USMNT – 2025 In the Rear View Mirror

Was 2025 a successful year for the USMNT? The short answer is heck yes! But lets go look at the specifics and see how that conclusion is reached.  Fundamentally you have to go back to September 10, 2024 when this road began…the day the United States Soccer Federation announced the hiring of Mauricio Pochettino to be the head coach. Pochettino was the first truly high profile coach hired to run the Nats coming in with an incredible resume including 5 seasons with the Tottenham Hot Spurs in the English Premier League. During which time they earned a top three EPL finish for the first time in 26 years and their highest ever finish since1962-1963. Not to mention taking the club to a UEFA Champions League Final, their first ever. So the bar was set and it was set pretty darn high.

When Pochettino was introduced as the new coach he outlined his vision in building the side towards the World Cup 2026, only the second time and the first since 1994. Lookin back at the 1994 WC there is no denying that such an event plays a huge role in expanding the popularity of soccer in the US. In the 10 WCs the US has qualified for their highest finish has been the quarterfinals (2002). Four times they have gone out in the Group Stage and five times they were eliminated in the Round of 16. USSF and Pochettino’s goal for 2026 was to advance out of the group and win at least one knockout round. But how to get there was the question and Pochettino said he believed there were three primary steps (remember that the US was automatically qualified as a co-host and this was very important to his thought process).

1. Evaluate a large pool of players to learn those players and their capabilities.
2. Develop those players to the needed quality level for the WC.
3. Fine tune the players and tactics to build the most cohesive and talented roster headed to the WC.

What many fans failed to understand during the early stages of Pochettino’s tenure was the time needed for each step and why the needed to taken in that order. And that lack of understanding caused a lot of fan anxiety for a long period of time. Snoot on popular soccer forum site had a thread called Fire Pochettino and it was started the day he was hired. Now certainly that originally was done some tongue-in-cheek but got pretty serious.

Lets look back at the early results.

October 2024 FIFA Window

The first two matches held under his reign met with mixed results. A home 2-0 win over Panama then a poor road showing losing to arch rival Mexico 2-0. Some fans were saying that the Panama result was really just the “bounce” you get from a new coach and that the Mexico game was more indicative of how things were looking. And they weren’t looking good. But they were just friendlies so many were on the give it some time side.

November 2024 FIFA Window

This window was the final qualifying for the CONCACAF Nations League so results mattered. The US drew Jamaica and won both matches 1-0 on the road then 4-2 at home. Better but this was a Jamaican team who’s Federation was in shambles so hard to really know that to make of it.

January 2025

Historically the US has held a “camp cupcake” in January so called because its not an official FIFA window and therefor clubs are not obligated to release players. Typically the US has used this window to take a deep dive down into the fringes of the player pool and see if a surprise or two might show up. In this window beat Venezuela 3-1 and Costa Rica 3-0. The naysayers said that this didn’t mean much as the opponents were playing their “B teams”. While correct the flip side was this was more like the US “C team” and they did score 6 goals.

March 2025 FIFA Window

The window the pitch forks came out. The CONCACAF Nations League on the line and a chance for the Nats to win their first trophy under Pochettino. Well it didn’t happen. First losing to Panama 1-0 in SOFI Stadium in LA. While they had some moments they didn’t find the net and lost at home to the Ticos who seemed to have our number of late. Then they lost to Canada 2-1. No excuses. A bad window and many were calling for Pochettino to get fired thinking the ship was not headed in the right direction but still time to get in a new coach to get this right before WC 2026.  I have no idea if the inner circle at USSF was even thinking of making a change (not that they could afford it anyway) but the outward signals were believe in the process.

June 2025 Pre Gold Cup Friendlies

Heading into the CONCACAF Gold Cup the US prepared by scheduling two pretty tough sides in Turkiye and Switzerland. In the first match they played toe-to-toe with the Turks before losing 2-1. But some definite signs of progress were there. Then the wheels fell off against the Swiss losing 4-0. But did the wheels really fall off? Two things happened during this window that many fans failed to recognize. First, is that we made 9 changes in the starting lineup between the two matches. Unheard of in today’s game. Secondly is the tweak Pochettino made in the tactics during half time of the Swiss game. Sure you can say the Swiss were ahead 4-0 at the half and just coasted the game out. But there was more to that story. A lot more. In fact the best chances in the second half were pretty much all the US.

