Mauricio Pochettino has been forced into three additional roster moves ahead of the June U.S. men’s national team camp.
Paxten Aaronson, Walker Zimmerman, and Nathan Harriel have been added to the roster, replacing Folarin Balogun, DeJuan Jones, and Sean Zawadzki, U.S. Soccer announced Sunday.
Jones has been forced out with a lower body injury while Zawadzki is out with a knee injury and Balogun is out with an ankle injury.
Aaronson spent the 2024-25 season on loan at Eredivisie side FC Utrecht, scoring nine goals and adding six assists in 37 appearances.
The 32-year-old Zimmerman has made 10 MLS appearances this season for Nashville SC. Zimmerman has earned 44 caps with the USMNT to date.
Harriel has made 16 appearances for the Philadelphia Union this season, scoring two goals. The versatile fullback has yet to earn his senior USMNT debut yet despite featuring heavily for the U-23 side.
The USMNT will host Turkey and Switzerland on June 7 and 10 respectively before opening play at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
I think it seems more likely Dest is at LWB.
which we all know is silly as a soccer decision. he can’t defend LB.
that and he shouldn’t be starting or playing a ton if we are appropriately pitch counting a player coming off an ACL.
it smacks of either desperation or stats dorks.
Dest at LWB or at LB likes to cut in and shoot on his right foot.
So does every other player on the USMNT.
Malik and Pulisic both like to play LW and both like to cut in and shoot on their right foot.
It can get crowded out there.
i personally feel like for the athletic wingbacks tasked primarily with staying home, footedness is overrated. your job is to mark and athletes can usually handle that either side the same. at that level you can tackle left and right footed.
it’s more of a “attacking wingback” fetish to want them on their good foot for crossing. but he has been productive inverting. BUT he cannot defend left side. he turns into some U14 scaredypants who literally flinches at jukes or gets megged. he WILL ship goals almost every game. that nets out negative on potential production.
but then the US hasn’t really been cost-benefitting tactics or selections for years. and of late we seem into analytics and the vague memory someone once played an open spot, even if not well.
to me this is why scouting and eyeballs need to displace club form and analytics. anyone who knows sports knows we shouldn’t be loading up an ACL guy with a bunch of playing time. anyone who has watched dest play knows he’s a left side nightmare. he should probably be tried as an attacker, but if he plays back it should be RB and definitely not LB. if you scouted his old tape this is obvious. more eyeballs, less stats.
to me, dest should be coming off the bench this tournament as a wing attacker. he is mis-cast as a back. subbing keeps his minutes down like adams was handled. and he would help fill the reyna/weah/pulisic void.
fwiw didn’t we have a game last year where we kind of used dest as an interior player? like he was more with the CMs than chalk and then would invert and go direct to goal. and part of what this lacks in general is taking people on and creating situations where passes put defenders behind the ball. too much of the time we just perimeter pass in front of the markers. this scares me little and contains itself. ok, fine, hit a cross, the defense and keeper will mop most of that up.
IV: your main issue is USMNT doesn’t want to play your style. So when they rate a player you don’t, you think it must be some abstract analytics. You think your strong foot doesn’t it matter if you stay home and defend “they” don’t care because they aren’t going to play that way. (By the way, Japan is pretty consistent left footed LCB, left footed RW, Right footed LW, less consistent with their LM being left footed.)
JR: that’s a lie. my primary issue is results. we went out of the NL winless in last place, after splitting a jamaica quarter. before that we got drubbed out of copa america with 1 win all summer 24. before that we won 2 games in GC 23 and got knocked out in the semis.
at that point, only an idiot says, “more of the same, please.” we are merely disagreeing about what “different” looks like.
and i think i win that debate easily because our “same” looks like “crap” THREE TOURNAMENTS RUNNING.
you’re misunderstanding my point on backs and such. my point is not completely who cares about footedness. my point is folks who tend to obsess about it tend to not care that much about actual defense.
i will repeat myself. this needs to get more aggressive one direction or the other. either a committed defensive team playing a more sensible formation. or if you want attacking wingbacks, we might as well sell out on offense and call in every luna reyna pulisic weah campbell etc. attacking specialist we have.
this is a mess because it can’t score many goals OR pitch shutouts. that is a recipe for tying above average teams and losing to good ones. which, if you remember, is exactly how the world cup went.
