USMNT World Cup Big Board 4.0: Pochettino's roster coming into focus
The holiday season has come and gone, but it wasn’t the right time for U.S. men’s national team manager Mauricio Pochettino to play Santa Claus and hand out presents to players. Practically speaking, Pochettino is still about 4½ months away from doling out the biggest gift of all — a spot on the U.S. World…
The holiday season has come and gone, but it wasn’t the right time for U.S. men’s national team manager Mauricio Pochettino to play Santa Claus and hand out presents to players. Practically speaking, Pochettino is still about 4½ months away from doling out the biggest gift of all — a spot on the U.S. World Cup roster. Given his penchant for making unexpected selections, there are still a few spots up for grabs.
At present, the advantage lies squarely with those performers playing overseas. A couple of notable names will be in UEFA Champions League action as the league phase reaches its climax over the next 10 days. Some MLS players haven’t played in a competitive fixture in almost three months, but training camps for its teams are about to begin, which means the pendulum on who is fit and ready will start to swing back.
The next goal on the horizon is the March international window. At that point, the MLS season will be just over a month old, but the game waits for no one, meaning now is an opportune time for players to build toward the next six months — and for ESPN to take stock of the player pool with the latest edition of the USMNT Big Board.
Goalkeepers (3)
Matt Freese | 27 years old | New York City FC
Freese’s last memory of the 2025 MLS season will be Inter Miami CF shipping five goals past him in the Eastern Conference final. But looking at his body of work last year, it was an impressive campaign for the NYCFC keeper and not much has changed for him in terms of the U.S. squad. Freese is still the presumptive starter going forward, having started the past 12 matches in goal. That doesn’t mean Pochettino and his staff won’t be looking at Freese’s performances intently, but barring a drop in form, the starting spot is his to lose.
Matt Turner | 31 | New England Revolution (on loan from Lyon)
Turner occupies an odd place in the pool of U.S. goalkeepers. He’s the only one with World Cup experience, and yet he was excluded from the November international window. It’s imperative that Turner get off to a good start with the Revolution this season. The fact that Turner is once again working with his own personal “goalie whisperer” — Revs keeper coach Kevin Hitchcock — should provide a boost, but the pressure is on him to return to top form.
Patrick Schulte | 24 | Columbus Crew
The good news for Schulte is that the vast majority of his competition — both above him and below him — is based in MLS, meaning he won’t have to look far to see how his rivals are doing. But the Columbus keeper is facing the prospect of playing for new club manager Henrik Rydström, which adds an additional wrinkle as he begins a new campaign.
Center backs (5)
Chris Richards | 25 | Crystal Palace
A collective sigh of relief could be heard among the U.S. fan base when it was revealed that Richards suffered a foot laceration a few weeks back and not anything long term. He’s back starting for Palace again, although the FA Cup defeat to Macclesfield was a day to forget for him and his club. His return is plenty welcome because for all of Pochettino’s statements about there being no guaranteed places on the roster, Richards is one of the few players who, health permitting, is a cinch to be there.
Tim Ream | 38 | Charlotte FC
It’s beyond remarkable that Ream is still firmly in the mix at age 38, but there you go. Has he lost a step? Perhaps, but his steady play, experience and leadership continue to make him a key part of Pochettino’s plans. Could someone push him out of the starting lineup? It’s possible, but no one has come close to doing that.
Mark McKenzie | 26 | Toulouse
McKenzie’s season with Toulouse continues to motor along as he has logged 1,538 minutes, third most on the team, although a foot injury saw him sit out last weekend’s 5-1 win against Nice. That kind of consistency is why McKenzie remains in Pochettino’s plans. His solid performance against Uruguay helped as well. McKenzie might not be a starter on this U.S. squad, but he remains a sturdy option.
Miles Robinson | 28 | FC Cincinnati
Even in the age of 26-player rosters, versatility is a plus and that’s true of Robinson, who has played minutes at right back in the hybrid system employed by Pochettino. That has kept Robinson in Pochettino’s thoughts and in the reckoning for the final roster. An impressive start with Cincinnati in the early stages of the MLS season would help Robinson solidify his spot.
Noahkai Banks | 19 | FC Augsburg
If not for an upcoming suspension for yellow-card accumulation, Banks’ run in Augsburg’s starting lineup would have shown no signs of slowing down, as he made his 14th straight appearance against SC Freiburg over the weekend. His 6-foot-4 frame allows him to be dominant in the air, winning 59.2% of his aerial challenges, and he’s completing 90.2% of his passes, a rate that climbs to 90.4% in the attacking third.
