Christian Pulisic finally had his say on his absence from the U.S. men’s national team this summer.
Pulisic was left off of Mauricio Pochettino’s June friendly and CONCACAF Gold Cup roster in order to rest following a busy club campaign with AC Milan. The USMNT star played in 50 matches across all competitions for the Rossoneri, the most in a single-season of his career to date.
Despite U.S. Soccer wanting to preserve Pulisic long-term ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 26-year-old received plenty of criticism from former USMNT players and fans alike for his absence in the program’s final competitive window before World Cup play begins.
Pulisic responded to those critics on Thursday, revealing that he was open to partial involvement in the window overall.
“I did want to be a part of at least the two friendlies,” Pulisic said on CBS Golazo Network’s “Call It What You Want” podcast. “I did speak with the coaches and I asked and I wanted to be part of the team in whatever capacity I could. And they said no, they said they only wanted one roster. That’s the coach’s decision, I fully respect that. I didn’t understand it but it is what it is. I wanted to be a part of that but that’s just the way things went. I had to make the best decision for myself, and in the long run for my team, even though clearly some people haven’t seen it that way.”
The USMNT heads into Gold Cup group stage play on Sunday, coming off their worst home result insince 2016. A 2-1 defeat at the hands of Turkey paired with a 4-0 thumping by Switzerland has added pressure on head coach Mauricio Pochettino and the USMNT players to turn things around immediately.
Former USMNT stars Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan previously questioned Pulisic’s commitment to the program, especially given his status as team captain. While Pulisic revealed he wanted to be part of the June camp, he also admitted he wouldn’t change how he handled things.
“I don’t regret my decision,” Pulisic said when asked if he would’ve changed his decision knowing the criticism that would’ve came. “I feel this is what I needed right now and honestly I feel really good.
“To question my commitment, especially towards the national team, in my opinion that’s way out of line,” he added.
Pulisic will now remain on holiday ahead of the new Serie A campaign with the next international opportunity coming in the September window.
As for the USMNT, they will off with Trinidad & Tobago, Saudi Arabia, and Haiti in Gold Cup group stage play.
In other news…Reyna is on the BVB roster. The biggest news in that seems to be the fact that because Reyna is still on the team Jobe Bellingham has to use the number 77 because Reyna is the current number 7. It’s being lamented on the BVB fan boards.
Roster for the Club World Cup that it is
Mathis Albert #41 (pronounced Mah-tees) probably won’t see the field, but the 16 yr old is getting great experience with the first team this summer. He’s supposedly slotted in with BvB II for next season. Who knows Gittens likely to be sold, Adeyemi always has suitors, Campbell supposedly going to be loaned so if enough Dortmund wingers move he could find minutes second half of next season.
Johnnyrazor,
While I think it is unlikely that Mathis gets run vs Fluminese or in the knockout rounds, it’s possible that he could get some run after the 75th minute vs Mamelodi or Ulsan, assuming the outcome of the game is already determined.
Papi: I think that’s his best chance, but with the large roster (28 players) there are 4 or 5 guys in front of him that will get a chance first.
Johnnyrazor,
Agreed, there are 4 or 5 players in front of Mathis, but I think load management, the competition, or lack thereof, and providing experience for the younger players brought to the CWC, will provide opportunities to play for Mathis…again, under very specific circumstances.
Papi: can you imagine if Albert plays ahead of Campbell? Someone will freak out! Or just start claiming that they discovered Mathis, like that person did with Gio Reyna. Yeah no one had heard of the son of the former captain who had led our U17s in qualifying.
Also I don’t think there’s anyway Mathis plays ahead of Cole, unless Cole’s injury is still giving him problems.
as i discussed below, at a prior low point of this team — october 2019, after we lost gold cup to mexico and then a group game to canada away and were one foot on a banana peel to be eliminated in group from the nations league we ultimately won in 2021 — they called an unusual october camp so MLS offseason guys could train to get ready for the canada home game (we won). i am sure that cost money. we also won the game and it proved an organizational turning point.
to me we should have had a euro based offseason player camp in late may — before the window opened — and called in some folks. then scheduled a game early in the window before the june 4 roster deadline. then get the MLS in on june 2. then make your roster decisions based on camp and an early friendly.
the way this got handled, he really wanted to do an A team tourney minus CWC. a bunch begged off or were hurt. they called in MLS beginning of the window, they had 2 days to make a roster decision, and the camp choice give or take some injuries became the GC roster too. the roster was picked blind and emphasized MLS. doing that was dubious based on how january camp looked.
to me the lack of a may camp to evaluate roster candidates, the attempt to call A teamers, and the flippant MLS roster we ended up with, reek of no urgency and arrogance. we aren’t going to call people and evaluate, we think we know who to pick.
we obviously don’t.
IMO they scheduled the friendlies like they knew who the roster was — and it was supposed to be the A team. so the games are after the roster is due. they are tune ups. but the A team had blown nations league. i have no idea why a sane team does that.
if you’re gonna pick a B team, you don’t do it blind or grabbing january campers. which is what this is. you hold a camp of some length, including euros and MLS, and a game before the roster deadline.
he had to go to plan B, we had no game scheduled to evaluate the campers, and he took someone’s idiot word for what january campers to call. and it looks like crap.
