Pochettino's Gamble: What the USMNT World Cup Roster Tells Us About His Vision
- Jason Longshore
- 9 minutes ago
- 8 min read
Before Mauricio Pochettino even steps to a podium in New York City on Tuesday to make it official, his 26-man World Cup roster has already been leaked, authenticated, and dissected from every angle. The Guardian broke the full list on Saturday, with The Athletic independently confirming it hours later. And while there are no earth-shattering surprises across most of the squad, the decisions at the margins reveal a coach with a very specific tactical vision for how the United States can make noise on home soil this summer. Some of those decisions are exciting. One of them is genuinely puzzling. All of them point to a team built around a system rather than individual brilliance, with two wide players at the heart of the team's potential success.
Robinson and Dest: The Engine That Has to Drive Everything
The single clearest tactical signal in this roster is the presence of five players who can operate as fullbacks or wingbacks. Antonee Robinson and Sergiño Dest are the starters, and the sheer number of options behind them tells you how central they are to how Pochettino wants to play.
The three center back system the USMNT has used is not just a defensive decision. It is a liberation plan for Robinson on the left and Dest on the right. In a back four, both players carry more defensive responsibility that limits how aggressively they can get forward. In a back three with a disciplined double pivot ahead of them, they become something closer to wide midfielders with defensive licenses, free to bomb into attacking positions and create numerical advantages in the wide channels.
Robinson is already one of the most dangerous fullbacks in the Premier League when given that freedom. His ability to drive past defenders, whip in crosses, and arrive late into the box makes him a genuine weapon. Dest, when healthy and confident, offers something slightly different on the right: more dribbling creativity in tight spaces, the ability to cut inside and combine, and the pace to get behind a defensive line and score goals himself.
The key to making this work is the double pivot's ability to compress and cover when Robinson and Dest get caught upfield in transition. When both wingbacks push forward simultaneously, as they will need to do to create the overloads Pochettino wants, the two central midfielders have to be disciplined enough to hold their shape, protect the space behind them, and prevent opponents from exploiting the wide channels that open up on the counter. That is a significant positional and physical demand, and it is one of the reasons the midfield construction of this roster matters so much to everything else functioning properly.
There is another piece of this puzzle worth watching closely. Alex Freeman's inclusion gives Pochettino the possibility of playing as a third center back on the right side of the back three. It could be the detail that makes the whole system click, particularly for Dest. Freeman can be a hybrid player, comfortable stepping into a back four when the situation demands it, which gives Pochettino a built-in mechanism to shift shape when facing a dangerous transition moment. That structural flexibility could be the thing that truly liberates Dest to go for it without reservation. Of everyone on this roster, Dest has the highest ceiling as a game-breaking force in one-on-one situations and in the spaces behind a retreating defensive line. If Freeman's presence on the right of the back three gives Dest the security to attack without looking over his shoulder, that could prove to be one of the most important tactical relationships on the entire team.
The vision is clear and it is genuinely exciting when you imagine both Robinson and Dest in full flight simultaneously in a home World Cup atmosphere. The execution, particularly the defensive shape without the ball, is where the questions remain.
The Midfield Puzzle: Why McKennie Next to Adams Is the Answer
The omission of Tanner Tessmann alongside the pre-tournament loss of Johnny Cardoso to ankle surgery has left Pochettino with a central midfield group that is thinner than anyone anticipated heading into this tournament. Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Cristian Roldan, and Sebastian Berhalter are the four options. What that group tells you, when you look at piecing together the entire starting group, is that McKennie is likely going to be asked to play deeper than he has in recent matches with the USMNT.
Adams as the anchor is not in question. He is one of the first names on the lineup card, the defensive spine of the midfield, the player who wins the ball back, and keeps the shape when things break down. The question was always who sits alongside him, and without Tessmann or Cardoso, the answer has effectively been made by process of elimination.
McKennie is the logical fit for several reasons. He has the athleticism and physical presence to cover ground in a double pivot alongside Adams. He has played in deeper midfield roles at Juventus over the years, so Pochettino is not asking him to do something completely foreign to his game. And critically, putting McKennie there unlocks the attacking positions above him, where Pulisic and company can operate with genuine freedom. It also creates an interesting possibility when McKennie is able to get into dangerous positions with late runs into the attacking third.
