The countdown to the U.S. men’s national team’s World Cup roster announcement on May 26 looms large over the group, so much so that there’s an inherent sense of finality to the squad head coach Mauricio Pochettino named for this month’s friendlies against Belgium and Portugal. The theme of the March friendlies, though, seems to be that spots are still up for grabs – even for some unlikely contenders.
“Everyone is saying that maybe it’s the last opportunity but it’s not closed,” Pochettino said in a press conference on Tuesday. “It’s open. It’s still open. It’s not the final roster.”
The sense of opportunity was evident with the March roster as a few players on the cusp made the cut, Gio Reyna the headliner but simply one of a handful of similar players in the mix. It would not be the first time a USMNT roster looked like this – Pochettino has been on a mission to expand and explore the player pool since taking charge in the fall of 2024, regardless of the World Cup’s looming deadline. It is an approach that perhaps sacrifices chemistry but after a five-game unbeaten run to end 2025 with a wide variety of players playing a part, Pochettino believes it is a sacrifice worth making.
“I think October and November were very good examples that maybe with different rosters, different names, the team performed,” he said. “What we need to do is to have the possibility to see again, in this camp, the possibility with a different roster because there are going to be 10 different players from the last roster in November.”
Gio Reyna gets another shot
Reyna may have only a half hour under his belt in Bundesliga play this season with Borussia Monchengladbach but more than five years after making his national team debut, the 23-year-old’s potential remains hard to deny. Pochettino saw it firsthand by including Reyna in November’s roster, with the player scoring the opening goal in the USMNT’s 2-1 win over Paraguay.
“I think Gio was fantastic in November with us,” Pochettino said. “I think everyone praised him in his game against Paraguay and then in the way that he was involved and committed with the team. I think I was really happy in all the aspects and all the factors he was involved [in].”
Reyna is not the only player lacking game minutes at the club level on the March roster – Alex Freeman, one of the breakout players from Pochettino’s experimentation-heavy approach, has not seen much of the field since moving from MLS’ Orlando City to Spain’s Villarreal in the winter. Pochettino emphasized the need for him and his coaching staff to gauge their abilities this window, another signal that the World Cup roster may still be in flux.
“For the last roster [before] the World Cup, I think it’s good to see players that maybe are not playing too much,” Pochettino said. “Like in that case about Gio, he’s a very talented player. We know how he can add to the national team. It’s to see if he’s affected about that and he is capable to perform with us again. I think we really know that he’s a very special talent and very special player and I feel [the need] to give the possibility, even if he’s not playing too much in his club, he can be very useful for us.”
Weston McKennie returns to the fold
Pochettino left Weston McKennie off of the November roster to acclimate to life at Juventus under new coach Luciano Spalletti, a gamble that has paid off. McKennie now returns to the USMNT in the form of his life, boasting a career-best tally of eight goals and five assists for Juventus this season.
“It’s true that Juventus is Weston McKennie plus 10 players now, no?,” Pochettino joked. “We are so happy for that because that means that he is an important player for Juventus.”
McKennie has gone from a utility player who was deemed surplus more than once at Juventus to a starring role with the Turin-based side, frequently playing in an attacking role under Spalletti. The new coach, though, has not forgotten about McKennie’s days of slotting into any available slot for Juventus – he went from playing central striker in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League knockout phase playoff tie against Galatasaray one week to starting as a left wingback the following week.
Pochettino, too, is leaving his options open as it pertains to McKennie’s role with the USMNT. His versatility will be helpful, especially as the likes of Reyna and Malik Tillman fight for minutes in more advanced midfield roles with the national team.
“I celebrate that he can play in every single place,” Pochettino said. “Like his coach said, he can be the best striker, the best No. 10, No. 7, [No.] 2, [No.] 4. He can play fullback, can play midfield. I think he’s playing and he’s playing in different positions and of course, it’s good for him, it’s good for us. It’s good to have a player that can play in different positions and to give the balance … I think it’s important, in the moment, that we are going to give and find the balance. I think it’s important to see him, how he can provide the balance in case that we want him in the starting 11 and of course, that is good to have this capacity, the capacity from the player to adapt in different positions. That always is good for the coaching staff.”
Noahkai Banks remains undecided
While many of the notable absences on the USMNT roster are due to injury, there is one exception — defender Noahkai Banks, who Pochettino said ruled himself out of the running for the March friendlies as he contemplates his international future.
The 19-year-old has emerged as a key prospect for both the U.S. and Germany with roots in both nations. Banks was born in Honolulu to an American serviceman father and a German mother who was attending college in Hawaii, but moved to Germany as a child and has spent the entirety of his club career there. Banks has played for the U.S. at youth levels and joined the senior USMNT in September, though Pochettino was unable to give him his first cap.
“I think Noahkai is a young kid that has become a man so quick,” Pochettino said. “I was a little bit unlucky because we wanted to give the possibility to play and he was injured but [he] was with us and I think it was a great opportunity to see and talk with him and to know each other and to know the rest of the team and the staff and everything.”
It is unclear when Banks will make a choice, though he has previously said a trip to this summer’s World Cup — regardless of which team he might play for — is too soon. In the meantime, the USMNT’s coaching staff remains in communication with him and Pochettino said the onus is on the federation as a whole to prove that they care for him.
“He’s thinking a lot,” Pochettino said. “He’s in a situation that is not easy for him. We are very focused on him because we follow him. He’s in the pool of the players that we are following [from] the moment we signed the contract with the U.S. men’s national team and I think we started to identify top talent and young talent …[USMNT assistant coach] Jesus [Perez] was seeing him in Augsburg and he was talking with him, I was talking with him, we were talking by FaceTime, Zoom. We have a great contact and I really appreciate him. He’s a very nice kid but is in a difficult situation.”