The 2019 Nov 2-9 camp was to keep players in shape whose teams had been eliminated from the playoffs. Because it was prior to the May 2022 settlement, none of the players were paid. Their expenses travel, food lodging would have been paid but none would have received salary as prior to 5/2022 you only got paid if you made a game day roster. So Gyasi Zardes would have gotten paid for making the roster and a bonus for beating Canada, but no bonus for the Cuba victory because he didn’t play, Brenden Aaronson got no pay because he did not make a gameday roster. That camp played no friendlies (may have scrimmaged a college team that sounds vaguely familiar).
——————
Finding a full roster of European players to play a friendly that could not occur until June 2 (opening of the window) would have been tough. Most leagues ended the 17th with some going until the 25th. Guys would then have had to travel straight to camp. If they made the team that would mean no time off until the first week of July. Club preseasons tend to start the first or second week of July. Could it technically have fit, yes, but it probably would have been very hard on young players trying to make rosters in July.
sorry but this is more i say black you have to argue white nonsense. a lot of it reads like an encyclopedia trivia flex. what does players not being paid in some circumstances matter for the current CBA? and you miss the fundamental contradiction — THEY SHOWED UP ANYWAY. these 2025 guys would be paid. so what if they didn’t use to be for these camps.
do you think aaronson begrudges USSF his free camp considering his long tenure? i went back and looked and he was first capped 2020. if he did some early camps for free until he got in the games, do you think he cares? for a while he was a regular. played in every world cup game. he has lost some traction, but i doubt he’s like, you know what, i should have been paid, i am boycotting. and it’s a non sequitur argument WHEN THEY WOULD BE PAID.
i can think of a jillion ways of dealing with the numbers. you overlap it with a high age group YNT camp. you rope in a nearby d1 college or they even host the camp. you get a nearby MLS2 or USL team to scrimmage and do joint practices. my college used to scrimmage the local minor league team every year.
then the window arrives june 2, you call the MLS in, thank the locals for their help, play a game on june 3, roster on june 4. voila, you have picked a team with actual warning of what they look like in an international level soccer game. and gotten to know a largely untapped player reservoir which is generally offseason right now.
but no, by all means, we should squeeze every cent while we lose.
side point, i don’t buy for a second USSF didn’t cover some aspects of the camps historically. you are conflating room, board, physical therapy, field rental, equipment, etc. with a paycheck.
So the Euro players get a whole week to acclimate and learn what the staff wants beating up on amateurs and teenagers and then the MLSers who played May 31 or June 1 get one day to travel and one day to train and then face an international opponent. Yeah that sounds like the fair competition you’re always advocating for. Also, really thoughtful for the player health and safety you often opine about. Still haven’t addressed the wisdom of giving your list of Euro players no summer to recover if you take them the last week of May and then keep them until early July when their club preseasons start. Especially guys like Campbell, Banks, EPB who all multiple weeks in the final month of the season with muscle injuries. Let’s not even get into why you want Sands to play on his broken leg.
IV
“i can think of a jillion ways of dealing with the numbers.”
That does not mean any of the jillion would make sense or even work.
“ you overlap it with a high age group YNT camp. you rope in a nearby d1 college or they even host the camp. you get a nearby MLS2 or USL team to scrimmage and do joint practices. my college used to scrimmage the local minor league team every year.”
“then the window arrives june 2, you call the MLS in, thank the locals for their help, play a game on june 3, roster on june 4. voila, you have picked a team with actual warning of what they look like in an international level soccer game. and gotten to know a largely untapped player reservoir which is generally offseason right now.”
Cart before the horse.
You don’t know if Pochettino thinks that all those extra camps are worth the trouble. Camps and training can be very useful but there are limitations. Some players will just never show as well in training as they do in real live games. And given the unusual situation and the condensed time frame it is possible Pochettino has already tentatively decided on about 75% of his 23-26 and, at this point, is narrowing his focus to find the remaining 25% plus injury/loss of form alternates.
That does not mean he can’t change his mind but it does help him focus
his talent. search
Given that, your jillion ways would be mostly a distraction and a waste of time and effort.
“i don’t buy for a second USSF didn’t cover some aspects of the camps historically. you are conflating room, board, physical therapy, field rental, equipment, etc. with a paycheck.”
Okay. So what? Like it matters or something?
You are ignoring the best part.
Pochettino used your “fresh faces” as cannon fodder for the Turkey and Swiss sandwich. I’m suspicious enough to think that Pochettino knew that his IV fresh faces would get schooled real good by the Turkey /Swiss sandwich.
Unlike you IV, Pochettino knows that you can’t just take guys, no matter how talented, fresh from some place outside the regular player pool , stick them into the lineup and expect miracles right away.
You expect miracles, first time, on demand,
Pochettino does not. Those games just showed you how tricky, dangerous and wrong headed your “fresh faces” methodology is.
