Paxten Aaronson might have been loaned out twice since his arrival at Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt, but the thriving midfielder has high aspirations for making 2025-26 the season that he stays with his parent club.
Aaronson is currently with the U.S. men’s national team ahead of a busy June schedule of matches. The former Philadelphia Union homegrown entered Mauricio Pochettino’s squad off of the back of his best season yet at club level.
Aaronson made 37 appearances for Dutch Eredivisie side FC Utrecht, scoring nine goals and adding six assists in all competitions. He helped Utrecht finish fourth in the league table, which clinched the club a UEFA Europa League group stage berth for next season.
Although Frankfurt might have other plans for Aaronson’s long-term future, the 21-year-old is focused on whatever comes his way after the international window.
“Yeah I think the plan now is to 100% go back to Frankfurt and assess how it goes there,” Aaronson told reporters in a conference call Thursday. “For me, the most important thing is having a good preseason at Frankfurt. My main goal is to be a Frankfurt player and to be an important one. If that can be this year, that would be great.
“If not, Frankfurt have had good communication with me,” he added. “Maybe they might think I need another year out on loan to develop, maybe at Utrecht. It’s just about taking it step-by-step right now.”
Aaronson, who made his USMNT debut in January 2023, is one of several young players entrusted by Pochettino to help spark the program back on track this summer. The USMNT will face Turkey and Switzerland in a pair of friendlies over the next four days before having a two-week preparatory window ahead of the CONCACAF Gold Cup group stage.
Alongside his brother Brenden, Paxten will be eager to fight for minutes in the USMNT’s midfield, especially after delivering a productive campaign in one of Europe’s more competitive leagues. While there will certainly be competition amongst the Aaronson brothers over the next few weeks, there has also been praise from Brenden on his younger brother’s positive growth on the field.
“I think the biggest thing with Paxten after watching a lot of his games at Utrecht is his ability to win so many challenges,” Brenden said about Paxten. “He played a bit deeper at times at Utrecht but was still all over the place. I think he got good at coming down to the ball and being balanced before helping the team advance upfield. I think that is something he has really grown with.”
The USMNT head into Saturday’s showdown with Turkey, seeking to snap a two-match losing streak after a dismal ending to their 2024-25 Nations League campaign.
good response from the USMNT in the 2nd half
some individual performances that stood out too, Richards, Tillman, Adams, Luca, McGlynn, probably forgetting someone, Freeman showed well, Freese can play with his feet, much calmer for everyone and everything because of that. McKenzie pairs well with Richards imo
Tip of the cap to Fernando Moron from Panama, good game
Well.. at least someone was paying attention
yessir…as you know, I like to watch the games and comment on what’s happening, why, how ;->
Poch had to change everything on the fly as Cardoso struggled, not only the buildout in our 3rd flipping Luca for Johnny, but also in the middle 3rd, dropping Freese back and keeping Johnny higher. Agbeyang hopefully will raise his game in front of all his friends and family if Poch starts him
let’s see what Poch decides to do in the 2nd half
*Freeman
55th minute, mature buildup after almost a turnover disaster by Adams; US recycled from the initial build on the right, wasn’t there and went back around, and then again to create the cross for the Arfsten shot over the bar. earlier he had forced it on the other side, was’t on and he got bumped off
59th minute Luca covers the 2nd level in our box like it mattered, good to see
69th minute, the sequence that ended with the Sullivan missed shot, started with Tillnman dropping into the backline buildout super deep and splitting a line to intiate, nice
on the 80th minute or so giveaway from Tillman, who has played very well today, watch that replay of the recovery runs; we have all the numbers back, count how many, but all run to the ball and none see the filed and pick up the one runner, who bursts wide open
beachbum,
Malik did pretty good Gio impersonation.
Gio remains a better shooter but if you liked what Gio brought, Malik will make Gio’s absence easier to take.
look at that 90th minute lung bursting run from Freeman there, opened up the space for Sullivan, got it to haji, but he was dispossessed. freeman has played the whole game
dropping Cardoso into the backline 3 and both wingbacks going high, 10 minutes in, Cardoso just slid one three to McGlynn who had a good crack at #2
he’s dropping in when both wingbacks go high, or when the ball is higher on the field, like middle 3rd, when the wingbacks drift higher
23minutes in, Tillman with 3 interceptions already leading to chances
Cardoso messes up, was playing a real gem up to that point too, featured player in the Pochettino game plan
on the 2nd Turkey goal, just look at all the Turkish players unmarked in the box on the 2nd level, it’s crazy, like 4
Cardoso currently a hot mess out there, damn, feel for him. he’s got to turn it around stat, 34th minute
good opportunity to respond. let’s see
Poch figured it out for him; he’s moved Johnny outside and high, Luca in the hole now
USMNT u 18’s into the final of the Uefa friendship tourney. Beating France on PK’s, beating Argentina 2-0 and a last minute game winning goal against Australia today 3-2. Looking likely Portugal in the final.
