The U.S. men’s national team improved on Saturday once Tyler Adams entered the fray, but Mauricio Pochettino won’t have his captain’s services for Tuesday’s final pre-CONCACAF Gold Cup friendly.
Adams will sit out of the USMNT’s home showdown with Switzerland due to precautions regarding a foot injury, Pochettino confirmed Monday in his pre-match press conference. The Bournemouth midfielder came off the bench and played the final 45 minutes of Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Turkey, logging his third international appearance of 2025.
With the Gold Cup group stage set to begin in six days and Adams coming off of a busy season for Bournemouth, Pochettino wants to preserve his veteran midfielder for the longevity of the upcoming tournament.
“Tyler is out for tomorrow because he suffered a small issue in his foot,” Pochettino said. “But I think it’s not a big issue. Hope it’s not a big issue. I think we can manage it in a good way and rest it for a few days, and then see if he can be ready for the Gold Cup. That is why he’s not going to be involved tomorrow.”
As for the rest of the USMNT squad, Pochettino will be expected to freshen up his starting lineup after an average showing against Turkey. A total of nine players were unused substitutes at Rentschler Field last weekend, including Brenden Aaronson, John Tolkin, and Paxten Aaronson.
Dual-national forward Damion Downs, midfielder Sebastian Berhalter, and goalkeeper Chris Brady will be seeking their senior debuts while veterans Matt Turner and Walker Zimmerman will also aim to earn minutes of their own. Pochettino has plenty of options to choose from, and the Argentine will need to get his choices correct if the USMNT wants to snap a first three-match losing streak since last summer.
“Preparing for the Gold Cup, I think it’s good to make some changes now and to give the possibility to other players to play,” Pochettino said. “What I want to see tomorrow is to continue evolving the way that we started to play against Turkey. It’s a continuation of this feeling.
“If we will get tomorrow after 90 minutes, the same feeling, I think the progression is there and I’m going to be happy,” he added. “The result also is important. But I think now, with a lot of new players, for the first time and building a team for the Gold Cup, I think the focus is more in the process to improve than maybe the result. And of course, I think the Gold Cup is going to be both progression and results.”
Big loss considering Adams is the best player on the roster by a mile. There is a good chance the US loses this game and I think four losses in a row starts to be too much, so I would start the best lineup possible which would be Cardoso, LDT, B Aaronson and Richards/McKenzie. And those midfielders in my mind are still on the fence as how much time they will get in the WC so want to see them against a World Cup team.
And Tillman, of course.
It’s a friendly. Get guys ready for Gold Cup.
Poch literally calls up a player known for being made of glass when he m could have rested like the 1st team usmnt players like Pulisic and Musah, but here he is injured again, smh.
-Turner to Lyon done, pending their current GK’s transfer, terms from all three parties agreed.
-Romano and others reporting Yunas Musah to Napoli is in the works.
napoli is a poor choice. he’s probably there to be a backup again.
Time to take your spot lads. Show your desire and want to.
Only a couple of weeks ago, Emma Hayes selected a roster for 2 friendlies missing many top players for a variety of reasons, including her top 3 strikers. Her message for the games was very clear – show me you deserve this callup – no roster spot on this team is guaranteed. Anyone else besides myself come away impressed by certain players?
I view it as the door is open with these friendlies and the Gold Cup. Türkiye was one game. Switzerland is a bigger test. Nine players never saw the field on Saturday. We know Adam’s quality. Let’s see who’s here to get noticed.
Uswnt has more depth compared to usmnt, apples to oranges. Beyendolo is just as good as Rodman, Swanson, and Wilson.
It’s nice Hayes is coming off a major tournament SUCCESS and doesn’t have to prepare for the biggest moment in recent US Soccer history – a home WC – in a years time. A great time to deepen the player pool for the USWNT. Especially at the forward position where two are pregnant and one has ongoing back issues that will probably follow her until she decides to retire.
I’d say Alyssa Thompson was the biggest beneficiary of the absence of the three top forwards. Given her trajectory, she is in the mix for a starting role with the full team.
to me this should have been a “show me what you got” summer in general. i think they could have picked a better “B” than this and that’s one reason i am complaining. i am then complaining that with the exception of perhaps forward, the regulars they kept are at spots where we could stand competition. so i don’t get why the whole team isn’t fresh.
eg they kept basically regular CBs and the 1 keeper despite us getting burned on defense at NL and copa.
the selection is kind of sloppy and january campish. it does not feel like the best players not wanting a break, hurt, or at CWC. it feels like they wanted the A team and then just called MLS when they turned it down.
i feel like if you call a real B we get some players in who can challenge for roster spots and as such can also not embarrass themselves in the fixtures. i think this is closer to january quality and out of its depth.
hayes seems to have some independent clue what composes a winner. every coach we have (or whoever is selecting their rosters) seems stuck on some mix of club snobbery, stats hype, or status quo bias. i want the women’s response. you lose a game, you get stuck at the curb and we call your potential replacement. the men’s response is arrogant and defensive. but i am sure on paper This is the Team. in spite of all evidence. there is no feedback. there’s just theory. they could lose 10 games in a row and the theory won’t change much.
Do you want to develop your depth or don’t you?
.
Switzerland, who just treated Mexico like something they wiped off the bottom of their shoes, looks like they could be a pretty stern test.
This is the game to play all the understudies.
Johnny has been seen to be a Tyler understudy.
He fucked up vs Turkie but either you forgive that and move on or you never call him in again and play someone like Emeka Eneli. I’m agnostic about it. He can play but his 70’s porn-stache is hard to take..
In other words this is the game where you start #12 to #23, whoever they are, on your 23 man roster. –
the US brass are stupid. why does a team that can’t beat canada or panama need to play turkey and the swiss for warmup friendlies, when we badly need to tinker with scheme and try some new faces?
yeah, it should be fresh people all summer. they shouldn’t be playing the swiss tonight. does that seem like a useful basis for judging which ones are worth keeping? or for working on scheme execution? the likely result is conservative play and the team being generally overwhelmed. and we don’t play some sort of counter scheme where if we manage to absorb pressure from a superior opponent, we have ideas how to punish them for coming too far up getting greedy.
i dunno, ever since 2018’s caretaker buzzsaw we’ve been really into scheduling hard and i see little payoff. we seem to have taken in the absurd fallacy that “scheduling brazil makes you more like them.” we then followed our brazil game with one of the most abject US tournament performances i have seen this side of 1998.
IMO this scheduling is of zero value if you have not already done the hard work of optimizing scheme and selection. if you have done that and can compete with the best, tough games will test any remaining weaknesses. if not, all you’re doing is setting yourself up for a whooping.
and note i said “remaining weaknesses.” when you play a good team you have to be open to they expose some bad choices. you then need to fix those bad choices. the US problem is they could lose, expose an issue, and they will have the same choices next time. they don’t actually learn from their schedule. nor do they win it. they just play games and pat themselves on the back how hard their opponents are. zero point — that’s really applauding your opponent rather than helping yourself.
no, this should have been 2 easy games that could test a B side’s tactics and personnel, and build their confidence.