USMNT Roster Drop & still no Mauricio Pochettino on the touchline | SOTU

An international break is upon us. The us men have two friendlies coming up on Saturday. They will face Canada in Kansas city, then Tuesday, new Zealand in Cincinnati. These will be the first us senior games since the disastrous copa America campaign, which cost Gregg berhalter his job. We know Mauricio pochettino will be the replacement, but as of this taping Wednesday afternoon, he has not officially signed. So under 20 boss mike varas will coach the team on an interim basis. I'll go through the roster in a minute, but overall thoughts on these two games? OK, so this was supposed to be the new beginning. This was supposed to be after the incredible failure of the summer and the firing of Gregg berhalter. This turning of a page. And again, you know, think I mentioned this in in previous previous pods. Right now we as we sit here recording this, we are 645 days, I think, away from the 2026 world cup. And after this week we are in this this fifa window right now. There will be nine fifa international windows, which equates to 18 games and of course, next summer where we will have a gold cup and who knows, maybe another seven games. But let's be honest, few of those will be against high quality opponents. But that's what is left in terms of the preparation for the 26 world cup. And so yet another window is going to be, I'm going to say, wasted. Maybe that's a little harsh, but another window is going to be wasted. And what I thought was going to be the moment of, all right, let's go is now being postponed again, because to your point, they still haven't officially named Mauricio pochettino. And I would have liked for him to have used this. Now, he might be doing things behind the scenes. That's that's very, very possible. But don't ask me to care about Mikey voris. That's his name, right? Correct OK. Don't ask me to care about Mikey voris and what he is doing with this national team. When the shame of it is if berhalter was still the coach or pochettino had already stepped in a game against Canada and Jesse marsch would have had some real juice because of their semifinal run at the copa America. And speaking of cheating scandals, everything that's going on with Canada, but to your point, with Mikey voris on the bench, I don't know that this game has that much significance. Do you think that the United States federation did not want pochettino's first game to be against Canada and the possible embarrassment that would happen? No, I don't think that was a part of it. Really? really? You think they're stalling him stepping in to avoid facing mighty Canada in new zealand? I mean, if his first game in charge ends up being this team losing to Canada, which is certainly possible given the strength of Canada and where they are right now, they're flying under under Jesse marsch. That would not be a good look for him or for the federation. So I don't know, maybe. Maybe I have maybe I have my tinfoil on here. All right. Let's get into some of other watching signs. Steeler, you've got conspiracy. That's true. That's true. So to go through the roster, there are some notable absences. Timmy weah, Tyler Adams and sergino dest all out injured, while Weston, mckennie geddie, Robinson, Cameron, carter-vickers and tanner tessmann weren't called up because of minor ailments and because this time was, I guess, better spent with their clubs. It was deemed, I don't know what old man on the porch Alexi lalas thinks of that. Players skipping international games. But in terms of the roster, 24 names for goalkeepers Matt Turner, Ethan horvath, Patrick Schulte and young Diego Cochrane, a teenager who is part of the Barcelona b setup. Incidentally, Matt Turner now plays for crystal palace. He got himself a move from forest to palace late in the window. He's projected to be the number two, but he'll try to challenge dean Henderson for the starting job. I suspect he'll start these games for the us. Why do you suspect that? I mean, is this not a a proving ground or a test for others out there? I mean, look, if this was a meaningful game. Then not that it's not meaningful, but yeah, I would understand why Matt Turner again, is not necessarily a starter when he is moving on here to crystal palace. Don't know much about Diego Cochin. Cochin is that how we're going to pronounce it? Yeah, that's good. That's good enough. If he makes the ultimate roster here because they have four goalkeepers and we've seen Ethan horvath, we've seen Patrick Schulte, and obviously we've seen Matt Turner. I think I think the real interest for me, if I have to, if I have to come up with some interesting things, it's any type of new names that are going to be used. And when I say used not just on the roster but on the field. So from a defending defenders standpoint, Marlon fossey from standard liege, because he plays right back and there's a potential there, especially with dest continuing to be out with his with his injury and I'm still not sold necessarily on Skelly on that right hand side. And then more importantly for me up top which that number nine position still looms large, we finally have kind of everybody. And yes, they are usual suspects, but everybody is healthy up top. So those would be the two things that I would be looking just amend what I said. I think Turner starts against Canada. But you're right. I could see another one of the goalkeepers starting against new Zealand. And yet at the back you've got neither jedi Robinson or sergino dest, so a possibility for some new players to emerge. Marlon fossey, 25-year-old standard liege, him and Skelly are the right backs. Christopher loan and Caleb Wiley are the left backs. And then you've got $0.4 backs, Tim ream, who we know is now in MLS, Chris Richards, MacKenzie and Austin trusty. So how do you see that? I'm actually somewhat surprised Tim ream is on this list. I thought maybe it might be time to move on from him, but guess not. Yeah, I mean, we're not going to learn anything new about these players again if and when the new coach comes in. I think part of their job, if it's pochettino fine, is to make