By blooding them in those two games, if they are the big balls type that Pochettino wants, then they will be that much more angry and ready for the Gold Cup.
You said the Turkey and Swiss sandwich was too strong.
You’re wrong.
If these guys have any personal or professional pride they will come back at the GC and want to prove everyone wrong. If our guys were arrogant and entitled before, they will be embarrassed , pissed off and looking to take it out on our weaker CONCACAF brothers.
Now we will see just how big their balls are.
Did Pochettino set all this up deliberately? I don’t know but if he did he’ll never admit it. He was an EPL manager. By definition, that means he knows how to bullshit people without exactly lying.
After the NL, disaster or not, most of the guys we think of as the A team are not going to the Gold Cup and will get as much of the summer to rest up as is possible. The guys who are with CWC have shortened breaks but at least they are experiencing minimal disruption, since they are with their clubs. So our A team will mostly get a break this summer while the A teams of Canada and El Tri do not.
Let’s see what Canada and Mexico’s injury lists look like in January of 2026.
it requires little talent nose to take 90% of GB’s guys and keep calling them. (xeroxes old call sheet with pulisic, jedi, weah, turner, richards, etc.).
but
(a) the regular guys weren’t getting it done for GB so we really needed some fresh ideas and players before this even started
(b) some of the regulars have been hurt (jedi, adams, dest) and you might have to replace them. we have struggled to do so every time we have to replace a regular. and if they are out we default back to berhalter tactics, as his ideas are player-specific.
(c) if players sick-out from mexico or this tournament then suddenly you have to actually pick a whole lot more of a roster cold. that’s this debacle and mexico.
one bad player is a glitch or their problem. half a dozen or more is a picker problem. you can’t pick winners. can he scout? methinks not.
people can tell me it’s CWC or whatever but over time we find caps for sullivan g. campbell clark gutierrez white vassilev and not c. campbell blackmon yow pukstas banks koleosho brown EPB celentano frei.
Truth of the matter is Poch is looking more and more like a non-experienced national team coach learning the job as he goes along. Same as Berhalter. Why the USSF had to have, with barely any time before the WC, that “big name” ex-club coach instead of a coach with a proven track record of underdog national team management that can squeeze the max out of set player pool in a short time frame is beyond me.
I disagree with those saying friendlies don’t matter, especially when you are the host country and have no real high pressure and stakes games to sharpen a team. Repetition makes perfection and we need our A+ team to play together as many times as possible, especially vs good teams like Turkey and the Swiss.
repetition of “what.” the tactics are crap. the selection, at least while playing those tactics, isn’t working, whether it’s A or C team. we have been trying the same thing since 2019 — 6 years now. it only ever briefly blipped upwards when we fully integrated the 2019 U20 class plus reyna from U17.
they got a decent version of the central spine going around 2021. turner was playing well and ran off steffen. richards is good. miles hadn’t hurt his achilles. adams was briefly healthy. reyna at 10. pepi at 9. we have then worked real hard to dismantle that — turner is off his game, adams can’t stay healthy, we drop reyna, favor sargent over pepi.
and per usual when we get any success the tactics and roster ossify. at good teams if you lose a round of 16 game that prompts a rethink, not the pouring of concrete around the roster. we’ve lost three straight tournaments and if you suggest bringing in different folks people go nuts.
if you practice hitting an instep shot wrong, work ethic and volume don’t make your shot better. you have to do it right for the work to pay off. no amount of repeating berhalter ball and this same unit is fixing it.
Well the “A” team wasn’t going to be available anyway. Injuries Jedi, Pepi, Dest, Balo, CWC: Mckennie, Weah, Reyna, And personal matters: Pulisic, Musah. Having Pulisic for two friendlies wouldn’t have shown anything. They will have plenty of friendlies this next year. 2 in the september, 2 in the October / November window, 2 in March, and probably 2 to 3 before the WC. Roughly 9 games together before the WC.
Mat,
“that “big name” ex-club coach instead of a coach with a proven track record of underdog national team management that can squeeze the max out of set player pool in a short time frame is beyond me.”
Part of that is “branding for 2026”
The 500 pound gorilla in the room is the USWNT which is unquestionably the most important soccer team in the US. They are proven winners who want to keep it up. The men are culturally mediocre.
Emma came in and on short notice, boom, wins big time.
Yeah I know, completely different situations. But we’re talking branding here not logic.
When they had a chance to get that big name, mostly to show all of us shitheads and potential advertisers that they meant business , they pull the trigger.
Could they have hired “a coach with a proven track record of underdog national team management that can squeeze the max out of set player pool in a short time frame” instead? Sure. Good idea BUT;
1. You got a name? There are not a lot of available people who fit that description and are worth a fuck. And of course that person had to want the job and that is not a given.
Maybe they looked at Gregg’s country club culture and realized that the wussy players might not want to “suffer” for the team.
2. I don’t care who you hire. Waiting until AFTER Copa America meant that whoever took over the Gregg crew was handed a shit sandwich. They needed everything to go right from the jump. And it hasn’t. They go into the Gold Cup with almost no margin of error.
