Remember when the Old Heads said "if you dont want to go, just decline the call up"?

We should send some men’s league team so all pros can get a proper rest.

 

poch is just showing up on gamedays and collecting paychecks. would you go out of your way to bust your ass for him?

 

Do we know how many players actually asked to not come? Aren't Musah and Pulisic the lone ones?

 

I'm glad he/they are being honest about their indifference.

 

I think many of them are realizing that the USMNT is never gonna be a world beater, so why bother? Also, why risk having your career ended by Central American teams that play Rugby Union against the USMNT instead of soccer? Pulisic in particular must get really really tired of being bodyslammed, punched, kicked, and physically abused by these teams when no fouls are called.

 

Yes, but this post was also someone who insists that any player not called up for performance reasons for a single window is "blackballed" so basically take anything and make it drama to get made about.

 

Jedi I think.

 

I’m not understanding the necessity of the fans to need to have our strongest side in an odd year gold cup. Is it the pundits? Oh they haven’t gelled under pochetino yet? Is the narrative, they need this camp to do that. It’s the culture.

Money dictates national team soccer now and players are asked to do to much. First, you have nations league which means you play the same teams you have been playing already in that mini mid season tournament. then you play them again in the gold cup in the summer but not just once like other confederations, but twice.

These players have played a late World Cup, then a gold cup, copa america, and all the time playing the biannual nations league. We’ve never put a sense of urgency on them and historically have looked at this gold cup as insignificant and usually call up weaker squads than this one. Let them rest.

 

It's the last competitive matches before the World Cup and the only time before the World Cup camp that Pochettino will have these guys for a camp that is more than a few days.

It's a pretty big lost gelling / coaching opportunity.

 

Our last gold cup squad leading up to World Cup

Brad Guzan (Atlanta United; 64/0), Sean Johnson (New York City FC; 9/0), Matt Turner (New England Revolution; 1/0)

DEFENDERS (8): George Bello (Atlanta United; 1/0), Reggie Cannon (Boavista/POR; 18/1), Shaq Moore (Tenerife/ESP; 5/0), Donovan Pines (D.C. United; 0/0), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United; 3/1), James Sands (New York City FC; 0/0), Sam Vines (Colorado Rapids; 3/0), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC; 14/2)

Kellyn Acosta (Colorado Rapids; 31/2), Gianluca Busio (Sporting Kansas City; 0/0), Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy; 24/7), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders; 20/0), Eryk Williamson (Portland Timbers; 0/0), Jackson Yueill (San Jose Earthquakes; 12/0)

Paul Arriola (D.C. United; 35/8), Daryl Dike (Orlando City; 3/1), Nicholas Gioacchini (Caen/FRA; 3/2), Matthew Hoppe (Schalke/GER; 0/0), Jonathan Lewis (Colorado Rapids; 7/2), Gyasi Zardes (Columbus Crew; 56/12)

Just saying.

It’s a no nothing unneeded cup put on by a cash grabbing confederation limiting the US’s ability to dictate their own schedule. Same with nations league. You can call it competitive all you want but competition is few and far between

 

We had the entirety of World Cup Qualifying after that Gold Cup and before the World Cup, and Berhalter had been in place far longer than Pochettino has.

You asked a question; I answered it.

 

FIFA's approved Concacaf calendar basically forces players to decline the occasional tournament, regardless of how invested they are. Here are the "protected" Concacaf-relevant tournaments, from 2013 until 2027, outside the usual international windows:

2013 - Gold Cup
2014 - World Cup
2015 - Gold Cup
2016 - Copa America (special edition)
2017 - Gold Cup / Confederations Cup (Mexico)
2018 - World Cup
2019 - Gold Cup
2020 - Free
2021 - Gold Cup
2022 - World Cup
2023 - Gold Cup
2024 - Copa America (special edition)
2025 - Gold Cup
2026 - World Cup
2027 - Gold Cup
2028 - ???

In 15 years there is exactly 1 free calendar year. One.

It's mad. Simply mad.

 

Do you believe that this particular gold cup is importing for the aspects of developmental growth for what is considered the A team? To instill pochetinos style of play on the all the Nats? Or just a confidence builder to win games under pochetino?

I believe that this gold cup is the last opportunity for the fringe players to make their mark before the real development begins. That friendlies from here on out will be mostly 15-17 for sure roster players and 5-7 rotation or fringe. The world cup camp itself with three friendlies the six or 7 internationals they will play over the 24-25 season with a slew of many camps.

like I said this off year gold cup is a money grab. The US is always playing a b-c squad and at least this year we see some of the potential world cup squad players are on the roster.

 

Given that Pochettino has talked about how its been difficult to get across his tactical ideas in short windows, yes, I think this was a good opportunity to see some real progress on that.

I'm not really mad at Pulisic for choosing rest; I just think that having this many guys out across the board is a lost opportunity. Between injuries and the such, it just didn't happen.

I do think at least we're going to trial some guys, and hopefully we find some guys to fill some gaps.

 

I wonder why so many good "club" coaches think that they can coach national teams the same way they do at their clubs? Club coaching does not equal national team coaching and the two really have little similarity.
To be effective with a national team a coach must find his/her best 15-20 players and figure a "system" that both fits what they already do well and is very quick and easy to implement. But most coaches coming from a club system try to slightly modify their favorite system(s) and only make small modifications and they find that, except for a few teams like Spain that can often play a "club" type system, they fail regardless of the system.
To be effective at the national team level you find the best 15-20 players you can and then devise a SIMPLE system that maximizes the skills of the players.

