Depends on the style of play that Poch wants from the team. Each offer different styles.
OT: We may win the World Cup in 2026
- Thread starter brad1218
- Start date
For sure - I’m not a gio hater and hope he can stay healthy long enough to actually reach his potential. It’s more of a question of his fitness and ability to play at pace if he’s subbed in. Guess we’ve gotta assume Poch sees something.
The part that is odd is Luna seems to be exactly what Poch wants more of on the team - he’s a fighter for every possession
I agree. Presume he had to pick btw Aaronson and Luna for work rate and picked Aaronson.
Aaronson’s play during the 2nd half of the PL season boosted his chances of making the roster significantly.
I don’t see Luna being left off this roster as a huge deal since playing time was going to be very limited. He should be a strong contender for the 2030 roster.
USMNT World Cup full roster: Alejandro Zendejas is in, Tanner Tessmann misses out
Gio Reyna and Sebastian Berhalter are among the inclusions on Mauricio Pochettino’s full 26-man roster for this summer, while Diego Luna has missed out
www.theguardian.com
They are just guys. Great they made it to some of the near top clubs but to be a serious player you need the actual dudes on the very best
Guardian leaked the roster (a__holes!!!) - can't they just let US Soccer have their moment Tuesday? Shame on US Soccer for allowing a lead. Awful management. Maybe it's not true?
Bolded those that play in a top 5 league (as of this season): 15 of 26 is clearly the most we've ever had and the goal is to keep increasing that number!
Please Poch took 24 of 26 on my preferred roster in the the OP on Round Table! He added Zendejas and Scally over Luna and Tessman that I had. OverallI think he's got it right.
Goalkeepers: Chris Brady (Chicago Fire), Matt Freese (New York City), Matt Turner (New England Revolution)
Defenders: Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew), Sergino Dest (PSV), Alex Freeman (Villarreal), Mark McKenzie (Toulouse), Tim Ream (Charlotte FC), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Antonee Robinson (Fulham), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati), Joe Scally (Borussia Monchengladbach), Auston Trusty (Celtic)
Midfielders: Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United), Tyler Adams (AFC Bournemouth), Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver Whitecaps), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan), Gio Reyna (Borussia Monchengladbach), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders), Malik Tillman (Bayer Leverkusen), Tim Weah (Marseille), Alejandro Zendejas (Club America)
Forwards: Folarin Balogun (AS Monaco), Ricardo Pepi (PSV), Haji Wright (Coventry City)
My forecasted starting lineup from the Round Table OP is below. Feel pretty good it's mostly right except Roldan may be in for Tessman.
Bolded those that play in a top 5 league (as of this season): 15 of 26 is clearly the most we've ever had and the goal is to keep increasing that number!
Please Poch took 24 of 26 on my preferred roster in the the OP on Round Table! He added Zendejas and Scally over Luna and Tessman that I had. OverallI think he's got it right.
Goalkeepers: Chris Brady (Chicago Fire), Matt Freese (New York City), Matt Turner (New England Revolution)
Defenders: Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew), Sergino Dest (PSV), Alex Freeman (Villarreal), Mark McKenzie (Toulouse), Tim Ream (Charlotte FC), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Antonee Robinson (Fulham), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati), Joe Scally (Borussia Monchengladbach), Auston Trusty (Celtic)
Midfielders: Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United), Tyler Adams (AFC Bournemouth), Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver Whitecaps), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan), Gio Reyna (Borussia Monchengladbach), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders), Malik Tillman (Bayer Leverkusen), Tim Weah (Marseille), Alejandro Zendejas (Club America)
Forwards: Folarin Balogun (AS Monaco), Ricardo Pepi (PSV), Haji Wright (Coventry City)
My forecasted starting lineup from the Round Table OP is below. Feel pretty good it's mostly right except Roldan may be in for Tessman.
- Goalkeeper: Freese
- Backline: Richards, Ream, Freeman
- Wingbacks: Dest, A Robinson
- Defensive Midfielders: Adams, Tessman
- Attaching Midfielders: Pulisic, McKennie
- Striker: Bolugun
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Think it depends on how you define world class - Mbappe, Vini, Yamal, Haaland, Dembele, Bellingham, then no. But definitely guys in the tier below that. Problem is that top countries have far more elite players than they do roster spots.
Right. And that’s my point. We don’t have any truly elite players. Dudes on some good club teams, maybe a cup of coffee on some great ones? Sure. But that doesn’t cut it. Not if you want to truly be competitive.
I don’t think anyone thinks the USMNT can win this cup - realistically, there are 6-9 teams that can win it, and they’re usually the same 6-9 each cup.
But round of 16 should be the expectation and quarters should be the goal.
Proof will be in the pudding on the pitch. 4 yrs ago we clearly under performed and further did awful at Copa America leading to Berhalter finally getting the boot.
I wonder if we ditched him in 2022 and hired Poch 2 yrs earlier how much of a difference it would have made.
The reality is we clearly by a wide margin have the most talent we’ve ever had top-bottom in tbe prism but we continue to lack elite talent.
We have more legit pros, really good players, just nobody elite that can win a game by themselves.