But was really the most telling storyline of these two matches were the lineups. Maybe just maybe Pochettino’s plan was starting to bear fruit. There were only 1 or 2 players in each starting lineup that would be thought of as Best XI. So the question now became could they show more progress in the Gold Cup.

June 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup

Entering the Gold Cup there were still a lot of questions to answer. Yes it appeared that some depth to the team was showing and they had displayed some flashes of quality but could they build on that in a tournament environment? The Group Stage went pretty well and was expected as they walked through with three wins outscoring their opponents 8-1. One of their best ever group stages at a Gold Cup. The quarter-final was a bit of an underwhelming performance tying Costa Rica 2-2 and advancing on penalties. The semi-final was the Diego Luna show as the Real Salt Lake midfielder scored a brace leading the US to a 2-1 win over Guatemala and it was on to the final against who else but Mexico. While El Tri prevailed 2-1 the young US side missing many stars (Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Folarin Balogun, Ricardo Pepi) had a fine showing.

Overall the Gold Cup was a strong performance and we started to see the emergence of some new faces and their improvements at a rapid pace. Malik Tillman was simply one of the best players at the tournament and made a name for himself along with Max Arfsten, Alex Freeman, and Diego Luna. So ok maybe Pochettino is on to something.

September 2025 FIFA Window

The September window is always a mixed bag for the USMNT, especially in the year prior to a WC. Fans want to see the “A team” and start to finalize the tactics and players to be used. But September is also early in the European seasons and its hard to call in players who have moved to new clubs over the summer. Is it better to call them in or let them stay with their club? Ultimately the best thing for players on new clubs is to get lots of playing time with those clubs over the winter and calling them in right after their seasons have begun tends to not build a good relationship between national teams and their clubs. So as usual the roster for this window was a mixed bag. Fair number of the European based players and plenty of MLS guys as well.

And they had two tough opponents scheduled in Korea and Japan. Ultimately the results were fine. Losing to Korea and beating Japan both games going 2-0. But fans were starting to see that the process might be working, at least for steps 1 and 2 but what about step 3? When were we going to see the goods so to speak? With limited time for the national team to train and play together wasn’t it time to see a camp with all the guys expected to be at WC 2026?

October 2025 FIFA Window

With two decent sides scheduled in Ecuador and Australia it was hoped to see some results and most importantly a setup and approach to play that was gelling. And they got a bit of both of those thigs as they tied Ecuador 1-1 (a top defensive side from South America) and beating the Aussies 2-1. Ok better but still not quite what we were hoping for.

November 2025 FIFA Window

The pitch forks were all back at the farm pitching hay where they belonged. The players stepped up and the coaches showed the world they actually have had a plan all along and that they did know what they were doing. In fact I can’t remember the last time I saw us look so good in consecutive matches. First they faced off against Paraguay and although the score was close, 2-1, the US dominated that game start to finish and looked good doing so. The tactical and player decisions looked terrific and the team played like they wanted it. Then came Uruguay ranked #16 in the world an coached by one of the game’s best in Marcelo Bielsa, a mentor to Pochettino. So how would this game fare? The mentor vs the student? In this case it was all the student. The US came out firing on all cylinders and scored three in the first 31 minutes on the way to a 5-1 crushing defeat.

Step 3 checked off in a big time! Lets summarize what has occurred over Pochettino’s run and especially over the last several months by looking at his three steps.

Step 1 – 59 different players have played for the senior team since Pochettino took over. Given that the typical camp has 30 players called in of which 26 make the actual game day rosters that’s a lot of depth. And this doesn’t count the many players who were called in to camps, got training time with the team, yet didn’t make the field during a game. 20 different players started these last 2 matches!!

Step 2 – The biggest complaint for years with the Nats has been the lack of goal scoring. In his first 18 matches as the coach 17 different players have scored goals for the US. And while it would take a short novel to talk about all the combinations of players and tactics tested over the last year plus suffice it to say that its been a bunch.

