Pre-match: US v Turkey, June 7 2025 (Friendly)

Yow or Zendejas would be better options at least they play.

 

Quite literally... no offense. But I would be unhappy w/ nearly half of this roster.

1. Players that don't deserve a call up given their form for club and/or country:

Turner, CCV, Ream, Scally (might be worst of all) and Wright. Gio may get some special consideration based on his historical success with the USMNT but the dude has hardly played the entire year. I still think Musah has done enough for the USMNT in the past and his positional flexibility helps.

Freese > Turner
Zimmerman/Robinson/Trusty > CCV
Neal, Banks, Cobb, or Cupps for Ream [elder statesman steps down in favor of young CBs w/ upside.]
Jones or Freeman > Scally
Pax Aaronson > Gio

It could be argued that all of the strikers are debatable but I am sure Poch will want Balogun there. Agyemang has had a decent start to his USMNT from a scoring sheet perspective so I could see him at camp. Then we really should reward White for his red-hot start to the MLS season coupled w/ the fact that Sargent hasn't done jack-squat for the USMNT in ages.

2. Robinson MUST rest this summer.... I think he may actually need surgery. It is remarkable that he has had such a great season while never being at 100% physically. Even if he doesn't go under the knife... this guy really needs some time off.

We can immediately replace him w/ Dest who can play FB on both sides. I actually think he is better at LB.

3. Winger is super thin in your roster.... but some of that is not your fault. Weah at CWC aside.... We just don't have a lot of dangerous wingers.... But Quinn Sullivan fills that roll and I get the sense he would play the game like Luna did when he got his shot.

So... as of right now the 23 I would like to see are:

G: Freese, Steffen, Schulte.

CB: Richards, McKenzie, Zimmerman/Robinson, Neal

FB: Dest, Tolkin, Wiley/Jones, Freeman

CM: Adams, Cardoso, Tessmann, Musah

8/10: Pax Aaronson, Luna, Malik Tillman.

F: Balogun, Agyemang, White, Sullivan, CP

And again... I would run out a 3-5-2 w/ CP and Balogun as the strikers that get behind and White and Agyemang doing the hold up... although the latter gets behind Ds pretty well too.

-------------- CP - Agyemang
----------- Luna - Aaronson
----------- Dest - Adams - Freeman
McKenzie - Zimmerman - Richards
------------ Freese

 

You are fooling yourself if you think the following.
1. Scally doesn't get a call barring injury.
2. Sullivan gets a call anytime before the next World Cup.
3. You believe Trusty is better than CCV.
4. Agyemang and White both get a call at the same time. See Sargent and Downs.


I am going to revise this on 1 and 4 because you are talking about the friendlies. For the Gold Cup what I stated will remain true.

 

GK: Steffen, Freese, Kochen
LB: Jedi, Tolkin
RB: Dest, Scally, Freeman
CB: Richards, McKenzie, Trusty, Robinson
DM: Adams, Cardoso, Tessmann
CM: Musah, Sullivan
AM: Tillman, Luna, Paxton Aaronson
WF: Pulisic, Wright, Gutierrez, Zendejas
FW: Balogun, Sargent

I’d also bring Banks and Berhalter to camp to train. And I’m leaving off Ream but Pochettino probably doesn’t. I’d probably also leave off Scally for another 9 but it seems unlikely he’s not on the roster.

 

Zendejas could be at the Club World Cup...................

[The playoff will be on May 31st, so we'll know then.]

I don't think any of us really have a clue what Poch is going to do, so any guess is as good as another. Normally the Gold Cup is the time to "expand the pool" in games that actually matter. Based on the Nations league performance, though, it sure seems like Poch wants to continue working with the "A" team.

I mean, Musah hasn't had the best of seasons. Reyna hasn't had the best of seasons. But we are talking about AC Milan and Dortmund there. They're not competing for playing time on the Chicago Fire.

I agree with others that I think the Musah at RW experiment needs to end. Have him compete in central midfield. I watched the 22 WC matches the other day, and I forgot how good he was in that event. Rewatch that England game when our midfield really stood toe-to-toe with Bellingham, Rice, etc. I know people lamented that Berhalter always used MMA in central midfield. You know what? I'd take that right now.

