Why Mauricio Pochettino wants the USMNT's 'right 26 — not the best' for the World Cup

MARIETTA, Ga. — In the two months before he finalizes his U.S. World Cup roster, Mauricio Pochettino will weigh factors that go beyond soccer ability.

Without pure talent, of course, the Americans will not go very far in the 48-team tournament unfolding this summer across North America. Accordingly, Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and many other regulars are sure bets for a 26-man squad revealed May 26.

But Pochettino has also said he will select “the right 26 — not the best; the right 26.”

In other words, he is looking to curate a team that functions well both on and off the field — one that will fortify bonds over at least five consecutive weeks at hotels, on buses and jets, and handles the searing pressure of playing in the sport’s greatest spectacle on home soil.

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The last thing Pochettino wants is a breach like the one involving Gio Reyna and, by extension, Gregg Berhalter’s entire unit at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Over the tournament’s history, multiple teams, notably France in 2010, have been knocked off track by bad chemistry or preventable incidents.

“Yes, you want great players who are going to make great plays within the game,” Brad Guzan, a reserve goalkeeper for the 2010 and 2014 U.S. World Cup teams, told Yahoo Sports. “But the reality is probably not everyone is going to see minutes, and if that’s the case, you need to make sure they’re going to be able to fit within a team environment and be able to help and contribute in other meaningful ways.”

The USMNT’s World Cup roster won’t be about talent alone under Mauricio Pochettino.

(John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF via Getty Images)

Building the right locker room

Upon his hiring in the fall of 2024, Pochettino set out to change the team culture and set a fresh vibe. It did not come easy. It took until last summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup for Pochettino’s message to get through and for the players to fully buy into his plans.

With everyone aboard, positive results began to follow. The Americans will carry a five-game unbeaten streak against World Cup-bound opponents into daunting tests at Mercedes-Benz Stadium versus Belgium on Saturday and Portugal on Tuesday. The nine-day camp marks the final assembly before Pochettino selects the “right 26.”

Pochettino’s bonding efforts seemed to have taken hold. Veteran defender Tim Ream said arriving to Atlanta this week after four months since the previous camp was “like “seeing family all over again.”

Because camaraderie and results went hand in hand through the fall, “Guys have a hunger,” Ream said. “They want to be a part of a team that’s moving in the right direction and playing well and fighting for each other.”

The team’s fighting spirit revealed itself in an actual fight late in the 2-1 victory over Paraguay last November. Alex Freeman was at the center of it, and within seconds, Sebastian Berhalter and others had rushed to his aid.

“We backed our guy,” midfielder Tanner Tessmann said. “That is what it’s all about, man.”

In the transactional period between Berhalter’s firing after the 2024 Copa América and Pochettino’s hiring months later, however, such reactions were not a given. A native of Argentina, where representing La Albiceleste is the greatest honor, the new boss needed to rekindle the U.S. fire.

Now that the blaze is almost self-sustainable, Pochettino must go about picking his World Cup unit with compatible pieces.

The idea of selecting the “right” players rather than the “best” players is not original.

“You pick the best 26 members that make the best team, which is a concept difficult to understand,” Portugal coach Roberto Martinez told Yahoo Sports. “If you’ve got a player that plays every minute and is the star of their [club] team and he comes to a national team and he can only play five or six minutes [as] a supportive player, it’s a completely different role. It’s very, very difficult to have a committed player in that role.”

Martinez, of course, has a trickier task than Pochettino, juggling many more world-class players — and egos. But the concept remains the same: constructing a team that functions on and off the field for an extended period, even if that means passing over a quality player.

So how will the process play out for Pochettino? Soccer is not like basketball or baseball, sports where statistics tell most of the story.

He and his staff will weigh players’ form with their respective clubs and the national team. They will consider experience, versatility, on-field partnerships and data analytics. They will rely on intuition. And they will weigh how a player fits in the group.

They don’t expect any distractions from Reyna, who, from all indications, is more mature and focused than four years ago. Despite scant playing time at German club Mönchengladbach in 2026, he was invited to camp this week.

Every player seems to recognize the importance of putting the team first.

“You have to do your thing and play your game and be in the best position to [stay] with the team,” center back Auston Trusty said. “But while you’re on the team, while you’re in camp, it’s being the teammate that’s working hard during training, supporting the players around you and really giving them your all. That’s really just about the mindset.”

Center back Miles Robinson said “you have to understand every day is kind of a mission, that you have to compete at your best, recognizing you have to be coachable. You have to understand what Poch wants from you.”

Guzan — Atlanta United’s newly appointed club ambassador and sporting advisor after a 20-year playing career — said the days between World Cup matches are when teams can come together or slip apart.

“Whatever the result of the game, there’s going to be training the next day and there’s going to be guys that maybe are upset they didn’t play or play more,” said Guzan, who, as Tim Howard’s two-time back-up, didn’t play in the World Cup. “You need guys that understand what’s needed in certain moments. So from the outside, you may have the opinion that this player should be there or that player shouldn’t be there, but inside of camp, they’re offering things that aren’t seen.”

A U.S. player who seems to personify that role is Seattle’s Cristian Roldan, a seasoned midfielder from the 2022 squad who, since last fall, has become a Pochettino favorite for his leadership, experience and acceptance he might never step onto the field. That doesn’t mean Roldan isn’t good enough to contribute on the field, but with a large roster and no more than five substitutions per match, Pochettino values his intangibles.

“I expect competition every camp, but this one, especially leading up to the World Cup, with the things Coach said that no one spot is guaranteed, proving yourself each and every day is extremely important,” Roldan said.

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