If Atleti buy Johnny when the window opens, does that mean he's with Atleti at the CWC? Atleti may see that as key in the deal since they could then control his fitness.
GOALKEEPERS (4): Matt Freese (New York City FC; 0/0), Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew; 3/0), Zack Steffen (Colorado Rapids; 30/0), Matt Turner (Crystal Palace/ENG; 51/0) DEFENDERS (8): Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew; 3/0), Sergiño Dest (PSV Eindhoven/NED; 33/2), Alex Freeman (Orlando City; 0/0), DeJuan Jones (San Jose Earthquakes; 10/0), Mark McKenzie (Toulouse/FRA; 19/0), Tim Ream (Charlotte FC; 68/1), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace/ENG; 24/1), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati; 32/3), MIDFIELDERS (10): Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United/ENG; 47/8); Tyler Adams (Bournemouth/ENG; 44/2), Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver Whitecaps/CAN; 0/0), Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis/ESP; 18/0), Luca de la Torre (San Diego FC; 24/1), Diego Luna (Real Salt Lake; 4/0), Jack McGlynn (Houston Dynamo; 4/1), Quinn Sullivan (Philadelphia Union; 0/0); Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven/NED; 17/0), Sean Zawadzki (Columbus Crew; 1/0) FORWARDS (5): Patrick Agyemang (Charlotte FC; 4/3), Folarin Balogun (Monaco/FRA; 17/5); Damion Downs (FC Köln/GER; 0/0), Brian White (Vancouver Whitecaps/CAN; 4/1), Haji Wright (Coventry City/ENG; 15/4)
Midfielder at the moment. I don't think it means all that much either way, but they might have changed it.
While guys avoided this GC...with this roster we should be able to get the Finals...just hope Poch doesn't fall into the trap of running Adams into the ground. He really should start the toughest group game and be a sub until knockouts. Wright and Balogun should be enough for the GC. Wide play will suffer but besides Weah and Puli it was never anything to great anyway.
So the GC roster has to be drawn from this? It's 1 extra player. 5 fw's and 4 gk's doesn't make much sense. Disgusting if neither Tolkin nor Guti are there. We keep dragging our feet on their integration. This may have been their last chance. Fartsen isn't as good as JT. McGlynn's worse than Guti. We don't need White nor Agyemang there, let alone both. Are covered by Balogun, Wright, Downs. Yuck.
This roster just screams a different style of play from Poch. Is Gutierrez just not on his radar anymore? I thought he was fine at Camp Cupcake.
No doubt, while not similar in terms of what was particularly afflicting us, it has a lot of the same feel of '15-'16, with just this brief stretch of early '23, where they looked great through June, and it's been all horse ---- after that, and a lot of self-satisfied hypocritical bull---- from most of the leadership core of the team (or supposed leadership core). Monumentally disappointing.
It's hard to know how to evaluate the roster, given that quite a few guys were clearly left off for fitness reasons, and we don't know the full story behind all the decisions. That said, my gripes/questions: 1) What are we doing for wingers? I guess we have Wright and then guys like Luna, Aaronson, Tillman, etc., could play out there, but those latter guys aren't going to provide much traditional winger width. 2) Why de la Torre? He's pretty definitively shown that he's ok in CONCACAF against non-Mexico/Canada opponents but not at any higher level. I would have rather seen P. Aaronson, Tessmann, or Gutierrez. 3) What's the deal with Zawadzki? I thought I remember him being a CB at a January camp and not looking particularly good. Is he playing as a 6 now for Columbus? Does he look good there? 4) Why 4 pure forwards? I would have left off Agyemang or White and brought another guy to provide more cover elsewhere.
With or without the humiliation of the group stage last summer, they were locked in to crash out one game later. Zero chance in hell they were beating a Columbia team that eviscerated them two weeks earlier in a game that actually counted. I get your point though. Otoh, the miserable failure of a summer that included a trio of absolutely horrific results did last 1 long month from May 28th (start of camp) to July 1st. So, not much of a summer off. I'd been predicting that we'd send a B/experimental prospects team to the Gold Cup as well, but had assumed after the disastrous Nations League, that the A siders not committed to the CWC horse ---- would likely come in for it, or at least the friendlies. Sounds like they're skipping everything, which leaves us what exactly? 2 Septemeber Friendlies 2 October Friendlies March '26 friendlies May '26 Friendlies June Camp No competitive anything. Ouch. Not great. I do like that the players that actually clearly do give a damn, get a chance for a leg up. Like Berhalter before him, Poch seems willing to keep an open door for B/Youth prospects that show well in friendlies/Cupcake, which, I'd normally view as stupid, but after the pathetic performances Fall '23, Spring '24, Summer '24, Fall '24, Spring '25, I'm fine with. Nobodies job should be safe, with only a few exceptions here and there.
It was a difficult situation at the time, we all were praying that his talent would trump the habit of these guys treating these gigs as holidays. Alas it seems quite clear he has viewed it as a holiday. All the horrible projections of possibilities: lazy on dual nats, over-reliance on "Veteranness" and "known players from Europe," are pronounced, very little evidence of the positives of his performances as a club coach in Europe. So far it's been a disaster, just like Berhalter 2.0 was. How quaint my worries that Marsch would be inflexible seem now in retrospect.
