Predicting the U.S. Men’s Team World Cup Roster After September Matches

U.S. men’s team manager Mauricio Pochettino learned plenty about his team during two games earlier this month (a 2-0 loss to South Korea and a 2-0 win over Japan). He even experimented with a three-man defensive line, a potentially intriguing wrinkle moving forward.  

There’s also still an awful long way to go, but the 2026 FIFA World Cup is looming large. There are only six friendly matches remaining before the real deal kicks off on June 11:

* – according to sources

Some of the individual position battles are likely to continue right up until May, when Pochettino has to name his final 26-player roster for next summer’s 48-team soccer extravaganza. Others are coming into ever clearer focus. 

Using Pochettino’s normal 4-3-3 setup, here’s how I think the team would shape up as of right now. 

More lessons will be learned next month, when some of the European-based regulars who were left out last time are expected to return as the program’s domestic-based contingent turns their attention to the 2025 MLS Cup playoffs.

Starter: Matt Turner 
Backups: Matt Freese, Zack Steffen
Just missed out: Chris Brady, Diego Kochen, Patrick Schulte, Gabriel “Gaga” Slonina

Despite being the backup since the summer, Matt Turner still has eyes on starting his second straight World Cup. (Photo by Shaun Clark/Getty Images)

Freese is coming off his most assured international performance yet; he commanded his area and positioned himself superbly, making six saves in the clean sheet win over Japan. The 27-year-old Harvard grad — who uncapped as recently as June before beating out Turner for Gold Cup duty — so he should make his ninth consecutive USMNT appearance when the Americans host Ecuador in Austin, Texas, next month.

But the vastly more experienced Turner, who will have spent two months as the New England Revolution’s No. 1 by the time Pochettino names his October roster, still projects to beat out Freese for the starter’s role between now and next May.

Starters: Sergiño Dest, Chris Richards, Tim Ream, Antonee “Jedi” Robinson
Backups: Max Arfsten, Tristan Blackmon, Alex Freeman, Mark McKenzie, Joe Scally
Just missed out: Cameron Carter-Vickers, Miles Robinson, John Tolkin, Auston Trusty, Walker Zimmerman

Tristan Blackmon is becoming an option at center back. (Photo by Kirk Irwin/USSF/Getty Images)

Besides the formation switch to three-man backline, perhaps the most interesting development during the September window was the introduction of Blackmon.

Pochettino started the Vancouver Whitecaps defender in both matches, and while 27-year-old struggled mightily against Son Heung-min and South Korea, he barely put a foot wrong in the second match playing alongside projected World Cup starters Ream and Richards in the three-man backline. 

Given the lack of better options, expect Blackmon to be back with the squad — and maybe even in the lineup — after he recovers from the knee injury that will rule him out in October.

Meantime, Joe Scally’s ability to play as a third centerback or in either fullback spot, combined with a standout season in the Bundesliga with Borussia Mochengladbach, should be enough to get him back on Pochettino’s bench.

Holding midfielders

Starters: Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie
Backups: Yunus Musah, Tanner Tessmann 
Just missed out: Sebastian Berhalter, Johnny Cardoso, Gianluca Busio, Luca de la Torre, Aidan Morris, Cristian Roldan

Expect Weston McKennie to be back in the lineup for the USMNT after a summer absence. (Photo by Robin Alam/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

Adams is a no-brainer. And although McKennie was controversially left off the September roster, and despite the fact that he’s started just two of Juventus’ five matches across Serie A and the Champions League this season, expect the dogged Texan to be in the American lineup for the World Cup opener.

Musah has lots of work to do to reclaim the starting spot he earned as a 19-year-old in 2022. He missed the Gold Cup for personal reasons and then was loaned from AC Milan to Italian rivals Atalanta, for whom Musah logged just a garbage time cameo for the final three minutes of a 3-0 rout of Torino last weekend.

It’s probably a coin flip between Tessmann and Morris to be Adams’ backup — the pair are off to good starts with Lyon and Middlesbrough, respectively — but Pochettino preferred Tessmann for most of his first year at the helm.

The big news here is the omission of Cardoso, who recently lost his lineup place at Atlético Madrid, then suffered an ankle injury that has kept him out of the Spanish titan’s last two games.

Attacking midfielder

Starter: Malik Tillman
Backups: Diego Luna, Jack McGlynn
Just missed out: Gio Reyna

Is Gio Reyna on the outside looking in? (Photo by Robin Alam/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

Reyna and Tillman went head-to-head over the weekend, with Tillman starting and scoring Bayer Leverkusen’s goal in the 1-1 draw with Reyna’s Borussia Mönchengladbach while receiving Player of the Match honors.

Reyna came on for the final 10 minutes, although he wasn’t involved in ‘Gladbach’s late equalizer. He’ll need to play much, much more in the months ahead to supplant Luna or McGlynn — both of them are staples throughout 2025 — and survive the Argentine’s final cut.

“I’m in open contact with [Pochettino],” Reyna said last week. “If I play well here, I will definitely find my way back to the national team.”

Wingers

Starters: Tim Weah, Christian Pulisic
Backups: Haji Wright, Alex Zendejas 
Just missed out: Brenden Aaronson, Paxten Aaronson

Christian Pulisic has been in strong form for AC Milan, which bodes well for the USMNT. (Photo by Koji Watanabe/Getty Images)

The drama of skipping the Gold Cup behind him, Pulisic started both September contests and is once again fully entrenched as the country’s most irreplaceable talent. He’s also been brilliant for AC Milan to start the season, which is great news for all parties involved.

Weah’s place in the starting XI is almost as secure as Pulisic’s; last week the fellow 2022 World Cup scorer became the first American to bag a Champions League goal at Real Madrid’s iconic Estadio Santiago Bernabéu.

There’s movement behind the locks. After going almost a year between callups, Zendejas returned to the USMNT and showed that he’s emerged as one of the top performers in Liga MX, scoring a spectacular winner against Japan.

“With this type of performance, he’s now in the race for the roster of the World Cup,” Pochettino said of Club América star afterward.

And while Pochettino barely used Brenden Aaronson during the Gold Cup, he has now started consecutive Premier League games for Leeds United, going the distance in a 3-1 win away to Wolves last weekend. It’s something to keep an eye on. His brother, Paxten Aaronson, is now back in MLS with the Colorado Rapids. 

Striker

Starter: Folarin Balogun
Backups: Ricardo Pepi, Josh Sargent
Just missed out: Patrick Agyemang, Damion Downs, Brian White

Folarin Balogun has the inside track, for the moment, to be the main man up top. (Photo by John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)

Balogun was the best U.S. player at an otherwise dreadful Copa América in 2024. He did that again in September, his first international games since that tournament. The 24-year-old added some desperately needed urgency as a substitute against South Korea, then scored a clinical goal against Japan. He’s playing at club level, too, having started in four of Monaco’s last five outings.

Pepi is still working himself back to full match fitness after knee surgery. He went 90 minutes on Sunday for the first time this season in PSV’s 2-2 tie with Ajax, and is a shoo-in for inclusion in Pochettino’s October squad.

Sargent’s scoreless streak extended to 17 games in September, and he didn’t appear in the second game at all. Still, for a team that throughout its history has been starved for World Cup goals, he’s got some time left to make his case.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports who has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.

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