We have not, yet, had a coach since Bora Milutinovic that seemed to operate like that and under Bora was the last time I felt that the USMNT played better than its parts.
That seems to be happening again as our current coach seems to want the players to play his system. He has changed which one of his systems he tries to implement but not once have I heard him say that he designed a system to fit the players he has.

I have little hope for success at this point and we now have proof that the USSF is insane as they keep repeating the same behavior (Hiring a club coach for the national team) and somehow expecting a different result.

We are a middle of the pack federation with, on average, middle of the pack players and we try to play a club system that is different from what the players play, mostly and we want top performance from that combo.
Well, it don't work that way.

I will be happy if we don't get grouped at either the Gold or World cups.

I do not know what the solution is other than expecting less and hoping for more and being content with the result.

Even at home a semifinal at the Gold Cup and a Quarter Final at the World Cup is about the best we can hope for at this time with these players and with the current club coach we have running things. And, just like his predecessors, that "running" is "into the ground."

 

To be fair to the federation, who are these really good "National" team only coaches they should have hired from? England just hired Tuchel and Brazil hired Ancelotti, both of whom are "club" coaches.

 

Herve Renard. And the relatively complex tactical ideas of the club game are not as suitable for the international game.

 

This Gold Cup is not like the others.

The USMNT did not have to go through qualifying for this World Cup.

This is literally the only meaningful competition after the Nations League, which the players totally bombed, before the World Cup.

 

Pulisic could (and should) have accepted the call-in and made himself available for limited game minutes and limited training.

If you have a niggling injury (which I noticed as he returned to form for Milan months ago and commented on here), then you have a legitimate excuse for that approach. It’s a serious test for your team in preparation for the World Cup. You are the top guy and everyone knows it. If you bow out, other guys aren’t going to take it seriously. That’s what leadership is about. The younger players are going to see that and think that this isn’t a serious tournament, as we saw with Musah and possibly Reyna (if he was going to be called in at all). Others are going to show up and use that as an excuse to take it easy and lose games.

Pulisic will not be there in the team for what is the largest period of group preparation that the USMNT will have prior to the World Cup. He will not be there so that the coach can work other players in around him in training and game situations. Not good at all. In fact, should the US falter, this will likely have been a major contributing reason.

I used to play in tournaments as a guest player (and had guest players on my teams). It was always difficult to learn the other guys and to have them learn how to play with you in a short period of time. Ultimately, it made a small difference because of this. This tournament is creating a scenario by which we will have players together going into 2026 who are not necessarily that familiar with one another.

In the NFL, successful QB’s and WR’s will get together in the offseason and work on their interplay. Guys like Manning are legends for this kind of detailed preparation. Our USMNT guys are playing golf together (which Pochettino has publicly derided). They are not working on their interplay. They are not putting in the work for excellence, they are taking time off. That prevents Pochettino from being able to do some of the things he would like to do.

 

Strikers: With Pepi hurt seems you have 3 of the top 4 available strikers in the pool plus a promising young dual nat who is a good season away from crashing The World Cup squad next year. I think it's crazy to leave Sarge off, but it seems Poch called what he feels the best available strikers are.

Mids: You have your captain and 2 midfielders who had among the best seasons for American's Abroad, plus a kid who was arguable the highlight of your previous window.

CBs: I really have no idea who the 2 best CB's are, but it seems like all the contenders are here.

Fullbacks: Dest is back after a year and Arfsten has as good of an argument as anyone for the backup LB spot if Brown doesn't commit. Also I think Freeman has a better chance of sneaking on to the team next year than most do.

Goalkeepers: All the contenders are here minus Schulte and only cause he's hurt.


If The World Cup is tomorrow in this roster I see our starting striker, 1 maybe 2 starting midfielders, 3/4s of our backline, and our starting keeper. This is not a January Camp roster or even our 2023 Gold Cup Roster. This is a pretty significant part of our pool getting reps together plus a good chance for depth pieces to get a real chance. This is not a pointless exercise

I'm worried about our winger situation, but otherwise I'm genuinely excited for this tournament and the 2 friendlies

 

I could see Dest taking a big step up in being the leader of the team. Possible plus of the absences.

 

I think just having him there will make a huge difference as we’ve really missed him in his absence.

 

Sort of disappointing these guys would be playing golf leading up to the world cup. Admittedly, that's partly my personal bias against that pastime/sport/leisure activity. You'd think with the World Cup coming up, they'd have a single-minded focus on preparation. On the flip side, maybe it's their way to relax, refresh and socialize with the other players?

Can you point me to the links where Pochettino has derided their choice to golf?

Thinking ahead, I can see a scenario in the future where Pochettino is interviewed a few years after the 2026 World Cup. And during that interview he intimates that the USA players simply didn't have the hunger and drive for success at the top level. That the soccer culture didn't match the passion of the Argentine players. It wouldn't be overtly insulting, but suggestive of the differences between sporting cultures and significance of "wearing the shirt" between the countries.

And honestly, part of me would quietly nod and recognize he'd be speaking the truth.

Let's see if this "golden generation" gets it together for 2026. If not, that moniker will forever be more of a stigma than anything for them later in the life.

 

The Pochettino quote was from around the time when they announced the roster.

The sad part about the whole thing is that every single other generation of American players were every bit as passionate.