Pre-match: 2026 World Cup Roster

Well…we are really getting close to something aren’t we, finally.

…our guesses won’t matter in a few days.

 

My guess for the "surprise" is Zendejas over Reyna. Gozo and Banks (assuming he is willing) have great potential but are not ready to make a difference, and Poch has not worked with them.

 

The "call it what you want" guys are suggesting it's Kochen. But I can't tell if they actually have heard something or are just inferring this from Tenorio's article.

 

The................................roll the dice on a teen that has never played a first team game gamble only really works for a 3rd keeper. Cuz the number of times a World Cup team has been forced to use a 3rd keeper due to injuries to the first two is extremely low.

If the goalkeeper coach and Pochettino think Kochen is THAT MUCH of a prospect that they believe we need to include him..................then so be it. I have no idea.

 

You make a strong point here. With the reserves, there are basically two questions:
1) What if there's an injury?
2) In what situations would I sub this guy in?

In the first scenario, I'm not sure the coach would actually play Arfsten over sliding a guy who is a less perfect fit, but a generally more accomplished footballer. We probably won't even play with a LWB unless it's Jedi doing it. And as to the second, you're probably not subbing him in to chase a goal (because there are other names/positions you'd look to first) and definitely not to hold a lead.

With Gozo, at least you have a good answer to the second question.

 

With Arfsten, I do wonder how much Jedi and Dest being back could effect his spot. I wonder if with Jedi, Dest, Freeman, Weah, Scally and even Gozo as options if Arfsten's defensive liabilities could cost him late.

Think he's on the roster but just a thought that has gone through my mind

 

2 conflicting thoughts on this:

1. Assuming Poch is gone after the WC, he isn't going to care about bringing Kochen for the experience

2. With the rules (new this year I believe) allowing replacement GKs due to injury throughout the entire tournament, you could conceivably bring Kochen and then if Turner or Freese gets hurt during the tournament call in Brady or Schulte or whoever. But that's risky and also not sure it's the best for team cohesion.

And I'm on the record as biased because I think Brady has a better shot at being our starter in 2030 than Kochen anyway. If I'm Brady, lighting it up in MLS, and I get left out of the squad for someone like Schulte or Celetano I can live with that, but if they call in an academy kid with 0 senior pro appearances who isn't even that much younger than me, I'm calling the Scottish FA that night.

 

Arfsten is one of the 2 main potential victims of Gozo's emergence IMO (Reyna is the other).

With regards to being a left sided player, I'm not too worried about it...Dest and (if he's on the team) Scally can both play LB, Dest/Weah/McKennie can all play LWB.

 

Or on the other side, Zack Steffen.

 

he just spent a year and a half doing exactly that.

 

Who are you leaving off?

He had a very good quarterfinals against Pumas, but before that a very mid Clausura and disappeared in CCC. He's not really been on fire unless we are really just looking at the last two games.

 

Arfsten is one of the most capped players in the Poch era. He's been on the roster for EVERY GAME, and didn't appear in only 2. He's played in 18 of our last 20 matches.

Arfsten, Ream, and Luna are the most capped and those are the players folks are trying to leave off.

All three are IN. Those aren't the types of players that international coaches are going to leave off. There's a reason those three played so many games. They are CORE, even if they're core due to intangibles (in the case of Luna) or leadership (in the case of Ream) or due to injuries (in the case of Arfsten).

 

I don't disagree... BUT how many straight games was Brad Evans starting at RB for Jurgen?

On another note, Doug has confirmed that Gozo at the very least made the 55 man preliminary roster

 

Brad Evans played in 5 of the 20 games prior to WC14.

Max Arfsten is a lock. 18 of 20 prior to squad selection.

If Gozo makes it, which I'm very skeptical of, it would be at the expense of one of the guys on the back end. My last three "in" are Reyna, Scally, and Berhalter.

Could Poch decide he doesn't need the more defensive right back Scally and go for the more offensive wingback in Gozo? Maybe.

Scally hasn't been a core piece under Poch.

 

A key piece of all of this is the US medical team's assessment of Richards. The less confident they are in his health, the more likely it is that we bring 5 CBs (presumably both Robinson and Trusty instead of one or the other, assuming Banks doesn't have a change of heart) at the expense of a player somewhere else on the roster

 

Physical tools and passing ability, everything else can be taught. I think he projects well long term as a CB if Lyon or some other club invests the minutes in developing him there, I didn't say I trust him there in a WC right now.

 

Latest intel

Per multiple sources, Zavier Gozo is on the #USMNT’s extended, pre-World Cup squad of up to 55 players. Will the 19-year-old make the final 26? Here’s what I’m hearing on the eve of Mauricio Pochettino’s roster cull. @FOXSoccer: https://t.co/aFmsMVDsUT

— Doug McIntyre (@ByDougMcIntyre) May 22, 2026

 

You said in the earlier post that the only guys who had a meaningful role going forward were Agoos & Stewart.

I was just oointing out that wasn't entirely true, hence the McBride mention.

Got it now?

 

Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but didn't HeyDude also make his debut in 1998?

 

Indeed, it seems like he's still a lock for the World Cup roster unless he reinjures himself, and will be "able" to play, but will he be 100%? Maybe not for the first game or two. And what's the likelihood of reinjury?

As someone stated earlier, it feels risky to roll into the World Cup with Richards with a questionable ankle, and Tim Ream, and only two backups.

 

For the surprise inclusion from Doyle, we know it cannot be Banks, Gozo, Morris, ir Reyna, they were on Doyle's 26.

Nor can it be the guys he listed on the just missed list: Schulte, Celentano, McKenzie, Robinson, Blackmon, Scally, Tolkin, Mehmeti, Cardoso, Musah, Zendejas, Aaronson, McGlynn, Agyemang, and Hall.

So, I'd guess:

1) Strange 3rd keeper choice
2) Tim Tillman
3) Zimmerman
4) Busio
5) Zawadzki

The guys who are most often included that I would leave off are: Tessman & Reyna.

Next would be: Trusty, M. Robinson, or Luna.

 

I wonder if Banks is on the 55.

 

Yeah, that would make sense, because an actual surprise like say Pepi being left off for Hall is just a bridge too far to be believable. I don't think any of us have ever had any real sense of who his third GK will be. Our predictions in that department have always felt like something in between Kremlinology and a ouija board.

So, Kochen? Both Jimmy Conrad and Charlie Davies and Marcelo Balboa picked him on their most recent roster for some reason rather out of the blue, so that's where my money would go were I a betting man.

 

There's a conspicuous absence of people owning that Steffen's run of good form in '25 was just that, a brief run of good form. A lot of calls back then to make him a part of the competition, and now he's right back to where he was '19-'24, just even worse, by orders of magnitude. Not looking to pile on, but sometimes we just have bad takes, lord knows I've had an enormous share, recall I was a HUGE Soto fan back in '19-'20. Whoops.

 

Could be Kochen.

Could be anybody.........................

Schwake or whomever I guess.

It is telling that so many USMNT-associated people are projecting a totally outside the box 3rd keeper.

Goalkeeper caps during the Poch era are essentially two guys.

1) Matt Freese – 14 caps, 1,260 minutes
2) Matt Turner – 8 caps, 720 minutes
3)= Patrick Schulte – one cap, 90 minutes
3)= Zack Steffen – one cap, 90 minutes

So basically we know Freese and Turner.....................and 3rd keeper has been wide open.

For all we know, establishing Kochen into the USMNT could have longer term upside potential than solidifying Gozo or Hall or Banks or whomever. If the US staff thinks he has the potential to be a future high-level #1. That's a real gap in the pool