Pre-match: 2026 World Cup Roster

We’ve played the crap out of our FBs in the past and I hope we can offer alternatives to them having to be out there for every second of the match. Which is why to me Scally will make the squad as a potential rotation player. Weah and Freeman will be good options to have depending on what look the US wants to give. Attacking WB over defending WB. The US could use one of those speedsters up top and solidify that RCB with a player with a little more mobility and ability to play the touch line. Which is Scally. Note: Dest if healthy will start at LB and maybe as a LWB.

Leeds flirted with having two RBs on the pitch at the same time in a back five. It has its moments. Like unaccounted for streaking players in moments.

I wish we had that option on the Left because Arfsten is a weaker version of Weah with zero ability to defend. Robinson needs a backup though and the only other option is Trusty in that role. He played at Celtic there for a little bit when Tierney was injured. Arfsten is not a LB option he’s a LWB option but so is Robinson

 

Well this doesn’t sound great

Oliver Glasner says that defender Chris Richards has "torn two ligaments in his ankle."

Glasner says it's "50/50" if he can play in the UEFA Conference League final, but it also sounds like by that description, his World Cup is in jeopardy...#USMNT fans, hold your breath...

— Kyle Bonn (@the_bonnfire) May 21, 2026

 

Also notably

👀 we’ve got a real World Cup roster surprise coming according to @MattDoyle76 Thursday roundup

— Sanjay Sujanthakumar (@tha_Real_Kumar) May 21, 2026

He said in his newsletter it’s someone he didn’t even list as “just missing the cut.” Maybe Kochen as 3rd keeper?

His just missing the cut list includes: Schulte, Celentano, McKenzie, Robinson, Blackmon, Scally, Tolkin, Mehmeti, Cardoso, Musah, Zendejas, Aaronson, McGlynn, Agyemang, and Hall.

 

And so can McKennie.

 

Tim Tillman?

 

Two torn ligaments in his ankle makes him 50/50 for the match? That makes a whole lot of sense

 

I can't see his 26.

Banks & Reyna & Morris on it? Gozo?

Tillman is a good guess.

Zimmerman?

 

A very minor tear. What people call sprains are usually minor tears.

 

Figuring out the USMNT roster is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

 

You good bud? Its basically every active thread, every day? Is this some overly complex reverse jinx attempt?

 

Banks, Morris, Reyna, and Gozo on it.

With Zimmerman he wasn’t on his just missed list but I don’t think he’d be a massive surprise? With Banks questionable and Robinson dip in form wouldn’t at all be surprising if he went before Trusty (who Celtic observers seem to not rate at all).

Brian White was another one I thought would be a surprise and wasn’t listed.

 

I think in one way it matters more in this WC and in one way it matters less.

1. It matters more in the sense that if you are in one of the Groups that's assigned to the humid hellscapes that are going to afflict about 75% if the squads, then it's a problem. There are about 3 groups that generally play out west where the weather should be fine, the other 9 groups play at least some and usually all of their games in the Humid Northeast, South, or Mexico (and there's Kansas City)....While there are domes in some of these places like Atlanta, and Dallas for instance, most of these sites aren't domed, and so if you are playing in the Northeast in a heat wave, in Miami, get hit by the mega heat that can afflict Kansas City in Summer or in Mexico, than yeah, this could be quite rough. We escape from it for the Group stage, and by and large most of the teams sent to the most brutal potential weather environments are from Conmebol and CAF (the AFC, Concacrap and most of UEFA (about 3/4's) largely avoid these issues.

2. The way its not impacted at all is the fact that unlike most World Cups, which featured 4-5 days off between games, Qatar featured just 3, and this time, we get 7+, so unlike '22, where rest was largely non-existent vs typical World Cup standards, this time players will have plenty of time off for recovery.

 

Well Weah and McKenzie are in New York at least

USMNT players Tim Weah and Mark McKenzie at the press conference of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, announcing that 1,000 $50 FIFA World Cup tickets for local residents. pic.twitter.com/hBSwL734M6

— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) May 21, 2026

 

What the heck is that?