But then our glorious DL Coach arrived and there was the glorious month of June, before the roof completely caved in. There was that blissful period of honestly March 2023-June 2023. Everything else was accidentally ingesting a raw chicken Burrito in Tijuana while guzzling countless plastic cups of water from the kitchen faucet.
Mauricio Pochettino’s first comment is an apology for being 10+ minutes late to his press conference. #USMNT— Larry Henry Jr (@lhenry019) May 22, 2025 Mauricio Pochettino’s first comment is an apology for being 10+ minutes late to his press conference. Pochettino on many players missing: “Every single circumstance we need to consider. We have one year until the World Cup. It is exciting to see different players, young players, see players that might debut for the national team. It is the quality of the time together.” #USMNT— Larry Henry Jr (@lhenry019) May 22, 2025 Pochettino on many players missing: “Every single circumstance we need to consider. We have one year until the World Cup. It is exciting to see different players, young players, see players that might debut for the national team. It is the quality of the time together.” #USMNT Mauricio Pochettino on Christian Pulisic: “We all had conversations with each other. It will be rest for him.”#USMNT— Larry Henry Jr (@lhenry019) May 22, 2025 Mauricio Pochettino on Christian Pulisic: “We all had conversations with each other. It will be rest for him.”#USMNT Pochettino on many players missing: “Every single circumstance we need to consider. We have one year until the World Cup. It is exciting to see different players, young players, see players that might debut for the national team. It is the quality of the time together.” #USMNT— Larry Henry Jr (@lhenry019) May 22, 2025 Pochettino on many players missing: “Every single circumstance we need to consider. We have one year until the World Cup. It is exciting to see different players, young players, see players that might debut for the national team. It is the quality of the time together.” #USMNT
Pochettino on modern National Team demands: “Every player wants to compete for their national team, but the demands are so high. It is important how we assess the players and we consider who we call in.” #USMNT— Larry Henry Jr (@lhenry019) May 22, 2025 Pochettino on modern National Team demands: “Every player wants to compete for their national team, but the demands are so high. It is important how we assess the players and we consider who we call in.” Pochettino on Josh Sargent/Yunus Musah exclusions: “Sargent is a football decision. We need to choose a different striker. Musah communicated to us due to personal problems. He was originally on the roster.” (this tweet was deleted) Mauricio Pochettino on Josh Sargent/Yunus Musah exclusions: “Sargent is a football decision. We wanted to choose a different striker.Musah communicated to us that he would withdraw due to personal problems. He was originally on the roster.”#USMNT— Larry Henry Jr (@lhenry019) May 22, 2025 Mauricio Pochettino on Josh Sargent/Yunus Musah exclusions: “Sargent is a football decision. We wanted to choose a different striker. Musah communicated to us that he would withdraw due to personal problems. He was originally on the roster.” Pochettino on offensive roster changes: “We looked at March, all of the names, we didn’t perform. That was unnecessary but we cannot change that now. We have a new opportunity for players to perform. We want them to be brave.” #USMNT— Larry Henry Jr (@lhenry019) May 22, 2025 Pochettino on offensive roster changes: “We looked at March, all of the names, we didn’t perform. That was unnecessary but we cannot change that now. We have a new opportunity for players to perform. We want them to be brave.” #USMNT
This is what threw me for a loop in the midfield thread on the US Men board. Pochettino will move guys around, but it's a weird combo for me: 4 CBs does not scream three man backline, especially with no Scally. I will note that Zawadski has played a decent chunk of CB for Columbus. We have five! strikers, with only one who has played winger. We have Luna, Tillman, Brenden and Sullivan in the midfield group who can all play there (so five total) but are probably more natural in other positions. Formation-wise, that screams more of a 442 than anything. Which, aside from the roster, seems very unlikely. But the roster does seem like we could see an "empty" bucket that gets filled real fast as Poch loves going through the middle. A 3421 or a 352 doesn't seem impossible except you'd think we'd have one more CB. Maybe Zawadski is that. Or perhaps a "433" where: Johnny / Adams slides back between the CBs to form a back three Dest and someone play WB (even Sullivan at points) Wright (nominal winger) and a Balogun are up top, running behind the defense The other winger slides back more as a 10 (Luna) The other two MFs play more as an 8 and 8/10 -- maybe Berhalter and Tillman or McGlynn and Johnny? Dunno. Overall, we should probably play very defensively (either aggressively or bunker and counter) and try to win 1-0 with this roster. That said, I actually think this striker group is the best we've had in a while.
Both de la Torre and Zadwadski play two way shuttler / ball progressor roles for two good possession teams in MLS, so I wonder how much of this is looking for that skill.
Not sure I'm really seeing that in this roster. Yes, there's Ream ... but lotta non-Europe names, lotta young guys, lotta guys who are breaking out this year.
width, left and right further up. Lone forward basically whoever choice du jour is. Yup, I would assume that.
The Sargent "we want to choose a different striker" one is surprising as hell. Does that mean he is doneso this cycle? That would be really the first eyebrow raising "black list" pick under Poch regime if that holds true.