CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino plans to bring only the final 26-man roster to his last pre-World Cup training camp, not wanting to cut anyone in the days ahead of the soccer tournament.
“I think from the beginning, if you say, OK, that is the 26, that is a shock, but this — OK, you accept. But after to be involved and then to go home, I think it’s more cruel,” Pochettino said Friday, a day ahead of a friendly against Paraguay.
Past U.S. coaches have called in larger groups and then trimmed their roster. Jurgen Klinsmann caused controversy when he cut 32-year-old star Landon Donovan after a training session at Stanford University in 2014, and Jeff Agoos burned his uniform when he was dropped by Bora Milutinovic in 1994.
In 2010, Bob Bradley called seven players into a hotel conference room in Hartford, Connecticut, one by one for post-midnight meetings after a friendly against the Czech Republic and told them they wouldn’t be going to the World Cup in South Africa. The group that missed included Alejandro Bedoya, Brian Ching, Eddie Johnson, Sacha Kljestan and Robbie Rogers.
A larger training camp squad would enable Pochettino and his staff to evaluate injured players with potential replacements on site.
“For me, it’s easier to call more players than 26, but I think I need to think (terms of) the human being and desire and not to be cruel,” Pochettino said, adding he didn’t want the camp to become: “You train, you train and you train. You go home. It’s tough.”
Pochettino has selected 71 players since taking over as coach in October 2024. Teams must submit a preliminary roster of 55 players to FIFA before selecting a final group of at most 26.
The U.S. Soccer Federation is planning for players to report to its new complex in Fayetteville, Georgia, for training to start on May 27. The Americans likely will have two friendlies before their World Cup opener on June 12 at Inglewood, California.
How the group gets along will be a factor.
“You cannot be Harry Potter, no? — and you touch and say: create chemistry,” Pochettino said.
Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Antonee Robinson and Chris Richards are among the missing players in this camp.
“No one can feel safe,” Pochettino said. “The federation is bigger than the names. That is the national team. That is the representation of the country. It’s everyone.”
His roster includes Gio Reyna and Sebastian Berhalter, whose parents feuded after Reyna got little playing time at the 2022 World Cup and then-coach Gregg Berhalter nearly sent the young midfielder home. The spat cost Berhalter his job for a half-year, and he then was fired after first-round elimination at the Copa America and replaced by Pochettino.
“I hear something, but for me it’s not important,” Pochettino said of the dispute. “These two guys are really intelligent and very clever. I think if something happened, for sure we are mature enough to deal with that.”
Pochettino’s method to reach players includes his news conferences, messages through the media to both players in camp and those omitted and remaining with their clubs.
After Saturday’s game and Tuesday’s match against Uruguay, only a pair of March friendlies will remain before Pochettino picks his World Cup roster. Defender Tim Ream, the 38-year-old U.S. captain, said the team talked about thinking of the time period remaining as “10 training sessions.”
“When you talk about number of games, number of training sessions, number of camps, it’s knocking on our door,” he said.
Dwindling time until final roster decisions has impacted practice.
“I don’t know if it’s desperation, I think it’s just — it’s an intense focus,” Ream said. “There’s a little bit more bite in trainings. There’s intensity. There’s more aggressiveness. Guys are doing everything they possibly can to be a part of the team. And I think as we’ve gotten closer and closer, you see that more and more. And that’s a good thing. Guys are desperate to be part of their group and be a part of a team and be part a World Cup on home soil.”
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