2026 World Cup (very) early roster predictions

You gotta think with the bigger field and thus more games, it makes sense to keep the larger roster.

 

Is Paredes a winger now? I really like hit at LB.

 

I'm not going to try to put a roster out there right now, but it is really exciting that there are really so many reasonable names that I wouldn't be surprised at all to be playing at a top 5 league level (or comparable) in 3.5 years. Not to mention I would think there will be a couple guys I haven't heard of yet. Exciting to see who emerges (and who fades away honestly).

My one big prediction is that a Union homegrown will start at centerback for us. Think its gonna be Craig, but will phrase it like this so I can take credit with McKenzie or Trusty.

 

It's such a crap shoot. Reyna and Musah were academy players in 2018 and now look where they are. They hadn't yet moved to Germany and Spain respectively. I mean Musah was still in the Arsenal academy in 2018.

One thing I will wager though is Weah will not be our starting RW in 2026. And no I don't say that because Puli will be at RW. Weah will not be a starting attacker for us.

 

Yup. A pool changes an enormous amount in four years.
Its essentially a lost cause to predict these things.

................but fun nonetheless!

[In 2018, who had Jesus Ferreira starting a round of 16 WC game against Holland? He wasn't even a US citizen at the time.]

 

I believe Weah is more likely to be our starting striker than he is to not be in the starting lineup at all.

 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-wo...ad-way-too-early-look-ahead-of-2026-world-cup

Such a shite article.

 

So Berhalter gets to have 4 right backs, and I can't even have 3 left backs?

He can play both. I didn't want to concede either him or Tolkin. I might ideally have another CM. But I don't feel strongly about any of the deep-lying guys. I have Pomykal as a 6 convert.

 

23 not including dual nats

gk matt turner, 32, arsenal
gk gaga slonina, 22, chelsea
gk i dont care about third gks
rb sergino dest, 26, barcelona
rb joe scally, 23, monchengladbach
cb chris richards, 26, crystal palace
cb miles robinson, 29, atlanta fc
cb mark mckenzie, 27, frc genk
cb erik palmer-brown, 29, troyes
lb antonee robinson, 29, fulham
lb john tolkin, 23, nyrb
dm tyler adams, 27, leeds
dm yunus musah, 23, valencia
dm eryk williamson, 29, portland timbers
dm paxton pomykal, 26, fc dallas
dm leon flach, 25, philadelphia union
am christian pulisic, 28, chelsea
am weston mckennie, 28, juventus
am gio reyna, 24, dortmund
am brendan aaronson, 26, leeds
st tim weah, 26, lille
st daryl dike, 26, west brom
st ricardo pepi, 23, augsburg


add if 26 man roster

dm jack mcglynn, 23, philadelphia union
am taylor booth, 25, utrect
am malik tillman, 24, bayern


dual nats

lb jonathan gomez, 23, real sociedad (for tolkin)
dm amir richardson, 24, le havre (for mcglynn)


eta: i listed thier ages in 26 and parent clubs because i pulled this from another post

 

A) Why is is shite? I mean it's a bit conservative, but Shite?
B) If it's so Shite, why promote it?

 

That seems like the author knows that there are likely current 16 year olds that'll be 20 year old USMNTers four years from now......................and picked two at semi-random. There's nothing to suggest those particular two are likelier than many others.

He could have picked Cruz Medina/Aaron Heard instead and had just as much chance of being right.

 

That kid Pedro Soma (mentioned in this article) is one youth watchers talk about a lot that USMNT fans have never heard of. Brazilian-American who is the starting #6 right now for the U17s.

 

Hard to opine on this without knowing who the manager is. If it's Berhalter, you have to like the chances of defensive minded forwards and midfielders and offensive minded fullbacks. And you'd have to dismiss the chances of our deep young pool of talented CAMs. [See my other thread on this, which everyone agrees with because no one has posted on it ]

So ...

At FB it's a plus for Vines, Gomez, Bello, Cannon, and Moore. I would argue it's a negative for Scally and Tolkin.

At midfield it's a big negative for Reyna, Tillman, P. Aaronson, and Ledezma.

At striker it's a negative for Pefok, Dike, Vasquez, and Hoppe, and a plus for JF, Pepi, and Sarge.

 

Anybody including Alejandro Zendejas amongst the wingers? It definitely sounds like Berhalter and the guys have him lined up to come in for 2023. He started breaking out in Mexico for first Necaxa and later Club America in the fall of '21 as a 23 year old, and has scored 17 and assisted on 4 in the last 1.5 seasons in 3500 minutes or so. Could be a very interesting depth guy for wing forward for us. He played for our U15 and U17 teams during the Pulisic era, logging minutes at the '15 U17 world cup and scoring it looks like 6 goals in his time there before moving to Mexico.

Not quite sure what went sideways w/him with Mexico, especially as his career is starting to blossom, but it does seem like he was basically not recruited effectively, and was assumed to be a lock by their brass, the opposite approach of Berhalter.