From a coaching standpoint I disagree with you.
1. The story is not over yet. I’m not judging Pochettino until the World Cup is over. That’s because there is almost no way they are going to fire him at this point. Now he might say fuck this and walk away but otherwise, I think we’re stuck with him.
2. So you are not wrong to ask about the lower profile manager but the decision to hire Pochettino probably had very little to do with the actual soccer aspects of the situation. And the same goes for keeping him. People point to JK being fired during WC qualifying but JK spent almost his entire tenure pissing all the wrong ( for him) people off. I was surprised it took so long. Pochettino, as far as I know, has not done the equivalent of cutting St. Landon, so he should be safe that way.
3. I’m hearing he has lost the locker room. Well fuck the locker room. They could stand to get lost. And the reality is this is not a normal player-coach relationship situation.
It is VERY stark. Want to play in the World Cup? You do what Pochettino asks , if you can. That’s a huge carrot very few managers ever have. I guess we’ll see just how badly these guys want to play in a World Cup.
“I disagree with those saying friendlies don’t matter, especially when you are the host country and have no real high pressure and stakes games to sharpen a team. “
All games matter. What does not matter in a friendly is the the actual score.
Like losing four in a row. Two of the four were competitive games. The score matters there. Two were friendlies. The score is less of an issue there.
The problem is you have to ask the coaching staff what were they looking to get out of the friendly and what they did get.
And that doesn’t always happen. For example one thing we got out of the Switzerland game is that Quinn Sullivan is not ready yet to contend for a spot as a first team regular. I think that is why they left him in so long.
“Repetition makes perfection and we need our A+ team to play together as many times as possible, especially vs good teams like Turkey and the Swiss”
It does, but there are limits when your games are spaced several months apart.
For example, the starting eleven for the Switzerland game , if they don’t play in the Gold Cup and I don’t think they will, will next play together as a unit, MAYBE, vs South Korea on Sept 6.
That’s about two months and two weeks away. How much cohesion and perfection do you realistically expect with that kind of time gap between games?
And by the way, South Korea and Japan are two very tough teams.
As I’ve said elsewhere, I think we get humiliated in the World Cup. But you never know.
@Vac
“It is VERY stark. Want to play in the World Cup? You do what Pochettino asks , if you can. That’s a huge carrot very few managers ever have. I guess we’ll see just how badly these guys want to play in a World Cup.”
man, if it’s down to extorting effort or obedience for compliance, yikes
I like it when that’s not needed, you know, when the players do all of the because they want to, lol
I have zero problem with Poch taking the players he did fir the friendlies. But its good to know that Pulisic wanted to be apart of those. I’m not worried about friendlies. People put way to much stock in friendlies.
I checked on Canada’s friendlies and Marsch started his A team, minus regulars who were injured. They played Ivory Coast (0-0) and Ukraine (4-2). Mexico played an A team vs. Switzerland and Turkiye. The US was the outlier. Pochettino owns those results. Other coaches seem to think it is important to play regulars in order to get ready for the World Cup. Pochettino apparently doesn’t. I assume Pulisic is telling the truth. I have serious questions about Pochettino’s judgment considering his record since taking over. Right now the USMNT looks awful. For myself, I have no confidence in Pochettino at this moment since he seems to make nothing but wrong moves and our results have been abysmal. Constant losing is not a way to build a team prior to the World Cup.
I think Marsch is an excellent coach, but have to wonder how and when he will assess new and unproven talent. Both Canada and Mexico had the NL with the ‘A’ team, as did the US. Perhaps their respective pools aren’t deep enough to warrant rolling out a ‘B’ roster for friendlies and off-season tournaments. But the US pool is deep enough to use this time to look for a few players who a year from now can contribute.
We may see the striker pool differently at the end of the GC. Guys like Tillman and Luna could very well tilt the midfield pool. And goalkeeper? That door is open. Looking forward to further comments later this summer as we all see who emerges from the pack.
Gary,
Mexico played their A team vs Switzerland and got manhandled.
So where does he go from there? Aguirre is well aware that Mexican media and fans are nowhere near as tolerant as USMNT media and fans. And Mexico’s A team were shit until recently when RJ started doing his Manster imitation. So Aguirre is on thin ice and can’t afford to look bad at any point. It’s Mexico.
Jesse is in the same boat. He shit the bed at Leeds, then failed to bullshit his way into a job in England or Europe. It is really important for his long term future that Canada does great this cycle. Injuring Davies did not help him but right now he’s probably going to try to dominate every game they play.
Lets see how good both teams look going into the World Cup.
Canada and Mexico have pretty solid A teams. Pochettino does not. He still needs to keep digging to find #12 -23 or 26.
In the last WC qualifying we finished behind both Canada and Mexico. Canada does not have the depth we do, for sure. I see a lot of apologists for Pochettino here? Why? What has he done so far to justify having much faith in him? I was giving him chances, but the last 4-5 games the team has just plain stunk.
Gary,
“In the last WC qualifying we finished behind both Canada and Mexico. ”
That means nothing.
