Mauricio Pochettino on World Cup Roster Selection: 'It's About the Right 26'
· Yahoo Sports
It takes time and deep thought to pare a highly competitive list of more than 70 down to 26. Yet, that's the task that awaits for head coach Mauricio Pochettino in the upcoming months after the U.S. Men’s National Team matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga. March 28 against Belgium and March 31 against Portugal will be the final matches before Pochettino selects his roster for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, which will be announced on May 26.
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Numerous factors go into making such a crucial selection, and the head coach has explained over the past several camps, including the latest announced on Tuesday, that all 26 spots that comprise the World Cup roster are up for grabs.
“Football is very, very dynamic,” he said. “It can change at every single moment.”
Several familiar names part of the USMNT pool did not receive callups to March camp. The head coach addressed striker Haji Wright, midfielder Tyler Adams and fullback Sergiño Dest who were omitted are all dealing with injuries. Midfielder Diego Luna is also coming back from a minor injury. Even though he played recently for Real Salt Lake, the coaching staff wanted to give him more time to return to form.
Even though these players will not be wearing either of the new Stars & Stripes jerseys on the pitch in March, Pochettino said their availability and selection for the World Cup is still to be determined.
“What I can tell the players today [that] didn’t reach the roster is not that they are not going to have a possibility to be on the final roster,” Pochettino said. “And the players that today are on the roster, they cannot think they are going to be in there, in the final roster.”
Pochettino explained that all players are going to have that possibility. The gaffer also made it clear that performance is not the only metric he’s evaluating. Of course, production and run of form play an important part, but Pochettino and his coaching staff will also consider intuition, experience, data analytics, and their own eyes to identify the final group.
Because it’s about finding, Pochettino said, not the best 26, but the right 26.
“I am happy with more than 26 players,” Pochettino said. “Because in one year and a half, I think we have made different selections. We will assess nearly two years of working with more than 70 players… We are going to add and put in the table all of our capacity and knowledge to select the right 26 – not the best, the right 26 – with the possibility to compete in the best way for representing out country in that exciting World Cup.”