the path out of that rut is either more nasty or more nice. it is not this two-way semi-productive mush.
yes, i tend to advocate the defensive solution because i think we can do that with formation as much as personnel. and i think the personnel better fits an athletic model and not a possession one. just basic fact. this is not la masia.
but if you want to disagree for the sake of disagreeing, the status quo has already disproved itself and looks bad. you need to propose something other than “IV is dumb.” because i am saying the status quo sucks which is a fact. and if you don’t think the answer is defense, ok, where’s the improved offense? you ding me all day for wanting change. it needs some change. what’s your answer? it’s not trolling.
to be fair, the truly laughable one is V who wants to give the same look we have had since 2019-20 more time. we’ve had a year under poch and march was as bad as it’s looked. objective optimism is usually based on results or how improved the team looks at some facet. tell me what that is. without jedi this is probably regressing from GB.
IV: I get you want different results, everyone does. One USSF soccer isn’t listening here, so … ok that’s really it USSF isn’t coming here for advice. They don’t care what I think or you think or V or It’s OK, 2tone, Gary, Ronnie. USSF doesn’t care what the message board says. And they probably shouldn’t.
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I think I told you this 3 or 4 years ago, this is a process. The US is not winning the 2026 WC. We’re not, even if they implement every suggestion you make. Now I’d argue it will never work until we have superior players like France, but if we have superior players we should probably just dominate possession and create quality chances anyway. The Fed’s goal is to win in 2034 or 2038, probably 2042 if you want to be realistic. In order to do that you’ve got to start playing a way that encourages kids, youth coaches, and parents to develop technical skills not just be organized and athletic.
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PSG just won a CL using a 4-3-3, possessing the ball, and counter pressing so it does work. Can we beat Spain playing like that next summer? No. But in 12 years with Sullivan, Birchimas, and Albert leading the line in their primes with Tyler Meiser anchoring the backline with Kochen between the sticks maybe we can. Especially if some kid who is 8 right now sees value in keeping possession and developing those skills and hopefully we get a kid who has that American athleticism, but his coach didn’t let them just hit long balls for him to chase and muscle in goals but instead he learns dribbling, and how to time runs and connect with his teammates. But if we just sit in our half and hope Cole Campbell can out athlete everyone until then, our results will be just as mixed and those guys will just develop into Dikes, Cowell’s, and Adams that run around a lot but have little idea where the ball is going.
IV
“i will repeat myself. this needs to get more aggressive one direction or the other. either a committed defensive team playing a more sensible formation. or if you want attacking wingbacks, we might as well sell out on offense and call in every luna reyna pulisic weah campbell etc. attacking specialist we have.”
You’re whining and twisting your panties about how and how much Dest is to be used when you don’t know how and how much Pochettino will use Dest. That’s a pre-cautionary just in case whine.
You’re burning up a ton of energy bitching about something that probably won’t even happen.
You’re complaining about a style of play that Pochettino MIGHT commit to when he has yet to do so.
I get you like to get it out there because you do so love to say I told you so, if it turns out that you are right. And if you’re wrong you’ll conveniently forget about it.
But your screed about results is a steaming pile of bullshit.
Pochettino is being paid for the 2026 World Cup and that is ultimately how he will be judged.
The NL, Cupcake, Gold Cup, etc. these are all scrimmages. If they don’t go well, in terms of RESULTS, it’s good for fans and the media. It gives them all kinds of copy so they can set their hair on fire and whine and bitch.. And regardless of results, for Pochettino and his staff, each game they know just that much more about these players and what they can or cannot expect from them
More important, none of those teams, the NL team, the Gold Cup team, etc. will be playing in the World Cup in 2026.
Some players from those teams will be on a team that plays in the World Cup. But it won’t be the same team.
Pochettino hasn’t put it together yet
He has possibly ten games between now and January of 2026. They are not ideal games but Pochettino and his staff , if they are as good as advertised, should still be able to use them to settle on who they can trust.
Once they have that, installing the tactics and deciding on a style should follow suit.
Excellent now we get to see what Aguyemeng and Downs are made of. The fact their isn’t a LB means i could see Dest at LWB. Arfston isn’t really a LWB. Looks like the new kid Freeman may see time at RWB. Looks to be a prospect. Dad was a hell of wide reciever.