Do you know what finishing first or second in WC qualifying gets you?
Nothing absolutely nothing.
As soon as third place and qualification are assured, that’s it.
WC qualification in the “old days” was about survival not about being in a pissing contest. And you can check me on this but the order of finish had nothing to do with “seeding”.
And if you hit third and had a game left over you rested your regulars as long as it did not affect some other team qualifying.
Heading into the 2022 match, the U.S. needed a win, draw or a loss by no more than six goals against Los Ticos to earn a spot at Qatar 2022. But they fielded an A team lineup anyway to make sure. They lost 0-2 to Costa Rica which to me says it all for Gregg’s team.
“I see a lot of apologists for Pochettino here? Why? What has he done so far to justify having much faith in him? I was giving him chances, but the last 4-5 games the team has just plain stunk.”
No one is apologizing for Pochettino. But he’s not finished yet .
He’s in the middle of the process and you’ve already decided he’s done.
You’re like those people who leave a stadium at half time deciding that the game is already over.
It’s not and he’s not finished yet.
The difference between me and you is that I thought when he was hired that they waited way too long to deep six Gregg and that maybe Pochettino could pull it out. Maybe you thought that because he cost so much that a good result was guaranteed.
I never thought that. Shit players will always fuck you up.
Instead , we’ve seen that the rot is worse than we thought. Gregg’s much praised great locker room has turned out to be a halfway house for Euros not consistent enough to start in Europe but good enough for the USMNT. Why wouldn’t Pulisic love a coach who starts him every game regardless of how he plays for Chelsea or Milan?
That means that Pochettino is going to have to do a lot more coaching than I thought he was going to have to do, in order to combat the country club mentality that Gregg left behind.
And it takes time to turn the tiki bar into a house of pain.
You look at Argentina or Portugal. Just about everyone on their rosters would start for the USMNT yet they seem honored just to sit on the bench and cheer for the starters. Look at Leao. He sure as fuck does not play that intense for Milan.
I think, coming in, Pochettino may have misjudged how bad our players really are in terms of the national team game.
But otherwise, I see little evidence that that Pochettino is a bad coach. Yet.
Don’t worry , I’m pretty sure the World Cup will be a disaster for the USMNT . But that prediction is not a guarantee.
I see a lot of evidence that even our A team players may not be up to the required standard in terms of the tangibles and the intangibles.
That’s why I am not as willing to crucify Pochettino as you are. I’m waiting to see how he actually deals with these kids and if he can somehow make chicken soup out of chicken shit.
You have to factor in that I have never cared about the NL or Gold Cup scores. They are there to provide guys like Alexi with a living. To me these games are all practices. And practice is where you fuck up so you don’t fuck up in the game.
my instinct is that poch is not picking these players. campbell made the nations league shortlist and is one of the biggest prospects in years. but unlike pulisic and reyna — stars from the same club — he has not been rapidly elevated. he’s 19 on a team that has played stars at 17 or 18 before.
i found the way GB treated our young players telling. he sent miles, weah, richards, sargent, etc. to the U23s. they never saw the olympics. they instead saw the world cup after delayed integration into the WCQ team in about 2020-21.
meanwhile aaronson got promoted early. aaronson couldn’t make the U20 team with many of those same guys.
what does this hint at? we adore first team statistics. thus i am watching sullivan rather than campbell. the analytics department is picking the team. i can’t believe a coach is making these decisions.
but the coach is responsible. to me the tactics minus jedi are non-existent. and the selections do not seem optimized.
i think the soap opera is a distraction. we need to be tinkering with tactics and personnel. if we play the same style as ever and give johnny and harriel 20 chances this tournament, it will be over quick. pulisic is not here. period. move on. work within what’s here.
and i fully understand campbell is at CWC. it’s just a comment about priorities, which players we find the time to bring in — or not. we found time for this crap but campbell and banks have zero caps, and blackmon is probably walking. we have had months to get them in. who do we get in? berhalter’s kid, sullivan, harriel, etc.
Campbell wasn’t/isn’t available. He was hurt in March. Could Poch have brought anyone for June friendlies? Yes, but he chose only to bring guys that could play GC. Campbell is on Dortmund’s roster for CWC and that trumps GC according to FIFA. I said Mikey should have brought him in October because it was a lame duck camp, but he didn’t so unless you’ve got a Time Machine… Both Reyna and Pulisic also had many more first team minutes including starts before their first call ups. Cole only played 75 minutes and only because of multiple injuries. He hadn’t played with first team since November.
i am going to repeat my argument on campbell and banks and the others. they have been on previous provo rosters. they have been available for friendly windows. y’all seem to find some excuse every window to say no. yes, i get it, CWC this time. but that was predictable — dortmund. so call them earlier.
i have been saying since a year or two ago don’t expect a full team for GC due to CWC. highly predictable. obvious. i told y’all nations league would be the last full access tournament. we largely repeated the copa folks and wasted it.
you’re missing my point. for a team with results issues we don’t have much of a sense of urgency, to fiddle with tactics, to move along key prospects, much of anything.