Roldan and Berhalter serve different but important functions within that framework. Roldan is not going to change a game dramatically in the offensive half, and nobody should expect him to. What he brings is something less glamorous and arguably more valuable in a tournament setting: composure, positional discipline, and the kind of veteran steadiness that keeps a squad grounded when moments get tense. At 30 years old with significant international experience, his presence in the locker room and on the training ground should not be underestimated. Berhalter is a different case entirely. He is relatively untested at this level, and the jump from MLS Cup finalist to World Cup squad is a significant one. But he could become the critical option if Pochettino decides at any point during the tournament that he needs McKennie higher up the field and wants a genuine central midfielder sitting alongside Adams rather than asking a more attacking player to do a defensive job. In that scenario, Berhalter becomes more than just depth. He becomes the tactical key that unlocks a different version of this team.
The genuine concern is what this midfield base looks like against teams that dominate possession and pin the U.S. back for sustained periods. Adams and McKennie can function effectively when the U.S. has the ball and can dictate the tempo, but when they are forced into a reactive shape, tracking runners, closing passing lanes, and protecting the back three simultaneously, the lack of a true defensive specialist in the mold of Tessmann or Cardoso becomes much more visible.
Against Paraguay in the opener, the U.S. should have enough of the ball to keep that problem mostly theoretical. Australia will likely concede possession as well, but the Socceroos bring something different: physical intensity, direct running, and a willingness to make things uncomfortable in tight spaces. Adams and McKennie could find themselves worked harder than the scoreline might eventually suggest in that Seattle game. Türkiye is the most concerning group stage test for this pairing. The Turks are organized, technically confident, and comfortable controlling games through midfield. If they can pin the U.S. back and isolate Adams and McKennie against a disciplined positional attack, the gaps in behind the pivot and in front of the back three are exactly where the damage could be done. How that match unfolds in the final group game could tell you a great deal about how far this team can genuinely go.
Missing Diego Luna: The Roster Decision That Does Not Add Up
There is one decision on this roster that is genuinely hard to defend on current evidence, and it is the choice to bring Gio Reyna while leaving Diego Luna at home.
Luna played in 17 of the 18 USMNT games in 2025. He has made 18 appearances under Pochettino, contributing four goals and four assists. He returned from a muscle injury in April and scored four goals in seven MLS appearances to prove his fitness. He is 22 years old, fits multiple positions in the attack, and has been one of the most consistent contributors to this program over the past 18 months. He was so embedded in the pre-tournament identity of this team that Nike and Fox built marketing campaigns around him. Commercials are now going to need editing.
Reyna, by comparison, played 509 minutes of club football this entire season at Borussia Mönchengladbach, scored once, and has made only four USMNT appearances since the Copa América in the summer of 2024. He has not played a full 90 minutes in a club league game in four years. He was nearly sent home from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar for a perceived lack of effort in training, an episode that led to a federation investigation and threatened to derail his career entirely.
The argument for Reyna rests on ceiling and versatility. Pochettino has publicly called him a "very special talent" and has indicated that current form is not the defining factor in his selections. Reyna can play across the attacking positions, offers something technically unique in the player pool in terms of dribbling and creativity in tight spaces, and at his best is genuinely one of the most gifted players the USMNT has produced.
But at this specific moment, Luna is the more trustworthy option. He has proven he can handle the physical and mental demands of regular international football. He has delivered when asked. Reyna has a history of injury and inconsistency that makes him a significant risk in a tournament format where you cannot afford passengers in a 26-man squad.
Pochettino has made his call, and it is clearly a bet on upside over reliability. If Reyna finds the tournament stage and produces something extraordinary, it will look inspired. If he struggles to handle the intensity on limited club minutes or picks up an injury, this will be the decision that defines how this World Cup is remembered in the United States for all the wrong reasons.
What Comes Next
Pochettino will make everything official on Tuesday afternoon at a free public event at Pier 17 along the East River in Manhattan, airing live on FOX at 3 p.m. ET. The announcement was planned weeks ago as a national celebration, described by U.S. Soccer as a moment to turn a roster reveal into a shared national moment with player appearances, surprise guests, and live entertainment. The Guardian and The Athletic have somewhat complicated that plan by revealing the full list 72 hours early, but the occasion will still carry genuine energy.
From there, the squad flies to Atlanta and sets up camp at U.S. Soccer's new national training center in Fayetteville. Two send-off friendlies will serve as the final auditions before the tournament begins: Senegal in Charlotte on May 31, and Germany in Chicago on June 6. Those two matches will answer at least some of the open questions around the goalkeeper competition, the starting center back pairing, potential stucture and formation, and how the attacking four takes shape around Pulisic.
The World Cup itself opens with Group D action on June 12 against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles. The group continues June 19 against Australia at Lumen Field in Seattle before wrapping back at SoFi against Türkiye on June 25. On paper it is a group the U.S. should navigate, but tournament football has a way of making paper irrelevant quickly.
Pochettino has made bold choices. Now he has to prove they were the right ones.