Pretty sure I’m the one that’s been trying to convince everyone that Arfsten isn’t a great LB. If Arfsten isn’t playing LB that means we have 2.5 RBs and a .5 LB for a 6 match tournament plus 2 friendlies. This roster has always said 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 to me given the lack of true wingers and many strikers. However, I’m still 75% sure we see a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. The problem with Dest on the left is he’s always going to cut in on his right foot, which means you’d need a true left footed winger to be wide and provide space (it’s why Dest and Pulisic often didn’t work well on the same side). Who in this group is that? McGlynn, Arfsten, and Ream are the only left footed players. Haji plays LW at times for Coventry, but plays inside in possession, in the exact space Serge would want to dribble into. I guess we will see.
Freeman scored n Chris brady Orlando vs Chicago
To be fair, Brady had it covered and his defender deflected it in.
With Arfsten the only traditional LB, I won’t be surprised if we see Tim as a stay at home LB with Dest pushing up on the right. Just switching sides from Scally staying deep and Jedi pushing forward. Or we see a 3-5-2. I honestly don’t fully understand this roster.
ah, the intellectual honesty finally arrives. you trolled my suggestions in the abstract for but stripped of a lot of the security blankets this concrete remaining roster does start to look like a january team, doesn’t it? guess what, the trolls got their roster, now they can wallow in it.. want to reconsider mocking banks, eneli, reyna, campbell, green, brown, chase, maloney, koleosho, EPB? i’ll remind you of the list since the original post seems to have been zapped.
you’re now like what the heck on roster allocations, 4 forwards total, a bunch of RB and arfsten, not many specialist wings other than dest.
answer: the roster reads more like 1-2 forwards. 1-2 starters, the rest are backups. traditional strikers but with speed. we’re gonna try to use the abundant central mids to send the speedier forwards behind the backline on throughballs. problems are, (a) throughballs like that are more of a sit back and counter concept which you don’t like and (b) the gaps between backs to hit those passes usually come from having to honor a wide threat. against the better teams, the only wide threat on this roster they have to respect is dest.
i then don’t expect this defense to hold up any better than NL.
my deal is the US, depleted or not, should generally be able to throw together a finalist. but this roster was done on selection autopilot and doesn’t even make a lot of tactical sense.
last, the sheer density of sickouts suggests either an unhappy core or that not anywhere close to the supposed degree of team-player contact is happening. you don’t put people on a provo or final roster who can’t be bothered or are hurt. this is selection 101. you have this discussion before the rosters come out, which obviously didn’t happen. this is way too improvised for a team with a dedicated coach and staff. and this honestly feels like it was chosen by the analytics department instead of a soccer coach wanting to fill out a team with all the appropriate tactical roles, eg, wing play, DM destruction.
last last, you watch, reyna gets left off dortmund’s CWC list. campbell makes sense as he’s young, exciting, and BD will want to test if he’s in their immediate plans or someone to loan. reyna is not in their plans. we should have called their bluff, listed both, then kept too many in camp through the CWC roster deadline. if they are picked for BD, we get turned down. if not, we call their bluff and get the player.
i mean, from even your critical perspective, does reyna seem so bad now? this sort of thing is what i was getting at with “not even the provo list” or “is he seriously not even in the first 26?” what’s evolved puts the political silliness in stark relief. duh he’s better than most of this.
and leaning heavily on dest is ill advised. a guy coming off an ACL should get the same — or even perhaps more conservative pitch count treatment — than adams got returning from the back and hammy issues.
personally with this roster list i’d start richards wide and play dest in blowouts for a few games. one reason i think analytics green lampshades are picking teams — and not soccer coaches — is a coach would not risk hurt players, and not lean so heavily on choices who need to be pitch counted. but a stats dork with limited soccer might be like “wow, dest is back from his knee, those numbers, call him.” whether it’s good sports sense or not.
i suspect when 2026 is over we’re gonna revisit the tactical stubbornness (despite lack of results) as well as the role of analytics.
IV: on Reyna and Campbell, if available they should have been with the GC team I’ve said that all along but they’re not available. Both are listed by Dortmund on their travel list. The GC roster is due June 4. Dortmund doesn’t even start to train until tomorrow. The other guys you are talking about are either not eligible because they haven’t filed a switch or they low key kind of stink. Banks, Eneli, and Maloney are not very good (today) EPB was not very good before missing 18 months can’t tell you what he’s like now because I don’t watch Greek league. Listing a bunch of guys who don’t want to switch is as big of waste as listing injured Jedi or Pulisic (rumored to also have a hip injury). There’s no guarantee that you put them on the list and they just swoon and file their paperwork.
