Adams with every possibility to rest, in hopes of having him be a major part of that roster.
“He [Adams] is a highly important player for USA, for us, and I consider him personally a very important player for the future of this team,” Pochettino told reporters Sunday. “But the most important thing now is to see the progression. He came from a difficult moment. Yesterday, he played 60 minutes, 65 minutes.
“I think it was important for him to see and for us so happy to see the evolution of him,” he added. “But in the same time we know very well that we need to look after him if we want to have him in the best condition for 2026.”
Adams’ absence will open the door for Johnny Cardoso to start in his spot, while Weston McKennie, Aidan Morris, and Yunus Musah could also feature against Jamaica over the next seven days.
The two-legged showdown with the Reggae Boyz on Nov. 14 and 18 respectively will be the first competitive matches for the USMNT of the Pochettino-era.
That is what I like about Pochettino.
The manager finally seems to have control of the football side of things.
His focus is building the most competitive team possible for the 2026 World Cup.
The NL, Gold Cup, so called rivalry games with El Tri, they all exist only to further the team’s readiness for the WC.
Get a room, you two, sac holding has been evident with you & Q since his hire. He started Musah as a winger. You were pushing Musah is a winger crap since you were pushing your conspiracy theory about Berhalter’s bro. You don’t put your best central midfielder at winger & watch him use 1/3 of his skillset. He’s right footed & never use his left foot to be good RW. He has Tim Ream, Matt Turner & Scally as locked in starters. The least athletic players we can possibly see. Where’s load management for them? He’s played multiple CFs at the same time. He didn’t play Vasquez or Zenedjas in Mexico. Americans who play in Liga Mx are good enough to start against El Tri in Mexico. That’s American soccer 101. He hugged & kissed the El Tri coaching staff. The biggest sports rivalry in North America. I don’t know who y’all talk to about this sport out in the real world… US soccer officinados & US casual fans I know, were pissed at seeing this, more than loss itself. El Tri vs USA match > Duke/UNC college basketball; Buckeye/Wolverine college football; Yankees/Red Sox MLB, Cowboys/Eagles NFL. He calls in the exact same players the former manager. Damn, V, you & Q need to get your head out Pochettino’s rear end and look at reality. If/when we win, I’ll cheer every time, but I remember how bad he was @ Chelsea. Look at the roster he had, Chelsea had better players then, than we do now.
“He calls in the exact same players the former manager. Damn, V, you & Q need to get your head out Pochettino’s rear end and look at reality.”
Reality??
How many top class players do you think we have?
CP and maybe Jedi.
After that it gets shaky. But tell you what, if all you care about is beating Mexico, the USSF just pissed away all that money on Pochettino because Gregg was doing great vs. El Tri.
I have 6 years worth of data on that.
That’s a lot more than the two games we have on Pochettino. Two games isn’t enough to say anything substantive about any manager.
What I mostly like about Pochettino is that he’s not a good old boy USSF c+cksucker.
” I don’t know who y’all talk to about this sport out in the real world…”
I’m not running for office. You’re welcome to your POV.
For as long as I can remember it was there were two camps.
1. Those who thought the World Cup and the associated games were all that mattered.
2. Those who thought our regional championships were what really mattered.
All I ever cared about was whether we qualified for the World Cup or not.
Other than the fact that they were sometimes a good test for us, Mexico was irrelevant because if you look at qualifying we could always lose both games to them and still qualify with room to spare.
And of course, the only time we met El Tri in the World Cup we smashed them.
” Duke/UNC college basketball; Buckeye/Wolverine college football; Yankees/Red Sox MLB, Cowboys/Eagles NFL.”
Rivalries go through cycles. All of those rivalries are pretty lame at this time. That USMNT- Mexico game was a shit game between two crap sides. The only exceptional thing about it was Raul J suddenly had a couple of moments of brilliance. Otherwise watching someone wash their car would probably have been more interesting.
IO2T,
By the way, the first game I ever saw Musah play was for Valencia where he played on the wing and scored a beautiful winger type swooping in from the wing goal.
Valencia like to start their young ones out wide on the theory that it’s easier to start out there.
The many passing years have been kind to him so I don’t think old age has taken his legs yet.
Enforced load management is a big deal and it’s something only somebody as confident and secure in his position as Pochettino could manage. When you send banged-up or just plain tired guys home (or don’t call them up to begin with), it can cost you games. We took what amounted to a short B/C roster into Mexico last window and got spanked…Berhalter never would have done that. Mostly because he was already under the gun and was in no kind of position to take a beating just to test some new guys under live fire; his job was nowhere near that secure.
And it was painful to watch, yes…but it did give Pochettino a chance to look at who stepped up and who didn’t under adverse circumstances. That’s what friendlies are actually supposed to be for.
I’m genuinely curious to see what Pochettino does with this window. The cool part about dealing with a coach who actually knows his business and is far tactically superior to the most of us and doesn’t do rosters-by-the-numbers is, you’re not quite sure what he’s seeing and what he’s thinking.
But at least it isn’t likely going to be boring. And I suspect there’ll be no mistaking the progress once we see it.
That is what I like about Pochettino.
The manager finally seems to have control of the football side of things.
His focus is building the most competitive team possible for the 2026 World Cup.
The NL, Gold Cup, so called rivalry games with El Tri, they all exist only to further the team’s readiness for the WC.
“The NL, Gold Cup, so called rivalry games with El Tri, they all exist only to further the team’s readiness for the WC.” No.
The NL and Gold Cup exist to give money to the federation. We have complained time and time again that playing el salvador in a group game probably doesn’t help us much at all. And to lose in the semi to freakin’ Panama makes us go nuts (thanks again Jurgen AND GGG).
The so called rivalry games with El Tri have lost their luster because of games like we had in September which are silly friendlies without much true incentive to play hard and avoid getting hurt. Approx 10 years ago, the US won for the first time in Mexico at a silly friendly. Last month we lost losing all momentum that we had built before.
So, yes, this cycle the USMNT and new Coach Poch need to get the most out of the competitive games we can, but like heading into 1994, we need to have a healthy squad.
“The NL and Gold Cup exist to give money to the federation. We have complained time and time again that playing el salvador in a group game probably doesn’t help us much at all. And to lose in the semi to freakin’ Panama makes us go nuts (thanks again Jurgen AND GGG).”
Midwest,
You’re right. The NL in particular was set up to help out the “weaker” members of CONCACAF by guaranteeing them more games with the likes of the US, Mexico, Panama ,etc. It guaranteed them more funds and games against tougher opponents which would help them build up their programs in the long run.
And healthier soccer programs in our CONCACAF neighbors could theoretically help provide MLS with more accessible talent.
What do we get out of it? A healthier Confederation. We have to belong to a Confederation. CONCACAF is preferable to the only other federation that we might consider, CONMEBOL. Assuming things stay the same, staying with CONCACAF means a much simpler path to World Cup, the next time we have to qualify.