..............................so my absolute guess based on no actual evidence is that we won't see the newbies that some think we will.

 

I am not expecting a lot of changes to what we saw a NL (Dest, Balo etc.), but this is the 26 I'd go with. A 5th CB, Tessmann and Guti were the toughest cuts. McGlynn, Pax and Yow were the final three. Going with guys I think can be true difference makers there.

G: Turner, Steffen, Schulte.
CB: McKenzie, Richards, Ream, CCV (would be Zimmermann if he was healthy)
RB: Dest, Scally
LB: Robinson, Tolkin.
DM: Adams, Cardoso
8: Musah, Busio, McGlynn
8/10/W: Reyna, Luna, Tillman, P. Aaronson
W: Pulisic, B. Aaronson, Haji Wright, Yow
F: Balogun, Sargent

 

You can play 10 bad games in a row for this team, and not only will they still play you, they'll let you model the new uniform.

This program is a bad joke.

 

With Zendejas if he ends up on the Club World Cup roster he obviously won’t be there.

But with a 26 man roster and minus Gio, Weah, McKennie, probably Pepi, and maybe Balogun depending on his injury you’re going to at least have some newish faces (depending on how you think of a player like Gutierrez or someone along those lines).

The only real speculative pick is someone like Freeman (and to a lesser extent Sullivan).

 

With Dest back.......................I don't know about Freeman.

But I don't think we really know what's going to happen.

 

Oh, I agree, but this team needs some of work ethic and pressing intelligence they offer.

They are both underrated here for what they bring on the ball too.

 

I assume Tillman, which I agree with. Sargent, Richards and McKenzie have been disappointing too.

 

Preliminary roster for The Gold Cup is out on Monday and the final roster will be revealed next Thursday

 

All I know is based on his MLS performance he should be on the radar. Whether or not Pochettino agrees I have no idea but we’ll find out next week.

 

The fact that this is coming out far earlier than it needs to is not inspiring confidence.

 

In what way?

 

Of course, the roster for the Turkey'Switzerland friendlies don't HAVE TO BE the exact same as the Gold Cup roster. One imagines they might be. But if Poch wants to bring a couple of fringe guys into camp for the friendlies, he can do so. The Quinn Sullivan/Alex Freeman types. Or an alternate 3rd goalkeeper to train with the group. Kochen or whatever.

If Poch knows his roster for the Gold Cup, then he knows his roster for the Gold Cup.

He might announce it right now, but we can probably make changes to it until the roster deadline.

 

Weah and McKennie will probably be on the friendly roster I’m guessing. And yes he can bring a few guys to camp for the week if he wants (and he should).

 

The official roster rules for this edition of the tournament, available here, support your argument. The deadline for the final 23-26 man roster is due no later than 10 days before the team's first match of the tournament (so due about June 5). After that, as I think has been the case for quite a few GC cycles at least, replacements can only be made due to serious injury or medical matter and only up to 24 hours before the first match.

So there will be almost 2 weeks during which he could make roster changes from whatever they release next Thursday.

 

It gives me the feel of the roster being very set already. The June window and Gold Cup give you the nice chance to pull more people into camp and allow for some competition for the Gold Cup roster.

Given how we've played for the last year, I feel like competition is needed. This feels like the roster is set; that it's what we've already seen and we're just going to run back something that isn't working but hopefully better.

I don't think we have a superstar that isn't in camp, but we certainly have a rather large and amorphous second tier and everyone would benefit from having to fight for a spot on the roster.

Brian White and Josh Sargent should be battling it out for a Gold Cup spot. Heaven help us that it has come to that, but it's better than simply picking one.

That's the founded part. The unfounded part is that the feel of this already being selected is that we're going to see the same roster we've been seeing as well.

Maybe the timing doesn't work out for what I am saying this year. But this team seems to need something and I'm not sure where that's coming from.

 

The Gold Cup roster is due June 4th, while we play Turkey June 7th. The timing just doesn't work for those friendlies to be auditions.

Last summer there was an 11 day gap between the Brazil Friendly and The Copa America opener. This year it's only a 5 day gap between Switzerland and T&T

 

At least a 26 man roster where a number of guys will be missing because of injury or Club World Cup commitments means you sort of have to bring new guys?

Like you can bring Freeman as a 5th fullback very easily.