the players that we have better individually and collectively. I don't think we're necessarily going to see that. Maybe there is a breath of fresh air and a release that happens in a a new camp, even though the head coach isn't there. But I'm not going to learn anything new about Tim ream. I agree. Trustee's a guy I'm curious to see. He just moved from Sheffield united to Celtic, but I continue to say that center back is the most underwhelming position in the whole talent pool in the midfield with no mckennie or Adams. It's an opportunity for Johnny cardozo. He's in there, along with Yunus musah, Luca de La torre, aiden Morris and then gio Reyna and Malik Tillman presumably are your '10s. What's the deal with with Johnny right now? What's going on there with your friend? Yeah so real betis acquired Giovani Lo Celso, Argentinian midfielder from tottenham and as part of the deal, tottenham obtained first option on Johnny cardozo. Now what that means I have to do some digging here, but what that means is that next summer there's a two week window where tottenham can sign Johnny cardozo for 21 pounds million. So they'll have this exclusive two week window where if they want to activate that option, they can have him for 22 pounds million. Once that two weeks goes by, then it's done. But the two week window is not an official designated window from fifa or anything like that. It's just put into a contractual. Yeah, just a situation to say clubs, this is a window. So it could be something. It could be nothing. It depends on what kind of season Johnny has at betis and what tottenham's needs are next summer. We'll see. But that was a curious clause to include in that. It's a clause that signifies his value. Yeah, so it's a good thing they clearly like him as a player because they wouldn't have inserted that clause otherwise. All right. Up top, knock on wood, we've you know Josh Sergeant who's scoring goals is healthy and there and. I guess, you know, only one of these guys between flow. Ricardo Pepi, who's there, and Josh Sargeant can start. Honestly, we talked about this this summer. Now the roster got expanded to 26, so it wasn't that big of an issue. But I do find it odd that you have $0.3 forwards plus hodgey Wright, who we know can play at centre forward. At some point they're going to have to make a decision, probably pick two out of three of balogun, Pepi and Sargeant just from a roster composition standpoint, in any kind of short tournament scenario, I don't know that you need to carry $0.3 forwards plus hodgey Wright, who's nominally a winger but can play as a centre. Someone's an odd man out at some point. Yeah, yeah. Get back to your point about players not here because it could mess up their club situation. I, I get that you know you lose the battle and win the war if you are looking at you want your you want your players playing, you want them playing consistently. I just told you how few windows you have and how few games you have and so therefore a player playing is more valuable to you. But in this case, you're missing a window, but you're missing you're not missing a window with the actual coach. So I'm OK with this one. Had pochettino been the coach, I would have. I think it would have been problematic. And again, it's it's a it's a delicate balance that federations and obviously coaches and technical directors and all that kind of stuff have to play. And the relationship that you have with the club and you don't want to do anything that's going to screw up a player from a club perspective, especially when they're new to the club, that is going to hurt them and therefore devalue the player for when you finally get them to the national team. I get that. I do wonder. Reyna is listed as a midfielder, but with Timmy way out I could see Reyna playing as a winger in one of these games, maybe starting pulisic, Reyna and balogun as your front three and maybe Tillman as the 10 with Johnny and Yunus musah sitting. I just think, you know, now would be the time to take advantage of that. Gio Reyna flexibility. I don't think he should be tethered to that number 10 position. Do you look at haji Wright as a, as a nine or as a as a winger? It's kind of a hybrid. I mean, he keeps getting called up as a winger, but I think he's just as much a nine as he is a winger. We should mention on gio late in the window, Eric wynalda's former club bochum evidently wanted to take him on loan and dortmund said no. They decided they either were going to sell him permanently this summer or keep him, so. Gio ends up sticking around with dortmund. All right. Quickly before we move on, I guess this would be for the next window, but when? If it's pochettino, he comes in. You know, oftentimes you see the new coach boost, right? And what is that? How does that manifest? Well, you have players that have been around and there's a new Sheriff in town and we've all as players been there where there is a new coach and you want to come in and it doesn't matter how long you've been there, you want to make sure that you put your best foot forward and that you impress from the start. And so players that either have been out of it. Now they have an opportunity to get back into it. And players that have been in and have been the chosen ones out there, they got to prove that they are that they are worth it. And this is this is a good thing. This is oftentimes why you make a change, because you the players weren't motivated enough. And we've seen the players talk about what Gregg berhalter had done, but then what hadn't hadn't been done. And you hope that it lights a fire going going forward for all these players in that next window, the next window, if those happen to be pochettino's first two games, it's against Panama and Austin against Mexico in guadalajara. So that's a tasty one for pochettino to manage. We should note we'll be doing spaces after each of these games in this window against Canada on Saturday and new Zealand on air live over there on ECS. We'll have we'll have spaces, they'll show up in your feed. So if you're not an ex, it's OK, but we will be doing that. As for the instant reaction to these games.