Arya News - “I was watching ‘Miracle’ and I listened from the coach when he said, ‘We don’t need the best players; we need the right players to make a team a strong team,’” Pochettino said, echoing the message of Herb Brooks, played by Kurt Russell, about assembling the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, which won the gold medal.
With the World Cup draw — aka FIFA’s gratuitous circus — complete and the next training camp three-plus months away, U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino will put most of his immediate efforts into evaluating players competing for clubs on both sides of the Atlantic.
And as the moment for selecting next summer’s squad inches closer, Pochettino is drawing from an American coach — who decades ago faced long odds in a different international sporting arena — in composing his 26-man roster.
“I was watching ‘Miracle’ and I listened from the coach when he said, ‘We don’t need the best players; we need the right players to make a team a strong team,’” Pochettino said, echoing the message of Herb Brooks, played by Kurt Russell, about assembling the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, which won the gold medal.
“Good and right,” Pochettino added, “are completely different.”
A first-time national team coach, Pochettino has a finite player pool. This isn’t Chelsea or Paris Saint-Germain, where talent is purchased to fit a coach’s needs. With a national team, what Pochettino sees is what he gets. And from what he has, he must make the most of it through, not just talent, but chemistry.
Things have come together nicely in recent months and, with a five-game unbeaten streak against World Cup-bound teams, confidence and optimism is swelling. Now comes Pochettino’s time to narrow focus and think about which players, regardless of club affiliation and past accomplishments, are right for the World Cup campaign.
With Major League Soccer entering the offseason and Mexico’s Liga MX nearing its winter pause, Pochettino will, for the time being, concentrate exclusively on his European-based players in league play and continental competitions.
USMNT hopeful Sebastian Berhalter squared off with Lionel Messi in Saturday"s MLS Cup.
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
On Friday night, after attending the World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Pochettino flew to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for Saturday’s MLS Cup. He watched one serious World Cup roster hopeful ( Sebastian Berhalter ) and two fringe candidates ( Brian White and Tristan Blackmon ) from the Vancouver Whitecaps lose to Inter Miami, which was loaded with Pochettino’s Argentine compatriots. White assisted on the equalizer early in the second half.
With the season over, the three Whitecaps and at least a dozen other MLS players in the U.S. player pool will not return to competitive play until February. Some will start early in the month for the CONCACAF Champions Cup and others will debut late in the month for the start of the 2026 regular season.
Either way, they will need to hit the ground running to make an impression before Pochettino selects his training camp roster for the Belgium and Portugal friendlies in late March in Atlanta — the last get-together before he selects his World Cup squad in late May.
In Europe over the weekend …
Injuries sidelined forward Folarin Balogun (Monaco), midfielder-defender Tanner Tessmann (Olympique Lyonnais) and midfielders Aidan Morris (Middlesbrough) and Johnny Cardoso (Atletico Madrid).
Antonee Robinson , who hasn’t played for the U.S. team in more than a year, continues his recovery from a knee ailment that has kept him off Fulham’s gameday squad for two months.
England
Leeds midfielder Brendan Aaronson was involved in a wild one against Liverpool, entering in the 65th minute and assisting on Anton Stach’s 75th-minute goal to cap a two-goal comeback. After the visitors went back ahead in the 80th, Leeds tied it again deep in stoppage time.
Bournemouth midfielder Tyler Adams served a yellow-card suspension and missed a 0-0 draw with Chelsea. Center back Chris Richards went the distance as fourth-place Crystal Palace won at Fulham, 2-1.
Striker Haji Wright returned from a three-game injury absence, entering in the 75th minute of front-running Coventry City’s 3-0 loss at Ipswich Town, a result that ended a five-game winning streak.
Striker Josh Sargent ended a 15-game scoring rut for club and country, tallying on a diving header in the 11th minute of Norwich City’s 3-2 loss at Watford. It was the sixth league goal for Norwich, which sits second to last in the 24-team league. Forward Patrick Agyemang played 90 minutes in Derby County’s 3-1 loss to Leicester City.
Italy
Having recovered from a minor leg injury that forced him to miss last weekend’s Serie A match, Christian Pulisic has been cleared to join his AC Milan teammates for Monday’s match at Torino after an illness initially threatened to sideline him.
Midfielder Weston McKennie (90 minutes) provided a fine assist on Juventus’ second-half equalizer, but Napoli prevailed, 2-1.
Yunus Musah was left on the bench for Atalanta’s 3-1 loss at Hellas Verona.
Netherlands
In his second consecutive start, Ricardo Pepi scored again and logged 90 minutes for first-place PSV Eindhoven during a 2-0 victory at Heerenveen. A substitute most of the season, Pepi (five league goals) is bolstering his prospects of becoming one of Pochettino’s top three strikers along with Balogun and Wright.
Right back Sergiño Dest made his seventh straight 90-minute appearance for PSV, which, at 13-1-1, has won nine straight in the league and is unbeaten in 14 in a row overall.
France
Center back Mark McKenzie remains a fixture for Toulouse, going the distance in a 1-0 victory over Strasbourg, while Tim Weah went 90 in third-place Olympique Marseille’s 1-0 defeat at Lille.
Germany
Coming off an impressive showing at U.S. camp in November, Gio Reyna made his second consecutive Bundesliga start for Mönchengladbach in a 1-0 victory at Mainz. Teammate Joe Scally , a right back, played 90 minutes.
In a match featuring Americans on either side, defender Noahkai Banks (90 minutes) and Augsburg got the better of midfielder Malik Tillman (81) and Bayer Leverkusen, 2-0. Midfielder James Sands went 73 minutes in St. Pauli’s 1-1 draw at Köln, while in the second division, left wing back John Tolkin was replaced at halftime of Holstein Keil’s 1-1 draw at Braunschweig.
Others
In Scotland, center back Auston Trusty logged another 90 in Celtic’s 2-1 loss to Hearts, spoiling Wilfried Nancy’s coaching debut following his departure from the Columbus Crew. … Club América winger Alex Zendejas is on break between Liga MX’s split seasons.