as i explained above, the plan, based on the initial provo roster and final roster rumors, as well as the late-window friendlies, was to call a known list of mostly A selections. who needed no pre-roster friendlies to set a team. they begged off and suddenly we’re calling folks blind. and the schedule gives us no games before the roster deadline.
and then bigger picture, if campbell can’t do the summer, then he does october, november, march, september. this is getting absurd and mirrors the way reyna got treated. i remember having to almost beg for him to get called. which looks a tad silly in retrospect. as this will soon do as well.
this is on autopilot.
i think the marsch discussion is a psyop. and since we’re a mess it’s working. it’s working because we lack leadership, both in terms of field choices and the willingness to make some sort of definitive press statement to shut this up. we just kind of muddle along and people keep running their mouths. it begs a “basta” shout. “i take responsibility for this decision and i don’t want to hear any more about it. we have a tournament to play.” i am instead seeing adams comment, who while a good soccer player is also a little too much the dutiful soldier. the moment doesn’t need “we don’t listen to critics.” it needs, “we are sorting this out in practice and there will be no repeat.”
to me we hired a new agey guru type, with one tactical note, when this needed a ruthless taskmaster with flexible tactics who doesn’t care what your name is.
but people are playing head games with the team, and not just the current call sheet because pulisic got involved from supposedly needing time off. you need time off, stay off, enjoy your vacation.
it’s not about saying the right things. it’s about fixing the soccer.
Poch has lost the locker room, this was such a bad hire. The guy also was transitioning from a club pay schedule to a national team pay schedule which is not a frequent. Let’s keep it 💯 poch I lackluster coach and does not fit USMNT culture and set up that’s why players dont wanna come to Nats camp anymore because Poch has made the locker room a hot hostile bitter mess. Smh 🤦♂️
Too much handwringing over the selections for these friendlies and the GC. It sure looks like Poch knows he as has a known quality with the top players, and wanted to use these games to evaluate the fringe candidates this summer. It seems every cycle in these situations we end up with a couple of players who rise to the occasion and make a good impression. So, give lots of playing time to Tillman and Luna. Assess Cardoso for MF, maybe against Tessman. Use the time to figure out the pecking order with the striker pool and GKs. It’s really the only extended window to do a thorough evaluation.
CP, Dest, ARob and the other A team, rest and recharge. We need the full A team and a solid pool of reserves this time next year.
I guess the question is whether Poch, the guy who only wants players that will die for the shirt, will hand Pulisic his spot back when and if CP decides he wants to play for the national team again. The backups who tanked against Turkey and Switzerland may not give him any choice, but will there be any repercussions for CP “making the best decision for himself and for his team”, at the expense of the national team.
here’s my deal. you can carve the A team up into two sectors. turner richards jedi adams mckennie reyna pulisic weah pepi. should be roster locks — i can’t think of a 23 without them — though 2-3 maybe not starters. then there is everyone else.
we need 2 keepers just to fill out the roster. the backline is a mess save richards. we need potential starters and subs everyplace. based on performance/ productivity/ results, everyone else should be fending off any pool star we can find for their jobs.
i am fine with this summer. i think it was selected wrong and didn’t go far enough. i think the veteran B team backline choices are generally backfiring — they are not roster locks — or at least shouldn’t be — and should be under roster competition. i think we need a 6 other than adams. i think we need someone else even halfway like jedi wide where we can use the same poch assymetry concepts even if the LB player isn’t there. maybe ledezma, who we refuse to call and may lose. i think we need competition for AM slots and backups at the wing forwards.
we need to create that competition, with few players off limits, and emphasize work rate is part of that competition.
i personally think half the problem is the whole A team feels entitled, and the guys outside that feel unmotivated in their chance to push them out. one set is loafing because the friendly doesn’t matter. the other side is depressed they have no real shot to make it.
easy solution — competition. you tell them anyone there could make the world cup team, you treat them like it, and you loudly drop some symbolic disappointments.
i don’t think CP wanting an engraved roster plaque with his name on it actually helps. we haven’t actually won much lately.
IV,
Unbelievable…you are a ball of conflict.
You are always clamoring for new guys to be given a chance, yet you say Turner is a roster lock??? In what universe is Turner a roster lock?
In the past you have said that club form doesn’t matter. Most people would disagree with that notion, but let’s say that applies…what about Turner’s performances in the last 12 months for the USMNT supports him being a roster lock?
Furthermore, farther down in your post you make mention of creating competition. Given Turner’s recent form, for both club and country, if you make him a roster lock, in what universe does that send a message of competition?
You also make mention of “the A team” feeling entitled. I assume that includes Turner?…you know, the player that has not done anything for club or country in the last 12 months. Talk about entitlement?…making him a roster lock SCREAMS of entitlement.
Do you ever read what you type?…or do you just do the ” no grammar, no punctuation, run on sentence” thing with no thought or forethought?