He should be left with his Frankfurt so he can cement his place in the team. Let the kid develop so if needed at the WC he will be ready. (just using US Soccer rationale) This camp is a joke.
And why is it a joke?
2tone,
There has always been two schools of thought on the USMNT:
1. Pull out all the stops to win every single game.
2. The World Cup is all that matters so all games should be about preparing to assemble the best World Cup team possible for that goal.
Obviously there is a middle ground but not on SBI.
Posters tend to the extreme on either side of the issue. Trying to work the middle ground often takes too much effort and a lot of copy. Attention spans are short.
The result is a lot of extreme posts, “this camp is a joke” for both sides.
MotO seems to be in Camp #1. The only thing wrong with that approach is that the USMNT is not one of the big soccer powers, like France, or Spain.
Which means the USMNT do not have enough to good players to always field an 18 man game day roster likely to win every game they play.
If they fielded their best 18 man roster for every game that roster would soon burn out.
Bring in Pulisic and Jedi for the Gold Cup. Watch Pulisic put out his hip and ruin his start to his Milan season. Watch Jedi blow out his knee, ruin his transfer to a big club and lose his job at Fulham.
But it’s worth to win the Gold Cup. never mind you might have those two go into the 2026 World Cup in a less than the best condition.
Players have human bodies and can only play so many games. That’s just math and physics. All this bullshit about love of country and grit , etc., etc. ad. nauseum, giving you the superpower to play for your country without negative consequences is just that : bullshit.
So the USMNT has to triage.
Which players can they afford to have injured?
Which competitions deserve the USMNT’s best total effort?
And when their best effort is not possible how best to use that tournament ?
That’s pretty much the whole issue right there.
I see no issue. I just don’t. We all.know the injury track record for our current player pool and that track record suggests that we are not going to have all of our perceived ” best” players available come 2026. I am excited for this Gold Cup. I am excited to see more of Tillman, Luna, Agyemang, Cardoso, Freeman, Pax, Tolkin, Sullivan, Downs etc… to see how they seize this moment. The WC roster will be a 26 man roster and we need more players to show up and out. This is perfect for these players to do that. CWC complicated this the most.
Or 3. In normal times…when there has been continuity in coaches and the team has performing at an expected level…a camp like this would be fine.
Context matters. If you need the context: having crapped the bed in the last two tournaments and a huge coaching change not to mention not having played a good game in eons – well, there was that Jedi as midfielder game. Oh, and not just a WC a home WC on the horizon with supposedly the best generation of players the US has ever had (that again have a new coach and haven’t played but one good game under his direction).
There’s a January camp to tryout new guys. Every former USMNT commentator says the same thing: “we always came to camp with knocks. It’s soccer.”
What waste of an extended camp that could have been used to try to right the ship. Mark it on the calendar….this team gets one extra game in ’26 despite the watered down competition.
If the first time guys need time to sort themselves out…for sure Paxton Aaronson needs time to establish himself at Frankfurt.
2tone,
“I see no issue. I just don’t.”
That doesn’t mean one is not there.
“We all.know the injury track record for our current player pool and that track record suggests that we are not going to have all of our perceived ” best” players available come 2026. I am excited for this Gold Cup. I am excited to see more of Tillman, Luna, Agyemang, Cardoso, Freeman, Pax, Tolkin, Sullivan, Downs etc… to see how they seize this moment. The WC roster will be a 26 man roster and we need more players to show up and out. This is perfect for these players to do that. CWC complicated this the most.”
Which is basically what I just wrote.
CWC did not complicate anything. It gave the USMNT a good excuse to play the new kids. This is what would have happened in the old days anyway.
MotO,
Yes context matters.
That context is why the fans and media are going hair on fire bananas over this run of games.
But context can’t change the fact that the GC is badly timed for the Euro based players. And it can’t change the fact that the Jan. Camp won’t be an option for most of our Euros.
And like it or not our Euros remain an important part of the USMNT.
So this evaluation and building process is highly imperfect and will show us just how good a coach and a manager Pochettino really is, one way or another.
Overall. I would say it looks grim for the USMNT in the WC but they have surprised me before.
Every USMNT that I have followed has always pulled it together and played their best in the WC.
Yildiz just went 75′ for Turkey. Where’s Mckinnie and Weah?
MotO,
“Yildiz just went 75′ for Turkey. Where’s Mckinnie and Weah?”
Yildiz has nothing to do with us. The absence of Weston and Timo means a guy like Captain Jack gets more of a real shot to make a case than ever before.
In the long run and maybe the short run, this is a good thing for the USMNT.
“All over the place” So that is an Aronson family attribute, because Brendon can buzz with the best.
I would say that’s an Ernst Tanner academy player trait. He’s big on the RB Leipzig counter pressing style. That’s why Philly sacked Jim Curtain, Ernst didn’t think he was pressing enough.
JR,
So what is Curtin doing these days?