The only concern at this stage is that he has yet to feature in a game for the Americans. Will that lack of experience count against him?
Fullbacks (4)
Sergiño Dest | 25 | PSV Eindhoven
Dest’s role going forward will be one of the big questions heading into the March window and beyond. He played more as a winger during the November window, but that was also a period in which some of the more prominent attacking options — such as Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie — were absent. If everyone is healthy, a spot in the back seems more likely for Dest, but only time will reveal more of Pochettino’s thinking on this.
Antonee Robinson | 28 | Fulham
Robinson’s return to the Fulham lineup has been the most welcome development since the last international window in November. His ninth appearance in little more than a month — with him playing 90 minutes in seven of those — appears to show that he’s back to full fitness. Robinson’s ability to not only defend but contribute to the attack via his ability to deliver crosses from wide positions, will provide the U.S. with another attacking option.
Alex Freeman | 21 | Orlando City SC
Freeman’s ascendency in 2025 was among the biggest surprises for the U.S., capped off by his two-goal performance against Uruguay. Now, he’s basically in a competition with Joe Scally to see who the backup outside back is, although that’s dependent in part on Dest’s role. Regardless, Freeman will be intent on maintaining his momentum.
Max Arfsten | 24 | Columbus Crew
Robinson’s return means Arfsten is relegated to a backup role, which is perfectly fine given his overall improvement on defense and his continued effectiveness going forward. Will new Crew manager Rydström use Arfsten differently than Wilfried Nancy did? It’s possible, but Pochettino has been consistent in how he has deployed Arfsten, so the impact of a new Columbus manager figures to be minimal.
Central midfielders (5)
Tyler Adams | 26 | AFC Bournemouth
Adams’ recovery from an MCL injury to his left knee is ongoing, but given a likely return in March, he still seems a lock to make the roster. There was talk of a potential big move to Manchester United, making the injury even more untimely than it is otherwise, but his value to Bournemouth remains high, so he should slide back into the Cherries’ lineup upon his return and satisfy Pochettino’s desire for his players to be getting consistent minutes.
Weston McKennie | 27 | Juventus
McKennie is another player whose role with the U.S. is still unknown, a situation similar to what he’s encountering with Juventus right now. For the U.S., McKennie seems likely to occupy either one of the holding midfield spots or one of the two No. 10 positions. The latter seems to better suit his instincts, but the opponent and the availability of teammates will influence where he lands.
Cristian Roldan | 30 | Seattle Sounders
With no competitive games in the past two months, the challenge for Roldan is to reestablish the momentum he created toward the end of 2025. Given the competition in the center of midfield, this will be no easy task, but Roldan has established a body of work that has yielded considerable equity with Pochettino.
Aidan Morris | 24 | Middlesbrough
Morris continues to punch the clock with Middlesbrough, which currently occupies one of the guaranteed promotion places in the English Championship. His 4.91 recoveries per game rank third on the squad, even as he missed a half-dozen games because of a leg injury. The aim now will be to leverage his consistent club form into a more prominent role with the U.S. team.
Tanner Tessmann | 24 | Lyon
A crisis along the backline for Lyon has meant that Tessmann has spent some minutes playing as a central defender of late, where he has performed admirably. But the center of midfield is where he belongs for the U.S., and he remains the favorite to partner with Adams when the Bournemouth player recovers.
Attackers (6)
Christian Pulisic | 27 | AC Milan
Pulisic continues to put in a stellar season for Milan, where his 0.84 goals per game tops Serie A for those players with more than 200 minutes played, although he has cooled off of late. The impulse to put him in bubble wrap until March is strong, but so is the desire to see him continue to excel for the Rossoneri, who are second in league play after 21 games.
Timothy Weah | 25 | Marseille
Weah is another player whose ultimate spot on the field is to be determined. He could be deployed as a wing back or move play as one of the attacking midfielders. With Dest logging time at wing back recently, the logjam at that position looks set to increase. Weah’s steady minutes with Marseille mean he’s a solid pick to make the final squad. He popped up for his third goal of the season in all competitions last weekend against Angers.
