CHESTER, Pa. — With the World Cup seven months away, the U.S. men’s national soccer team will arrive at a cozy stadium on the banks of the Delaware River on Saturday afternoon without many of the regulars who have defined the program for years. There are two disparate ways to look at this situation:
The core is incomplete — yeah, that’s concerning.
Others have opportunities to prove their value — well, that’s a good thing, right?
A year-plus on the job, Mauricio Pochettino is responsible over the next several days for continuing to forge chemistry and make strides, regardless of who is in camp.
“You cannot be Harry Potter and you touch it to create chemistry,” he said Friday as he reached out with an imaginary wand and flicked his wrist. “It is a big plan that everything is connected. It’s difficult to describe very quickly, but it’s a massive strategy.”
If he had his druthers, Pochettino would have welcomed all his top charges to training camp ahead of the friendly here against Paraguay at Subaru Park, as well as the major test against Uruguay on Tuesday in Tampa, Florida. After all, opportunities to work with his preferred players are running dry. Following this camp, he will not be able to gather his team again until the FIFA international window in March — the last assembly before World Cup roster decisions are announced in May.
“We’re missing some key players, and when we get to the important games and where it matters, we’re going to want everyone fit, everyone available,” striker Folarin Balogun said. “The most important thing is just to manage what we have.”
The personnel issues afford Pochettino the opportunity to take a hard look at secondary candidates in matches against quality opponents. Christian Pulisic isn’t here, but Gio Reyna gets another chance after months in the wilderness. Chris Richards is missing, but Auston Trusty is back in the mix. Weston McKennie couldn’t make it, but Sebastian Berhalter receives another shot.
The list of players who aren’t in camp — for reasons such as injuries, fitness issues, playing time and a club’s coaching change — could almost form a starting lineup. Besides the aforementioned trio, absences include Tyler Adams, Tim Weah, Malik Tillman, Antonee Robinson, Johnny Cardoso, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Yunus Musah.
In the end, most will figure into Pochettino’s World Cup plans, but at the moment, the coach is sending a message that roster spots are not guaranteed and players who perform well in camps such as this one will remain in contention for the final roster.
“No one can feel safe,” Pochettino said. “The [U.S.] federation is bigger than the names. That is the national team that [represents] the country. And it’s a great opportunity in the moment that we decide to pick another player [who] needs to show up, step up and say, ‘Yes, we have also the opportunity to be part of the roster for the next World Cup.’”
With the World Cup on the horizon, competition is heating up.
“There’s a little bit more bite in trainings,” veteran defender Tim Ream said. “There’s more intensity. There’s more aggressiveness. Guys are doing everything they possibly can to be a part of the team. And as we’ve gotten closer and closer, you see that more and more — that’s a good thing [because] guys are desperate to be a part of the group and be part of a World Cup.”
The spotlight here is brightest on Reyna, the enigmatic 23-year-old attacker who has returned to the national team for the first time since March — even though his European club career continues to sputter.
Ream, who at 38 is the U.S. team’s elder statesman, sees a difference in Reyna.
“He has not really let the challenges overseas seep into camp,” Ream said. “He’s more in-tuned and more focused on the field than I’ve seen in the past, which is a great thing. Whether it was injury or other things that were going on. I think his focus is so much greater now.”
Those “other things” included the infamous riff with former coach Gregg Berhalter at the 2022 World Cup — an episode that exploded publicly after the tournament and involved Reyna’s parents leveling accusations at Berhalter. (The families were once very close.)
Reyna’s return this week coincides with midfielder Sebastian Berhalter’s return from missing last month’s camp. Neither player was made available for interviews this week, but from all indications, there is no friction between them. The younger Berhalter was never directly involved in the dispute, but surely was aware of everything unfolding.
“For me, it’s not important because in front of everything is the national team,” Pochettino said. “These two guys are really intelligent and very clever. If something happened, for sure, they are mature enough to deal with that. … After one year working with them, it’s all positive. Only what can happen is to build a relationship again, if they want.”
Balogun said of Reyna, “He’s a lot more mature; he’s married now” — a comment that prompted smiles from reporters. “He seems focused, and he seems like he wants to put the injuries and just the noise behind him and just play.”
Pochettino would like to see him play at a level that, a few years ago, made him one of the fastest-rising stars in the U.S. program.
Another player seeking to make an impression after a long absence is striker Ricardo Pepi, who, due to injuries and limited playing time at Dutch club PSV Eindhoven, has not been in camp in a year. He is competing with Balogun and Haji Wright for playing time, though Pochettino suggested those two are higher on the depth chart.
“It’s been a difficult time the last couple months” at Eindhoven, Pepi said. “It’s been recently where I’ve started to feel like I’m at a good place with my body and healthy again.”
The door has also reopened for Joe Scally, who will seek to push Sergiño Dest and Alex Freeman at right wing back. Scally was last with the national team in March.
Back after sitting out last month’s camp, Dest is poised to return to the dynamic level he showed in the last World Cup cycle. An ACL injury last year set him way back, but he is starting regularly this season for PSV Eindhoven.
Trusty returns to the national team for the first time in a year, filling a void left by Richards, who is managing a calf ailment at Premier League club Crystal Palace, and Carter-Vickers, Trusty’s Glasgow Celtic teammate who damaged an Achilles’ tendon last month.
The set of friendlies against World Cup-bound teams this fall has provided Pochettino with a proper platform to evaluate the player pool: South Korea and Japan in September, Ecuador and Australia last month and Paraguay and Uruguay over the next several days.
The Americans are expected to host global powers Portugal and Belgium in March, then play two home friendlies between May 30 and June 6. (Details are being finalized.) The World Cup opener is June 12 in Inglewood, California, against an opponent to be determined at the Dec. 5 draw in Washington.
While players rotate in and out of camps, Pochettino has kept his eye on next summer.
“The most important thing is that all the players are fit, in very good condition, the day we are going to start the World Cup — or maybe a little bit before, because I need to prepare the roster,” Pochettino said with a grin. “That is [the same] for every single national team in the world — to have all the players fit to make the right choice.”