 

Here are the profiles I wanted to have in a 23/26 man squad; I kept the names I thought most likely to stay and are in almost all projections. This would allow us to play either a 433 or 4231 and tweak things to arrive at the other formation if necessary tactically.

ST(2): 2 well rounded forwards
WG(4): Pulisic, B. Aaronson, 2 traditional wingers (preferably at least one leftie)
CM(4): Reyna, Musah, McKennie, 1 technical player who can slot in next to Adams in a 4231 like Roca
DM(2): Adams, 1 Adams type(if Adams gets injured don't want to have to change too much about the way we play)
FB(4): A. Robinson, Scally, Dest, 1 LB who has better technical ability than Antonee
CB(4): Richards, at least 1 other starter who has good recovery speed, wins headers, and can play out of the back, 2 backups who at least have the former 2 characteristics
GK(3): Turner, Horvath, 1 more goalkeeper

And if its 26 add 1 more tough energetic Musah/McKennie type, 1 target forward, and… 1 vibes guy? Maybe a CB in case we want to go 3/5 ATB (I’ll just stick a talented guy I like)

Filling it in, made one change from the template (I like Niko too much I ended up swapping him and Timo between the 23 and 26 man rosters and had to shift Gio). Bolded are the holdovers, in parenthesis are the players' birth years.

ST(2): Pepi(03), Sargent(00)
WG(4): Pulisic(98), Reyna(02), B. Aaronson(00), Paredes(03)
CM(4): Musah(02), McKennie(98), Tsakiris(05), Booth(01)
DM(2): Adams(99), Soma(06)
FB(4): Tolkin(02), A. Robinson(97), Scally(02), Dest(00)
CB(4): Richards(00), M. Robinson(97), Palmer-Brown(97), Trusty(99)
GK(3): Turner(95), Slonina(04), Horvath(95)

And if its 26 add Wright(98), Weah(00), and Cremaschi(05)
Just missed: Vazquez(98), Gutierrez(03), P. Aaronson(03), Ledezma(00), Tillman(01), A. Morris(01), Gomez(03), Carter-Vickers(97), Sands(00), McKenzie(99), Zimmerman(93)

- The 23 man roster has 12 holdovers from 2022 and 26 man roster has 14 which seems a little high(for comparison 2010 had 9 and 2014 had 8), but I'm having a hard time ditching more players, it was hard enough letting go of Weah from the 23 man roster.
- Any ~05 and younger in 2026 would need to be playing at Tyler Adams 2018/Brendan Aaronson 2020/Ricardo Pepi 2021 levels for at least 9 months in MLS; I don’t watch youth prospects enough to say anyone is on track to do so. Soma is already in Europe and Tsakiris has a European passport and playing significant minutes in MLS so they're decent shouts. I haven’t seen enough of any others (Fletcher, Medina, Kei, Carrizo, etc) to add them, Cremaschi barely makes it in the Musah/McKennie backup role since Pomykal's injury history scares me off, and I’m not sure if Alvarado has a high enough ceiling.
- Having a hard time with CBs, like Richards and Miles but after that...I dunno. Trusty feels like a flavor of the month kinda pick since its only been a half season so far at Birmingham, but I believe in his talent and EPB’s talent. Carter-Vickers plays it pretty safe with his passes and isn’t great in the air, McKenzie too(6’0”) and so far has been error prone for the full nats, Zimmerman is probably still going to be in MLS and ideally at least 4 CBs would have surpassed him in 4 years, and Sands doesn’t fit the bill but is versatile which could be valuable for spot #26. CCV seems a little under hyped, given EPL teams were rumored to be interested in him while on loan at Celtic.
- Soma might not have the engine Tyler has but the other options left me with him. I like Aidan Morris a lot whenever I see him play and he's a decent Adams facsimile but I’m just not sure about his ceiling(or Edelman's or Flach's ceilings), don’t like any of the other DMs enough either, I haven’t seen Johnny play since Bosnia but what I have seen isn’t great, sounds like he isn’t playing as a DM in his recent resurgence anyways.
- I first made this list when bored at work at the beginning of the year sometime and have slowly been changing it(swapping CBs, swapping one of the CM spots with Weah and dropping Reyna back to CM), but Booth has always been there, first because I thought he could be a more technical #6 like Berhalter wanted, now watching him at Utrecht that seems like a waste
- Paredes is the only major left footed winger I know of in the picture

Added the mammoth explanation so that 3.5 years from now when I see my prediction again I won’t go to myself: Why the hell did I go Auston Trusty, Pedro Soma, and Benjamin Cremaschi??

 

I like this approach. I bet Gomez>Tolkien by then. But I like this.

 

-----------------Sargent----------
--------Weah----Pulisic----Dest---
----------Adams------Musah----
--Jedi--------------------------Reynolds--
---------Trusty--------Richards---
------------------Turner----

Vazquez, Dike, Wright, Reyna, Aaronson, Mihailovic, Cowell, Booth, McKennie, Johnny, McKenzie, EPB, Gomez, Scally, Slonina, Horvath