Malik Tillman | 23 | Bayer Leverkusen
As the Bundesliga emerged from its brief winter break, Tillman remains a big part of Leverkusen’s plans, but both player and team have hit something of a rut of late, with Tillman not making a goal contribution since November and Leverkusen losing twice a row since resuming the season. As for the U.S., Tillman needs to pick his game up a notch or two if he’s to get minutes when the full team convenes in March.
Alejandro Zendejas | 27 | América
The bump from a stellar September window has given way to some nagging injuries, and he was held out of América’s Clausura opening matches. This has left Zendejas a tad vulnerable in terms of a roster spot, but he retains his place for now. It helps that he has played a variety of attacking and midfield roles in his career, but given Pochettino’s emphasis on recent form, Zendejas will need to regain the level that saw him oozing confidence last September.
Brenden Aaronson | Midfielder | 25 | Leeds United
No player has raised their stock more in the past six weeks than Aaronson. In that time, he has recorded three goals and two assists. From a psychological perspective, he has gone from being derided by the Leeds faithful to being cheered. In terms of his World Cup prospects, his ability to play multiple positions will serve him well, even as he’s not as technical as Zendejas or Diego Luna.
Gio Reyna | 23 | Borussia Mönchengladbach
For a while, Reyna was slowly ticking the boxes in terms of solidifying his spot on the U.S. roster. He needed to get healthy. He needed to perform in front of Pochettino. Then he needed to start playing consistently for Borussia Mönchengladbach. All of that had been accomplished, but now a bit of backsliding has taken place. Reyna has played only 26 minutes in three games since the winter break. One possible reason is a lack of end product for his club. He has yet to record a goal or an assist for Gladbach. That will have to change for his roster spot to become more secure.
Forwards (3)
Folarin Balogun | 24 | AS Monaco
Balogun’s grip on the starting spot for the U.S. remains firm. He hasn’t been completely tearing it up for Monaco, but he has been steady enough with his goal contributions — 10 in 22 games in all competitions — to keep getting consistent playing time. He has been plenty effective in a U.S. shirt as well, scoring three goals in the last three international windows of 2025.
Ricardo Pepi | 23 | PSV Eindhoven
Pepi is still in a good position to make the U.S. squad, but it would help if his injury luck changed. Last Saturday, he sustained a fluke injury when he broke his forearm as he fell to the ground after scoring for PSV. He had surgery Sunday and will sit out two months. That should leave him plenty of time to recover for the World Cup, but this latest ailment — plus his injury history overall — raises questions about his durability. That might not be an issue in a short tournament like the World Cup, but it’s something Pochettino and his staff will monitor.
Haji Wright | 27 | Coventry City
The goals have run dry for Wright, but he finally managed to end his drought with a late winner in last weekend’s match against Leicester City. That rough stretch has left him vulnerable to being overtaken by the likes of Patrick Agyemang, but Wright keeps his place for now.
On the bubble
Roman Celentano | Goalkeeper | 25 | FC Cincinnati
Celentano remains in the mix for a roster spot, but at this stage, he’s largely dependent on the form of others — or the lack thereof — to shoehorn his way onto the roster. Cincinnati looks to have a very competitive team this season, so Celentano should get plenty of support on that front.
Zack Steffen | Goalkeeper | 30 | Colorado Rapids
The lack of a January camp this year was brought up in the last Big Board, but it bears repeating. The lack of such a camp does Steffen no favors in terms of rising up the goalkeeper depth chart. He’ll have to hope that his experiences during the last World Cup cycle, when at one point he was the No. 1, pay off and see him turn in some eye-opening performances.
Auston Trusty | Center back | 27 | Celtic
When Cameron Carter-Vickers went down because of an Achilles injury, Trusty stepped into the Celtic starting lineup, but it didn’t coincide with a happy time at Celtic Park, with the club struggling mightily. Much of the blame has been put on now-former manager Nancy, but Trusty didn’t acquit himself well during this period either. Back-to-back clean sheets are steps in the right direction.
Tristan Blackmon | Center back | 29 | Vancouver Whitecaps
At this stage, Blackmon looks to be in a battle in which his experience will be weighed against Banks’ promise. It’s a tough situation for Blackmon to be in given he won’t play a league match for another month and a half. The feather in his cap is that he has performed well for Pochettino while Banks has yet to make his debut for the U.S. team. As is the case for so many MLS players, Blackmon will need to get up to speed quickly. His contract situation with Vancouver is something to keep an eye on.
