I have no idea how anyone would think winning the Gold Cup after our recent run of results could be cheap with any choice of roster. We are not better than CONCACAF. We are currently the 4th best team in CONCACAF. We have failed in two major tournaments recently with our 'A team.' If we bring players that are not in the generally accepted A team, it should be because Pochettino thinks that they are very possibly in our actual A team. I absolutely want to see changes. But not for the 25th spot on the roster. I want to see changes to win.
Add me that to those thinking that this should be a first team roster with any new players (young or otherwise) who could help us in a year for the WC. Focus on team formation (how to win as a team) and leadership.
2011 and 2015, both being the very early part of the WC cycle where a team can afford to do more experimentation. This isn’t that, we are in crunch time. These training sessions and games are going to determine if the club performance level leaders are going to stay in the 23. It’s going to determine what combinations of guys work and who is in contention to start.
The attrition excuse for Poch is a weak one. He had 8 starters vs. Panama, and all his midfield, most important to functionality, while playing at home. We were dysfunctional. You can't just say well if we had a couple more on the outside or at the end of things everything's kosher. And the anomaly would be having all your starters. We have to learn how to live w/out a couple. Also preferably find a couple new ones, cuz they aren't performing. If integrating new players is beyond Poch's paygrade, we never should have hired him, let alone for 7 million. The job was far from done in this regard. I wish our pool was further along in their club play and the last coach(es) didn't mail it in, but here we are. I'd hope we learned our lesson about class/nat'l team performance over club form by now. Form is a distant second & club play only tells you so much. The 25th player on the roster stuff is just a buzz-phrase and people's prejudice. Luna was just the 25th man on the roster. Miles, Zimmerman, & Turner were the 25th men on the roster, then starters after the GC this last cycle. We should graduate even more to the 1st team roster this time because our development system is further along. Mexico had the same attitude they primarily want to win the '21 GC. Then they lost it, w/ the same players they had been losing before. While they learned nothing new. Then got bounced from the group stage of the WC for this 1st time in almost 40 yrs. So it wasn't even a Pyrrhic victory. It was sunk-cost fallacy that cost them more. I wish there was less tinkering in UNL, let alone off just January camp info, but you can't turn back time. Trotting out a b-team to the GC is not arrogance or radical. It's boiler plate for the top sides in the region. It's likely what Mexico does this time. And it doesn't mean you think you'll probably win w/out your best. It's just not the top priority. You may win as a bonus like we did in '21. It's just about creating a win-win to win-lose situation, instead of win-lose or lose-lose. I'm open to some more balance. Like @glutton4Bolts and I had a good back and forth on this, w/ somewhat of a different philosophy. One of the regs who's been out for a minute like Balogun could be added, to function/fortify. Maybe a couple more would be in order too. But bringing most of the normal rotation is cutting off our nose to spite our face.
Oh, I agree that we're in crunch time. What I am questioning is that some group members at Copa and the Nations League haven't already lost their position. After all, if you use the Gold Cup to determine who is going to stay in the 23 ... you have zero competitive matches or longer camps to determine who replaces them.
Given how poor the team looked at NL, I think they have to bring their best team. I just think there are some legitimate questions at this point about who actually constitutes the best team. Does calling in the best team mean calling in all the high pedigree guys who have mixed records of performing for the USMNT, or does it mean changing things up more substantially and leaving out some of the high pedigree guys in favor of others at less prestigious clubs? I think you have to lean toward the former option and give the most talented guys another shot becoming at least the sum of their parts, but there's definitely a case to be made for leaning the other way. Though I do think it's also a bit of a false dichotomy, since we already know that McKennie and Weah won't be there, and Reyna might be unlikely. So, their spots will go to guys from lesser clubs. And there will almost certainly be another few guys from the big clubs who are injured.
Nobody's really addressed my point how Mexico had the same mindset after flaming out in UNL, then they didn't even win the GC, before being unceremoniously ousted at the WC. Conversely, the US played a team of upstarts, pulled off the upset, then 2 of those players started in the WC as part of a standout defense that got them to the next round. As a cost-benefit, the 1st sets up a lose-win scenario at best. And in the big picture you gain more from adding to your ranks, while those players may actually care so help you win now.
Who do you want to drop and who do you want to keep? I’m interested in some churn so curious what you’re thinking. I love Zimmerman too, so I’ll start there we seem to agree on his take charge leadership qualities I feel we lack in the back line.