Step 3 – While you can’t get to this step without going through steps 1 and 2, ultimately Pochettino’s caution to fans to be patent with the process has borne true. At times it has seemed like players weren’t sure of their roles and how teammates would react in different situations the growing pains have yielded two very important things headed to next summer.

a. The biggest issue from WC 2022 is that very little player rotation occurred between the Group Stage matches and on the the knockout stage match with the Netherlands. Whether that was a coaching error, a lack of player depth, or a combination of both the fact is that by the time the US advanced they were playing on tired legs. And that was simply a recipe for disaster against the Dutch. As we’ve seen over the last few months and especially the October and November windows that shouldn’t be the case next summer. There are probably 30+ players who could see the field at the WC. Surely they are not all at the same level of quality however none of them would cause much concern among the fans. This pool is deeper than its ever been and the drop off from a starter at a given position to their main back up is not a chasm like it has been in the past. For example, lets tike RB. The difference between Sergino Dest, Joe Scally, and Alex Freeman is minimal. Sure overall Dest is clearly the best guy. But from a pure defensive standpoint Scally is the strongest. From an athletic position Freeman is the best. But you’d be fine with any of those three guys starting a match.

b. Which leads me to the second point and IMO the most important thing that has happened under the current leadership. And that is the ability to structure a lineup and tactics geared toward the opponent. As in the example above if we are playing a team where we expect them to have most of the possession and have a strong left attacking side then you night start Scally for his defensive ability.

Certainly we expect things to be tweaked between now and next June but here’s a snapshot of how I expect us to play, in general, and who are the likely starters for a given scenario. I’ll do a more detailed breakdown in my pre World Cup analysis next June but here’s a quick look based upon what we’ve seen these last several windows.

Base formation:

Under Pochettino the US have seemed to lock in on 3 different formations. But here’s where it gets tricky and why players getting reps in training is so important. In today’s game formations are really just a broad starting point and the actually tactics and players responsibility changes depending on who has possession and where on the field the ball lies. Lets break that down a bit.

The 3-4-3

What is commonly called the 3 ATB (across the back ) is just what it says. Typically the back 3 are all what historically would be considered center backs. More defensive minded and not prone to move into the attack except for set pieces.  In this formation the defensive midfielder (Tyler Adams) tends to sit fairly deep in front of the back 3. His role is to break up the opponents attack and provide a short outlet pass when the defense gains possession. He provides the link to the forward progression. The wingbacks of those 4 may actually drop all the way back on defense when the opponent has the ball in the final third making the structure look like a defensive 5 in the back. But in possession those wingbacks may run the entire sidelines to spearhead crosses into the box. The front 3 are typically spaced so the #9 is the highest up the field and the two wingers are slightly withdrawn to provide support to wingbacks and to look for inside runs to goal. To stay with the example above, in this style the RB would typically be Scally.

The 3-4-2-1

The main difference between this and the 3-4-3 is that the front two wings tend to play a bit deeper into the defensive third. This is a really good counter attacking formation in that the defensive end is very difficult to penetrate and if you have a fast #9 who makes smart runs (Balogun or Pepi can both do this) a quick goal can result.

The 4-3-3

This formation is typically different from other two in that it utilizes only 2 players who you’d call center backs. The outside backs in this formation play much like the wing backs above except that they may be biased toward defense and allow the defensive midfielders to play further up the field . In this case you’d expect to see Sergino Dest at the RB position (or Alex Freeman).

Roster Expectations

FIFA has not yet announced what the final roster number will be but I expect it to be 26 players. There is some rumbling that it may even go to 30 players but I am pretty sure that the days of the 23 man rosters are over. So assuming its 26 here’s a projection. Yes I am aware Tyler Adams has recently torn his MCL. He’ll be back. I sure of it. Pretty please. All I want for Christmas!

Goalkeepers

Matt Freese, Matt Turner, Patrick Schulte

Center Backs

Chris Richards, Tim Ream, Joe Scally, Mark McKenzie, Auston Trusty, Miles Robinson

Outside Backs

Antonee Robinson, Sergino Dest, Alex Freeman, Max Arfsten,

Defensive Midfielders

Tyler Adams, Tanner Tessman, Sebastian Berhalter, Cristian Roldan

Attacking Midfielders and Wingers

Weston McKennie, Malik Tillman, Diego Luna, Brenden Aaronson, Christian Pulisic, Tim Weah,

Strikers

Folarin Balogun, Ricardo Pepi, Haji Wright

The rest of the way? The US has scheduled an extremely challenging set of matches headed to next summer.

March FIFA Window

Belgium and Portugal

Pre World Cup Tune-ups

Senegal and Germany

Then it all begins on June 12, 2026 in Los Angeles when we play Paraguay in the first group stage match. Stay tuned guys its going to be a ride. Will we perform to our capabilities? Time will tell but I have never been more excited about our prospects!