Just asking?
papi: i see your point on contradictions. i think nominally it should be an open competition for every spot. i think realistically there is no way the guys on my list get cut. even if they got benched, there is no way they fall so low they can’t even make the bench. so they make the team. which is not the same as they should all start.
i think turner looks shaky. i would like to see some competition. that competition could maybe even take his starting job. but i don’t believe in 1 year we identify and stress test 3 goalies who come out ahead of him. he is moving from forest in terms of playing time. we barely try anyone else at NT games. they are not setting the world on fire. though i would keep trying new people, i am not sure we try enough new people who then pan out, in a year, where he can’t make at least the clipboard holder #3 slot.
do i agree with that process? obviously not. i am just saying how i practically see this playing out.
i would prefer the more open process i have advocated. i would prefer we take the successes from that process and make them the roster. outside of 2018 i don’t know if we have operated that way.
and i put it on this article because IMO pulisic’s comments reflect the lack of roster turnover and the sense of entitlement, which then make my “roster lock” list likely. i actually think the roster locks in poch’s head are even longer a list.
which i see as a problem because we kind of suck.
on further thought, a better version of my point would be this — roughly 2/3 of the roster does not play consistently to a standard where i am like, that dude belongs in a world cup. that i should not be considering my other options. that’s why we need fresh faces.
but i think we both agree that in camp and at games, it should be a free for all favoring the best XI players regardless of status.
i just think a handful aren’t getting beat out this time. i think it’s telling it’s a handful and not the usual 18-20 locks.
people want to settle on a lineup very early these days, then panic at the end when it’s not working and the world cup is imminent. there’s a reason i advocate more open competition early in the cycle, and only landing on a set of favorites later in the 4 years. i want to be able to trust my decisions. that requires consistent performance and earned trust, borne of competition for their job.
we at some point switched over to trusting analytics to pick the team for us then doubling and doubling down on what the computer said. or the coach got in his head. whatever the abstracted process we are using to pick people.
He also is blaming “the coaches” for not accepting his offer to come for the friendlies (which IMO they most certainly should have done). I’m not sure how that will go over. Does Poch have Klinsmann sized cajones?
well, as i noted before, i think poch handled the process in a way where he showed up his veterans. rather than confirm their wishes, he announced the team. he put them in a spot of turning him down. he gave them little rhetorical cover initially when he did so. and when it went badly, despite our run of results with the A team, the cliche establishment response is “why didn’t you call them.” and pulisic is then saying, i was willing. you show me up, i show you up.
i don’t think it’s helpful, it’s baby reyna dynamics for a team with sports problems too. and to me defaulting all the time back to the starters who can’t win isn’t really helping either.
to me “politics” are taking over from “sports.” reyna should be playing more, campbell should be in as well, and if a team loses as much as we do, no one’s job should be off limits.
let’s be real, our friendly opponents are being poorly chosen. this is a struggling team that needs to slow down the world spinning and figure things out. our answer is the swiss and the turks now, a harsh first two games in gold cup, and then japan and korea in the fall.
our schedule is for organized teams with functioning tactics who have sorted their selection. this is a mess that schedules like it’s argentina or france.
like i said in my other post, this discussion flatters the A teamers who haven’t won a good team game in years. who can’t score much because scheme. and who ship goals just like this bunch, just not as many. i was against the A team being rotely called again this summer because that feels like autopilot. they can’t beat panama consistently. even if we weren’t going to win gold cup we needed a fresh look for a month. find some new options. bring them back to september camp. ship out some A scrubs. push some others to the bench.
i think it’s useful spin for the veterans, who should be on shaky ground after copa and nations league, to push a narrative where they could have participated and helped fix this. we should be rethinking some of their roles and are instead begging them back as though they have done much of anything lately.
based on a few years ago i think we could have the full A selection and they’d still lose to the swiss. and more trenchant, we lost 3 tournaments straight and kind of need to experiment on tactics and selection.
there is as much entitlement in this debate as in the reyna family affair at the world cup. though to be real there is every indication we intended to just mechanically rotate out the A team yet again this summer, minus CWC, and were foiled by CWC plus injuries plus ask-offs.
setting aside my theory the stars need rest and we needed to evaluate new options, there is also a basic argument that past a point of roster degredation the pool has changed the focus of the summer for you. if you’re missing so many A guys, you might as well send the As home and go completely experimental.
I am speechless (however I can rant type)
They could have had both Juventus players, Pulisic and Dest in camp for two high level friendlies and were like…nah, we are good.
Pulisic – agyemang- weah
Luna – Adams – McKinnie
Pick a back four and Turner.
Tell me that wouldn’t have been a good thing to get these guys together for a short camp considering how awful they’ve been?
I don’t think Poch has a clue at what he’s doing outside of perhaps game management at the international level.
There I said it. He has been as underwhelming as the USMNT’s performances in his 10 games.
I should have said pick a bacl three to play with Dest – who went 200′ in the last three games fo the season with PSV. Havin him for parts of 1 or two games and short camp should have been doable.
dest needed to be left off to save the knee and play the long game. that and once a critical mass of absences occurred you might as well be experimenting as opposed to cynically calling the few remaining tired A teamers trying to chase trophies.