For this tourney, I want to drop every starter but Dest, maybe Balogun, then we could see if Richards finally takes a leadership role next to Trusty or whomever. While Zimmerman could take that responsibility in the game(s) w/ Chris in the lineup. If Chris isn't on the roster, Walker just assumes the role. In general, they all need to be challenged, to be replaced when they aren't performing/available. We need a CAM who actual moves throughout a game, unlike Gio. That may be Guti.. We need another winger who stretches the back line ala Weah. That may be Paredes. We need another true LB when ARob isn't available or tired. I'd rank those options: 1(tie): Tolkin, Paredes, 3. Wiley. We potentially need a starting GK if Turner doesn't improve. I'd go 1. Freese, 2. Schulte. We need 1-2 starting CB's. I'd go 1. Trusty, 2. Zimmerman, 3. Ragen, 4. MRob. We could use a progressive d-mid. I think our depth is overrated at 8/6. But you can see from my choices we're kind of grasping at straws here. That's what I think we need, I'd like to try, & most but not all I figure would be useful.
“The right mindset must be there, because we need to compete for our flag, our country. What we are trying to do as a staff is to optimize every single area of preparation, and the mentality of the players is really important. We need to be intelligent in the way that we are going to select the players and not just choose based on talent alone. We need to have the right characters to be really competitive.” With the Gold Cup draw complete, we caught up with Pochettino about the opponents we will face in Group D and the preparations for the upcoming tournament with an eye towards the 2026 FIFA World Cup.📰 https://t.co/OMx9enYOW3 pic.twitter.com/5AlglgowuQ— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) April 22, 2025
Looking at the groups, there is some interesting stuff here. I think Mexico are in for a dogfight with theirs, Costa Rica and Suriname are both very decent teams. Suriname recently got a lot of dual nats from the Netherlands. Canada should top their group but if they do they have a very tough QF game against Jamaica or Panama. Would not surprise me to see either of those knock them off. I'm most interested to see who wins that group between Jamaica and Panama. Especially if Jamaica get Mason Greenwood. You have to think all the talented players they have will start clicking eventually.
I like this quote a lot... but I wonder how ruthless Poch and his staff are willing to be. IMO, Canada clearly has a better NT than ours... and I think a significant reason for it is the mindset of the players they select (and it certainly doesn't hurt that they have so many athletic players in their top 23). I am not talking about depth here... so I don't want to get into that discussion (the US has a way deeper pool). I think a perfect example of the kind of player I am talking about is Alistair Johnston. Even when he was playing in the MLS he was at his best for his NT.... often shutting Pulisic down. He plays for Celtic now but on paper he should be someone that CP can exploit yet he always balls against us. As a matter of fact, Canada has relied a lot on MLS players during it's rise and they generally seem to shine when playing for the badge. The US seems to be the complete opposite. Across the board it just seems like each player we bring in plays worse for the USMNT than they do for their club. I know there is a difference between playing for club vs. country but I just don't believe that many of our best players lay it all on the line for the crest. Honestly... at this point it is embarrassing. They played pretty well under GB the first time but ever since the WC it just seems like the fire/pride is missing. Even as a U14 soccer coach I know how important it is that the team is unified and willing to run themselves into the ground for each other. Without that mentality you are just left with an all-star team.
Regarding Poch, less talk, more rock. He’s been saying the same thing since he was hired, I want to see results.
I don't really think that last point is true. I think fans tend to have a lot of selective view of how players are doing for their clubs, though, or choose simply to equate club level above national team, often ignoring that our guys are often given very simplified or limited roles at club. For example, Weah may play for Juve, but he's asked to do far more for the US than for Juve. He plays better for the US than Juve, though the latter is supposedly a "higher level." Or, on face, US fans will think that Joe Scally is better for club than Alistair Johnson is. But that's not actually based on play but rather just level. Our recent losses had some to with the weaknesses of a dude like Joe Scally or Mark McKenzie ... but also the under-performance of our undisputed best players. That under-performance hasn't really been consistent, though. It's been a more recent thing.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_...hettino-only-select-right-characters-gold-cup USMNT's Pochettino will only select 'right characters' at Gold Cup. United States men's national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino emphasized the importance of selecting players with a strong mentality heading into the Gold Cup this summer, stressing that talent alone may not be enough for a player to earn a spot in the squad. "The right mindset must be there, because we need to compete for our flag, our country," Pochettino said in an interview with the U.S. Soccer Federation released Tuesday.