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Do I wish Kochen was with the NT or even CJ Dos Santos? Sure. Would I like some more traditional wingers? Yes, but with exception of Yow we don’t have a lot of healthy ones left off. When you have Pulisic, Weah, Wes, Balo, Jedi, and Reyna not available and secondary guys like Paredes and Campbell (even Ferreira and Frei are not available) also not available your left with some less than beautiful choices. Both Wiley and Tolkin with winter transfers basically have been in season for 15 months. That leaves Bello and Hansen, neither perfect choices. Finally, I’m not really sure how these picks scream analytics, even Brady wouldn’t win a spot on analytics.
Do you have a B license to coach because if you know what to do go coach some kids to help facilitate the changes the game needs in America. I love to rant but raining on this board is a waste of time. The only thing that’s gonna happen is irritating other people who possibly are not astute or humble.
For the love of God, I don’t understand why coaches don’t teach youth to use both feet. You have one dominant foot. You have to be able to shoot with both if you can’t it’s almost a waste as any defender who knows what foot you are knows how to corral you unless you have insane dribbling skills.
The US still has a long ways to go to come up to par skill, wise with other nations, but the one thing that we can definitely count on or should I say used to be able to count on with your determination and effort to Will yourself to win. It was an American trait that was dominant to some degree now players aren’t as hungry. They make too much money at their clubs playing on the national team just doesn’t mean as much they don’t have as much to prove perhaps giving younger hunger guys a chance is the way to go because it looks pretty bad coming up on World Cup 2026.
first off, lalas’ theory back in march was BD calls gio for CWC, doesn’t actually play him, then sells him. BD has first choice, exercises their rights, but makes no real use of them, denying us the player. i could see them playing him 15 minutes and calling it fair. it would be par for the course like they made him extend to go on loan.
second, if you provo list players then they are still in play if they get dropped for CWC. (a) you could put them on the 26 and take a risk they become available. (b) you could provo list them, see what happens in our camp and on CWC roster day, and we are allowed injury replacements up until a day before kickoff of our game on 6/15.
third, are we being aggressive or not. blackmon who may end up with canada took a provo spot. we tried. burn some more slots on the dortmund kids. we were allowed to provo list 60 people.
fourth, we are getting our butt kicked on dual nationals. eg we need CBs and we’re gonna lose one. we are getting our butt kicked on the soccer field. is there some point you folks consider the way we go about things, the team processes, the call sheets, the tactics, are just wrong? i am watching us get drubbed by teams as poor as panama. that is what “low key stinks” to me. you then give me this arrogance like you’re sure that stinky pile must be better than anyone i suggest.
really? ream? z? brady? mckenzie? miles at current quality? LDLT? white? paxten? berhalter?
sorry but suggesting green — with goals on france and belgium — “low key stinks” compared to LDLT and the others is a freaking joke. and how long do we plan on doubling down on center backs while losing tournament after tournament? and the answer to not being sure about turner is not stacking the deck in favor of turner and steffen consuming all the minutes for yet another set of opportunities.
IV,
“last, the sheer density of sickouts suggests either an unhappy core or that not anywhere close to the supposed degree of team-player contact is happening. you don’t put people on a provo or final roster who can’t be bothered or are hurt. this is selection 101. you have this discussion before the rosters come out, which obviously didn’t happen. this is way too improvised for a team with a dedicated coach and staff. and this honestly feels like it was chosen by the analytics department instead of a soccer coach wanting to fill out a team with all the appropriate tactical roles, eg, wing play, DM destruction.”
Bullshit.
You speak with a forked tongue.
Go back over the provisional rosters and the final rosters of the last 10 or 15 Gold Cups and you’ll find the same thing happening. i.e established euros dropping out and the team largely being a heavily MLS oriented roster.
There was a time when winning the Gold Cup meant entry into the Confederations Cup. For those games it was all hands on deck . But after the Confederations Cup died and for the Gold Cup tournaments where the Confederations Cup was not an issue, you got the JV.
It’s at a bad time of the year for our Euros. They are out of shape for the Gold Cup, so for them to reduce injury risk, they have to cut short their already short vacation time to work on prepping their fitness.