It wasn’t that long ago people questioned the US men’s national team’s pride, unity, and dedication. Players weren’t seen to be giving the effort required in the national colors. They were booed off the field in Nashville at the beginning of June and looked like a gutless collection of wannabe big names. Argentine manager Mauricio Pochettino had to start sending some important and tough messages to get his ideas across.
Since the start of the fall internationals, Pochettino’s message has begun to sink in. A number of players who thought their places in next summer’s World Cup have found themselves watching from afar as a few unheralded names have seized their opportunities. Two of them started games for the USA in Qatar three years ago. Goalkeeper Matt Turner and midfielder Yunus Musah haven’t been involved this fall. Their places have been lost largely due to their performances or lack of performances at the club level.
Turner finished the 2022 World Cup as the unquestioned #1 goalkeeper. He played well enough in Qatar and with the New England Revolution to earn a move to Arsenal. He couldn’t claim the starting job there and moved to Nottingham Forest, then on loan to Crystal Palace, and now supposedly with Olympic Lyon in France. OL loaned him back to the Revolution, but the club failed to make the MLS playoffs. For the 31 year old, there doesn’t seem to be a path back to the national team. Matt Freese of New York City FC has started the last 11 games and shows no signs of giving up the job.
Musah saw his role at AC Milan reduced to that of spectator. The club gave him a loan to Atalanta where he once again has a great view of the Serie A from the bench of a good team. His play has yet to take any steps forward from the promise he showed coming up in the Arsenal Academy and with the USA in 2022. Several players have surpassed him. Tanner Tessman and Christian Roldan started in the center of midfield last weekend. They aren’t even the first choice pair. Pochettino picked others to support the engine room, but not Musah. Barring injuries and a radical resumption of his upward trajectory, Musah will be a spectator next summer, as well.
Pochettino went so far as to drop Weston McKennie from the midfield mix, even though he has been playing well for Juventus. The Italian club just brought in a new manager, so the thinking is that McKennie will need to win over Luciano Spalletti the same way he has convinced all the previous managers since his move to Italy. But with the World Cup just a few months away, leaving a previously key player like McKennie out made a lot of observers wonder if there is something else happening.
But, what of the players Pochettino did include for the final international window of 2025? Now that he has changed the team shape from a back four to a back three with two wingbacks, Pochettino has refined his selections. Injuries played a part in his choices as they usually do. The likes of Christian Pulisic, Antonee Robinson, Alejandro Zendejas, Tim Weah, and Chris Richards sat out the November camp. Robinson’s absence has become a major worry since his knee problem surfaced in the spring.
Those injuries have given opportunities to others. The players who did make the camp made a solid impression in the 2-1 win over Paraguay. The visitors played an aggressive, chippy, and occasionally dirty style against the USA. A few months ago, that would have been a problem for the US team. However, Pochettino has passed on his familiarity with South America’s rough and tumble style to his team. They gave as good as they got in the physical play. That includes the bench-clearing rumble at the end of the game when Alex Freeman and Paraguay’s Diego Gomez tussled over a throw-in. Sebastien Berhalter led the American charge into the fray. While saying the right things publicly, Pochettino must have been smiling at the spirit and unity his team showed.
Physicality aside, the US played some decent football against a team that has the second fewest goals conceded in the South American World Cup qualifiers. The Americans opened the scoring with a header from Gio Reyna in the fourth minute. Reyna joined the team largely due to the long injury list. He has played less than 150 minutes for Borussia Moechengladbach in the Bundesliga. Pochettino let him have 75 minutes for the national team. Reyna has said he wants to be a part of the World Cup team. He showed that against Paraguay. His passing and movement were excellent. He battled for the ball and looked every bit a team player. This was the first headed goal of his career and it looked like he had been scoring that way for years.
Pochettino will have to work with his defense to clean up the kind of errors that resulted in Paraguay’s equalizer just five minutes after Reyna scored. Miles Robinson and Tim Ream failed to mark Alex Arce in front of the goal, while Joe Scally got caught up the field as Paraguay countered. With no cover from midfield, the USA saw their lead vanish almost as quickly as it had come.
Undeterred, the Americans controlled much of the game. Tessman and Roldan battled hard in the middle of midfield with help from Brendan Aaronson. Once they won the ball, they looked to release left wingback Max Arfsten and right wingback Sergino Dest. Arfsten supplied the cross for Reyna’s early goal when Paraguay failed to clear a corner. Like Dest on the right, Arfsten is comfortable using both feet. It makes them versatile enough to switch sides or cut inside from either wing, a valuable variation for the attack.
Folarin Balogun started as the center forward. The position looks like his now. He didn’t get many chances during his 75 minutes, but he scored on the one that came his way. Substitute Diego Luna, a Pochettino favorite, combined with Roldan to force a turnover in the Paraguay half. Balogun pounced and played Reyna down the left and then cut to the middle. Reyna’s cross hit a defender and fell right in Balogun’s path. He made no mistake, restoring the USA’s lead.
The challenger to Balogun’s position is Ricardo Pepi. The Texas native has missed a lot of time this year with a knee injury and now fills a super-sub role for PSV Eindhoven. He has scored plenty of goals coming off the bench but can’t seem to hold the starting job. He came in for Balogun last weekend and had a golden chance to increase the USA’s lead, but his first touch failed and he wanted too many more touches to prepare the ball for a shot, losing his chance. Given the few opportunities international strikers have to score, seeing Balogun convert while Pepi missed will make an impression on Pochettino when he prepares to fill out his lineup for the June 12 World Cup opener.
Having beaten Paraguay in Philadelphia, the USA moves on to Tampa to face an even tougher, more physical South American opponent in Uruguay. Pochettino will certainly make a few changes to look at the rest of the roster, but he will also expect the same intensity, unity, and spirit he saw against Paraguay. The USA now has a three match unbeaten run against teams that have qualified for the World Cup. They have started to look more like the team Pochettino envisioned when he took the job in 2024.