Blah blah blah.... I'd be more impressed if he had actually allowed his talented players to play in Nation's League.... instead of keeping them in the dark and putting out hoofers like musah and tessman.
To me most of Pochettino's utterings have the feel of platitudes and half truths. That is he says things without presenting any real idea of what they actually mean and he never seems to talk in specifics. I am moving the direction of disliking him as a coach. He, at least, does not say things like Gregg did but the things he says seems to have little or no relationship to reality and, generally, actually mean very little.. He says "we are looking at everybody" but he almost never says who. He says he wants more attacking play while putting the players in a position where the attacking part is very hard to see. I thought he was a much better coach than Gregg but I am beginning to think that he is not, just differently bad. Of course it could be that we are really not any good and no coach could make us better than 4th in CONCACRAP. I will say that the team's play under Pochettino is more entertaining than it was under Gregg. But it is often a lot like watching an old "Keystone Cops" short where not one person seems to know exactly what to do. I also kind of expect the team to enter and leave the field in a clown car. Maybe those that suggest we play, mostly, our U23s are correct and we should hope they put it together before the WC. I do not think a team of mostly U23s could do much worse, particularly on defense and beating a bunker. But I know that is not going to happen as the USSF is too cowardly to allow such a radical step to be taken. They seem to be perfectly content to continue doing what we have always done.
National teams have to find a group that functions as the optimum team. For many sides, this is just the best available players based on pedigree. But for more than a few, the best team will include a balance of talent and guile, of skill and effort. The US has a lot of good players that are asked to support and defer on their clubs, or at least have enough surrounding club talent to provide them space to operate. Those players don't look the same for the national team because the things that they don't do well aren't being handled by others. Pochettino's job is to figure out a group that has the right balance and that very well may mean dropping someone with better pedigree. He has little time to figure it out.
We do not have the "grit" to win in many matches. It has something to do with the players themselves and it also has to do with the coach. In a LOT of cases we play like it does not matter if we win or lose. I do not like the lack of intensity that players play with much of the time. I actually miss the fire we saw way back under Bora Milutinovic or even Bob Bradley. It does not seem like the USA players are currently really proud to play for the USA but, rather, they treat it a simply a duty that they must fulfill but they play to protect their big money club jobs not to win matches for the USA. I am not saying they don't play hard but just that their play reflects fear of losing their well paying regular job rather than being all in on helping the USA to win matches. I do not really think this is on the players predominantly as the job of the coach is to have the players ready and motivated and at least one of those is missing for most USA matches. That is our new, supposedly better, coach is failing at at least one of his primary jobs. Motivating the team is one of the coach's jobs and, mostly, he is failing in that. But it "could be" that it is the players that just do not want to play for the USA with intensity as that may be "too hard" and put them in risk of losing playing time with their real jobs. This needs to change and it is up to the coach to change it. We need intensity and this group of players under this coach is not producing much of that required product. I think the coach needs to bench players that do not play with intensity no matter how good they are. We seem to currently have a choice of losing with our B or C team that play with intensity or losing with our A team that simply phones it in. In that case I would choose the former option as it would be at least fun to watch. I do not know what the fix is but what we are trying to do now is not working. BTW: We really need to find a goalkeeper that can "save" the team when things go wrong. Right now our 'keepers rarely help the team but they do hurt the team a lot of the time. Maybe we should bring back 'keepers from the past as the future does not look good at all.
Next year will reveal whether the A-Team guys have 'grit'. As for the GC, players who need the rest should take the summer off. Adams, McKennie, Pulisic, Weah, Dest, Jedi, etc., have been together for 5 years.
Coaching doesn’t matter, these guys played together under a past coach so they don’t need any time under Poch.
New coach needs to find his new players to trust and work upon. Right now, the players are just from last group who feel that they already owned those spots without any effort.
The coach doesn't need to live with these guys 24/7 365 to figure out the team. National Teams have fired coaches midway through tournaments and gone on to have good tournaments. National Teams have changed coaches a couple months before tournaments and gone on to have good tournaments. Gregg had had these guys for 4 years yet still crashed out of Copa Group Stages. There's no claim that a coach needs no time with a team to get a good performance. Let's just not fetishize the idea the coach has to get x reps with the same players.
We need to redemystify the importance of the “manager” and “training”. Some anecdotal, small sample, subject to unique circumstances things happened one time and they are inevitably going to happen for us. All our dead cats will be bouncing. We must develop new kinks that suite our locked in takes.