And sadly we’ve largely regressed in goalkeeping.
Right. Which was my point all along. We have some guys, but we have no truly elite talent. We haven’t developed any, and to compound the problem, the guys we have now are soft af. They act like superstars but aren’t. At least. Some of the players and teams of the past had balls. American balls. Now they are Euro soft playing in those leagues
If you actually think that the top European leagues are SOFT, well, I guess I just don't know how to respond to that.
Just finished the Fox “Summer of 94” documentary that aired today. Highly recommend it. So many great memories.
Name specific players u think are soft and why.
Don’t mistake being outclassed in talent with being soft.
Did you see the last game? The softest goal I’ve ever seen was scored against them. The program used to at least have heart. I see little of that now.
Don't buy it, we have top 16 in the world talent in the US. What we don't have is a system that brings kids up in however we want to play as a national team, don't bring in coaches that coach to that system, and have some fools running things whose only goal is to stay in power or find that next role.
Nah. Like his attitude, but him being there or not isn't going to make a difference.
Don't watch MLS at all, but thought Luna was actually older than he is.
Fair. He’d be coming off the bench for sure, but if the starting 11 are flat or it’s a really physical match, he gives you some intensity and some fearlessness.
Is the one guy whose attitude is needed due to overall lack of team skill. Especially at the forward spots. We develop goalies, D, and adequate midfielders. We do t ever clinical goal scorers like other nations do. Think it stems from always being in systems and rarely playing outside of it. Creativity is so low.
Agree on all except we used to develop GK, and defenders . now our best homegrown players are almost all MFs /forwards - Adams, pulisic, McKennie, Weah, wright, Pepi, zendejas
The only home grown defender or GK that is one of our best players is Richards.
Dest, A Robinson, Tillman, Bologun are not homegrown so we can’t take credit!
But you are 100% right that the final 1/3rd alludes us
Until we develop more Dempseys with a nose for the goal, we will never get to the next level- we need 3-4 of guys like that pitch
Like this one Dempsey scored with his groin against Portugal in 2014 World Cup. Helped by the fact the Portugal defender was on the ground during the build up.
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we've had only a few US developed guys that just had the nose for the goal in a way that others didn't.
- Dempsey is by far #1. He wasn't that great on defense nor a great passer but once the ball was at his feet (or body as you called out) he was a threat to score at anytime and that was well worth his other shortcomings
- Donovan was pretty good at just scoring the goal not just creating chances
- Pulisic is right up there but hasn't also been used right by USMNT IMO
- McBride was pretty good as well but had little support around him
If I were the USMNT coach I'd tell each striker and forward, "if you don't make at least one shot attempt per half then I'm going to sub you out" - I mean I know that sounds nuts but at some point you have to SHOOT! we need to get more shots attempts and clearly more on goal. Easier said than done for sure but sometimes it can be so frustrating watch them move the ball around and never actually get close to the goal!
Good list. I would add Joe-Max Moore, 24 goals for US team. I watched Joe-Max play many games in MLS. He had uncanny ability to know where a ball pinballing in the box would be, get there, then tap into net.
fair. it's probably dempsey then donovan & pulisic then JMM & McBride...something like that IMO. but dempsey by far was the lethal weapon which we do not have right now coming out of US youth soccer.
Balogun is legit for sure but europe developed.
We used to have Roy Wegerle who was a legit scorer suit up but he wasn't US developed either
That’s the biggest issue. Even when we’ve had some guys with creativity, there werent creatives who could anticipate what they were going to do.
If it’s even possible, I think Messi’s passing often gets overlooked with his divine touch and goal scoring. It was fun seeing him with Jordi, Busquets and Suarez at inter Miami. These assists are insane - but probably get overlooked by his 2 goals.
Not sure overlooked is correct phraseology, he does have more assists than anyone else in history I believe between club and country. He just has twice as many goals.
Agreed - I struggled with the right word there - but I think you know what I meant. His vision and unselfishness is something to marvel at - he makes everyone on his team better.
Starting lineup prediction for game 1:
3-4-3 formation
GK: Freese
CB: McKenzie, Ream, Richards
WB: A Robinson, Dest
MF: Adams, McKennie
Forwards: Pulisic, Balogun, Weah
All play in a top 5 league except Freese (MLS) and Ream (MLS)
All US youth soccer developed except Robinson (England), Dest (Netherlands), and Balogun (England)
3-4-3 formation
GK: Freese
CB: McKenzie, Ream, Richards
WB: A Robinson, Dest
MF: Adams, McKennie
Forwards: Pulisic, Balogun, Weah
All play in a top 5 league except Freese (MLS) and Ream (MLS)
All US youth soccer developed except Robinson (England), Dest (Netherlands), and Balogun (England)
Cool. The US stands a chance if they get to use 13 players in a 3-2-2-2-3.
Actually happened to me once when I played travel soccer as a kid. Travelled to Long Island for a tournament and Patchogue-Medford used 13 starters. Player's dad noticed it, ref stopped game and counted the players, and sent two to the sidelines. Same team began second half with 12 players on field. I was the goalkeeper and they roughed me up. Lost all respect for Suffolk County people since that game.