Cameron Carter-Vickers | Center back | 28 | Celtic
Carter-Vickers’ odds of another World Cup are astronomical at this stage, as he has been ruled out for the season because of an Achilles injury. He’ll push himself to the maximum in a bid to return, but it’s just too big of a mountain to climb.
Joe Scally | Fullback | 23 | Borussia Mönchengladbach
Scally is the big loser in terms of Antonee Robinson’s return. The challenge facing Scally at this point is that while he’s versatile in terms of position and formation — he can play as a center back, wing back or outside back — he isn’t better than any of his competitors at any of those positions. Injuries are always part of the equation, so he should remain on standby.
John Tolkin | Fullback | 23 | Holstein Kiel
Tolkin remains a longshot, and Antonee Robinson’s return means the odds have only gotten longer. That said, Tolkin had some good moments against Uruguay, and stood up to La Celeste‘s physical play. He should keep his phone close by.
Caleb Wiley | Fullback | 21 | Chelsea
Wiley has been plagued by a back injury for much of this season, and with his return getting pushed further into the future, the decision was made to terminate Wiley’s loan to Watford, and he has returned to Chelsea. It’s time for him to get healthy and then retrench with another loan, but any possibility of a World Cup spot is out of reach.
Johnny Cardoso | Midfielder | 24 | Atlético Madrid
Cardoso has been steadily building up his fitness, and has started Atléti’s past two games (two wins). He has been down this road before, but the hope is that he doesn’t endure anymore setbacks and can begin to make some inroads. That said, there are a lot of players to climb over for a roster spot.
Yunus Musah | Midfielder | 23 | Atalanta (on loan from AC Milan)
Following a barren November, Musah has had his playing time steadily climb in the past month, and even started last weekend’s match against Pisa. He still seems a long way away from being a consistent starter, which looks to be the bar that Musah will have to get over if he’s to get more of a look at the international level.
Luca de la Torre | Midfielder | 27 | San Diego FC
As it turns out, De la Torre’s San Diego homecoming didn’t turn out the way he had hoped, and now he’s been sent east to Charlotte FC. Credit him for getting out of a suboptimal situation, but now it’s up to him to make the most of it. The list of players sitting above him in the midfield depth chart has grown long.
Sebastian Berhalter | Midfielder | 24 | Vancouver Whitecaps
Berhalter’s growth in the past year has been impressive. His set-piece delivery remains arguably the best in the pool, and it still might not be enough to get him to the World Cup. A March call-up is possible given Adams’ injury, but if everyone is healthy — and granted, that’s a big “if” — the numbers don’t add up. It might come down to which player Pochettino rates higher: Roldan or Berhalter.
Diego Luna | Midfielder | 22 | Real Salt Lake
Luna hasn’t done anything wrong, per se. If anything, he improved his stock during the November window. It’s just that Aaronson has raised his game to such a degree that he has supplanted Luna in this hypothetical roster. It’s not over for Luna by any means, but the gauntlet has been thrown down — if it wasn’t already — that he needs to raise his game even more.
Patrick Agyemang | Forward | 25 | Derby County
Give Agyemang credit. He bet on himself by moving to Derby County last summer and it has paid off to the tune of seven goals and three assists in 1,694 minutes, despite an early groin injury that required surgery. His steady form might yet see him bypass Wright, and Agyemang has the added advantage of having a distinct body type that makes him better able to score by brute force. Spending time out on the wing also has added variety to his game.
Josh Sargent | Forward | 25 | Norwich City
After bottoming out in October and November, Sargent enjoyed an uptick in form getting a pair of goals in the past month to bring his league tally to seven on the season. But now it looks as if he wants out of Norwich, declining to play in the Canaries’ FA Cup game in mid-January because of a transfer bid from Toronto FC. Regardless of if he moves — and there are indications Norwich won’t necessarily approve the switch — it’s still tough to see him breaking into the roster.
Damion Downs | Forward | 21 | Hamburg SV (on loan from Southampton)
Downs’ spell in Southampton wasn’t working out — only one assist on the season and no appearances since November — so it’s back to Germany he goes, where he latched on with Hamburg on loan, long one of the Bundesliga’s sleeping giants. It’s a country he knows well, having scored 11 goals for FC Cologne in the 2. Bundesliga last season. Those tailwinds probably won’t be enough to make the World Cup squad, but the move is a logical step. He played 12 substitute minutes last weekend.