It went from an ankle roll to multiple ligaments torn, to, oh, he can roll out a couple of days later, no problem? Completely baffling takes here....maybe because I totally lack medical knowledge beyond having had torn ligaments, but no idea how many, when I was young.....

Way too confusing.

 

Shots fired from the old guard

This was me in 2013, doing everything I could to make it to the 2014 World Cup.

Once a week, for more than a season, I’d get my knee drained.

Many are questioning the choices of Marcel Ruiz and Johnny Cardoso. Two different decisions with different outcomes. pic.twitter.com/9Z1FMKQIUA

— herculez gomez (@herculezg) May 20, 2026

 

Medically, torn ligaments in the ankle is what laypeople call a sprained ankle.

So, this is not really new information.

The important thing is the extent of the sprain/tear...

 

If it's a field player then it would have to be Gozo or Banks. I would think Banks is in the area of need.

 

All sprained ligaments are tears, all strained/pulled muscles are tears.

One is a medical diagnosis and definition, the others are lay speak.

 

I agree with you on this. I mean we were all there in the beginning of last cycle. That said, I do think that Landon and Tim's sentiment on the matter have at least a little merit: USSF's strong desire to do a full factory reset on the pool after Couva might have thrown the baby out with the bathwater just a bit, in terms of leaving the young talented player pool without any significant veteran leadership. They clearly feel that some of our fragility and less-than-the-sum malaise has been a mindset issue owing to a lack of leadership and internal team accountability.

But on the other hand, Tim Howard was no longer good enough. Bradley was no longer good enough to take a space away from guys like Adams and McKennie and Musah and Reyna. Jozy was still the "right" age, but he was hurt a lot and wasn't always good when he wasn't hurt at that point.

But Sargent and Zardes weren't going to provide the leadership and internal team accountability of Jozy or Bradley or Tim Howard or Clint Dempsey. Internally, this team has always been talented hyped kids leading talented hyped kids, in a way. They were almost always their own leaders.

Tactically, Landon and Tim as pundits could be stronger. But their insight on mindset is often quite, well, insightful.

 

Yeah though both those players are in his projected roster. Allegedly its a player he didn’t mention in his article.

 

Who did he fail to mention that is conceivable?

 

This is why I thought maybe Kochen as a third keeper. Not inconceivable but would be a surprise.

Guys like Zimmerman and White weren’t mentioned either. Cavan Sullivan also not mentioned I guess but I don’t think it will be someone like that.

In the comments he says not Jackson Ragen or Daniel Munie in response to a question.

 

I like what Sarachan did after Couva, it basically kept faith and support alive for a national team bereft of hope that winter and spring, hell they even briefly considered having a Friendly WC involving strong names that also hadn't qualified (like Italy) and in the end, even though that didn't materialize, they did manage to book friendlies against France, Italy and England for '18 alongside Conmebol sides Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil, and Ireland as well. People wanted to see the kids play and that was not the time for those guys to have a send off match and get booed and jeered instead of applauded (which is probably why the Fed didn't do that match in 2018, plus to be fair, Bradley and Jozy were still considered viable USMNTers, just not Howard).

I think the problem was that the fed probably should have done the send off in the Cupcake game against Costa Rica in Feb of 2020. That would have made sense, the anger and rage over Couva had had more than 2 years to abate to some degree or another, and I think fans wouldn't have ---- on them at that point, the problem is, if they had any plans for a send off match, the fact that the Covid Shut Down hit the following month and closed the March, June/July, and Fall '20 windows meant there simply wasn't any schedule room left for send off matches during the cycle. We only had 2 years left before the WC to play with we weren't going to turn a game that really mattered into a send off.

I feel bad because those guys were HUGELY Important, and it probably wouldn't be the worst idea to have some sort of celebration of their efforts at some point as they were a big deal (Confederations Cup '09, WC '10, WC '14, Copa America '16), but part of it they have to understand was basically bad luck with an international pandemic wiping out virtually an entire year preceding the next World Cup. If that hadn't happened, I think there's a good chance they would have gotten the send off players like Donovan got.

 

Somebody else mentioned him up thread but my guess is Timmy Tillman. Played well in November.

 

Isn't that what I said? Just making the point again is nice, though.