My optimistic take is Poch wanted to genuinely test the fringe players to see how they stacked up against world cup quality, in the hopes of building depth and challenging the top guys. While simultaneously building a cohesive team to try and win the gold cup. While also trying to give the top guys their last real break for over a year. Unfortunately, as we saw, the ones picked to start against the Swiss did not perform and that half was a disaster. But if he hadn’t given those players a chance, we really would not have known for sure. I’m still not sure what to think of some things that happened in that game. For instance, McKenzie was absolutely awful in the first half at CB, didn’t step, didn’t mark. But in the second half, he did reasonably well at RCB marking Ndoye who completely roasted our right flank with ease first half…huh?
Someone smarter than me please answer this question: Could Poch have had more than the final GC roster in the camp for the friendlies? If so he could have had everything he wanted. By having three more players and keeping Dest he would have been able to work with the under-performing core and see how how the GC crew actually measure up with the core. He could have still rotated in the friendlies giving the core group minutes together and also the noobs. There are no limits to subs in friendlies, right? And then Pulisic and Dest could be rested for GC. GC being a casualty of the Club WC and injuries which prevented the core group from getting the simulated WC experience.
Moo: there are no roster limits for camps like this pre-GC but that is 8,000 per player that you invite plus expenses travel, lodging, food. Not a huge expense, but it does cost money to bring guys not to play. There is a limit on players playing usually 6 subs.
MOO: as i said the other day, you could call as many as you want for the friendlies. there is an agreed subs limit probably but not a roster limit. there is a roster limit with rules on changes for gold cup. but you can call in some folks for the friendlies who don’t make the gold cup list.
i want to say 2021 we had a game or two in europe (swiss was one) then came back here for gold cup with the A team sent on break.
IV: 2021 Berhalter tried to set up the schedule to match the upcoming qualifying. Played Switzerland in friendly then NL semis and final followed by friendly against CR. With Adams (returning from injury) and Pulisic and Zach involved in CL final. Odunze, Green and Hoppe went to just friendly against Swiss. Dike, Justin Che, and Bryan Reynolds also came to Euro camp. After Switzerland Hoppe, Reynolds, Che, Green, Odunze went home. Dike remained training with team but was not on NL roster. He did play against CR scoring his first goal June 9 (Zim also replaced Miazga getting married for CR). Three weeks later Berhalter named his GC roster on July 1, with camp starting July 6. The only Euro players involved were Cannon, Giaocchini, Hoppe, and Moore who were all looking to make transfers. Only Lleget, Acosta, Cannon, and Dike participated in both June and July but did have an almost 4 week break between US camps. This was also the GC Berhalter wanted to bring Green but Furth begged to have him in their preseason. (All information confirmed through US Soccer press releases and SBI articles)
MotO,
“Could Poch have had more than the final GC roster in the camp for the friendlies? If so he could have had everything he wanted. By having three more players and keeping Dest he would have been able to work with the under-performing core and see how how the GC crew actually measure up with the core.”
Lets say he calls in half of the provo roster. That’s 30 players or so.
How long was the camp? Seven to ten days?
I thought the idea was to narrow down the focus and get to know players? And who are the under performing core and why are you designating them that before the start of camp? Isn’t the idea of the camp to see how they look after they have had a little time to adjust to the camp, especially an injury returnee like Dest?
The staff including Pochettino is about 6 coaches. Student teacher ratio of 5-1 for about a week or so, though I don’t know if all six can be said to be equal in ability.
Anything is possible but I question how much quality each individual player would get at a time when they need the best guidance they can get.
a couple times during GB’s tenure we did creative camp ideas. we had a post-MLS camp in october 2019 building up to that huge canada-cuba pair of nations league games after we lost in canada. we played in december during covid.
we also routinely play january camps and games off window.
i say that because we ran this summer like FIFA windows are king. given a choice that could have included more euro based, we favored a lot of january camp type guys called from MLS. we waited until the window for access. the window had about 2 days before the GC roster was due. the games are instead end of the window after the rosters were due.
so you have learned several players may be unsatisfactory — after you can do a darned thing about it short of declare them hurt and get a doctor’s note. we’re committed.
to me based on nations league in march this is already a dumpster fire. i find the “call the A team” cliches amusing. we needed to look at fresh faces. we have problems. we should have called in euro based players in late may, tried to have a game scheduled june 2-4 before the roster deadline, and had a performance based cut. call fewer MLS and make them like luna that we trust.
to me some of these meh MLS guys were january indifferences already. i have no idea how they made a GC roster based on that prior crap. i also don’t get how they made a roster where we would have no games to compete for the roster.
i mean, people do get we can just grab euro based in the offseason???? same way we just call a full team of MLS in january. i repeat my euro B team donut hole analysis. we always find time for MLS B players, some of whom are worse. we always have excuses why europeans don’t get called.
and we could have camped them 10 days or so, justified the expense as this thing is circling the drain. we instead strictly adhered to the window, even for euros it doesn’t control, flew blind and favored MLS with GC roster slots. and are being punished for it.
Sheesh… this just make him look ever worse…
Gotta look out for number one. Rugged individuality is what Makes America Great