Pochettino's Final 26: USMNT Roster Reveal Closes In as SoFi Opener Approaches
Mauricio Pochettino has 36 days to finalise the United States squad for a home World Cup. Roster submission to FIFA is due May 26. The competition for the last six spots, including a backup goalkeeper, a third right-back, and the final striker, is the tightest in USMNT history.
M auricio Pochettino took the United States job in September 2024 with a clear brief: take a generation that had failed to break through at Qatar 2022 and prepare it for a home World Cup. Eighteen months later he has 36 days left to do it. The submission deadline for the final 26-player squad is May 26. The Camp Cup, the USMNT's three-match preparation tournament hosted by US Soccer in Dallas, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, runs through June 5. After that, training camp at the IMG Academy in Florida begins.
The spine of the squad is settled. Christian Pulisic, the captain at 27, comes off a strong AC Milan season. Tim Weah anchors the right wing. Yunus Musah and Tyler Adams pair in midfield. Antonee Robinson holds the left-back slot. Folarin Balogun starts at striker. Matt Turner, despite uneven club form, remains first choice in goal. That is roughly half the squad locked in.
The pressure is at the margins. The third goalkeeper slot is a genuine race between Ethan Horvath and Patrick Schulte, with Pochettino reportedly leaning toward Schulte for his distribution. The right-back depth is the team's most exposed position: Sergiño Dest's 2024-25 season at PSV was disrupted by a knee issue, leaving DeAndre Yedlin and the converted Joe Scally to fight for the backup roles. The third striker depending on whether Ricardo Pepi recovers fully from his April hamstring injury is now between Brandon Vázquez and Haji Wright.
The biggest tactical question is the deepest one. Pochettino has used a 4-3-3 in qualifying and most friendlies, with Pulisic drifting inside from the left and Weah holding the right touchline. Against teams that sit deep, that shape has produced the better US performances of the cycle. Against teams that press, particularly Mexico in the Concacaf Nations League final and a friendly against Colombia in March, the US has struggled to play out from the back. The choice of the third center-back the third in the squad, behind Chris Richards and Tim Ream is significant: Mark McKenzie, Cameron Carter-Vickers, or the 21-year-old Auston Trusty.
The schedule is, on paper, manageable. Group D pairs the United States with Paraguay, Australia, and Türkiye. The opener is at SoFi Stadium on June 12 against Paraguay. The second match is in Seattle against Australia on June 19. The closer is back in Los Angeles against Türkiye on June 25. Two SoFi appearances and one Seattle trip is the kind of schedule European visitors would queue for. The model from worldcupglobal.com gives the United States a 5.6% chance of winning the tournament outright, the eighth-highest, and projects them past the group stage in 81% of simulations.
Pochettino has been characteristically quiet in public. At a US Soccer media briefing in late April, he said only that 'the squad is 80 percent done in my mind.' The remaining 20 percent — the contested slots, the bench specialists, the depth at right-back — will be decided in May. The reveal is expected on or before May 26. After that, the most-watched American men's national-team campaign in history begins.