Two short weeks before the U.S. men’s national team names its World Cup roster at a celebratory event in New York, it comes as little surprise that a batch of head coach Mauricio Pochettino’s decisions may go down to the wire. What’s particularly revealing is which decisions still hang in the balance at this juncture, and one crucial set of selections in particular — the players who will make up the USMNT’s attacking midfield contingent, a battle that once seemed settled but now feels anything but.
Once upon a time, Malik Tillman seemed to be peaking at the right time. The breakout star of last summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup and the recipient of a move from PSV to Bayer Leverkusen days after the final, the 23-year-old was well on track to play a central role in the USMNT’s attacking operation by the time the World Cup came around. Making things all the more notable, it was a job where Gio Reyna’s name was once penciled in, the longtime national team participant perhaps on the outside looking in at a World Cup roster spot as Tillman’s star was rising.
As a World Cup on home soil rapidly approaches, though, there appears to be one more twist in the tale. Tillman still felt like the frontrunner as recently as late March, starting in each of the USMNT’s friendlies against Belgium and Portugal while Reyna played a combined 31 minutes in two appearances off the bench, but a different story has played out in the final weeks of the Bundesliga season. Tillman has gone from starter to substitute at Leverkusen since the international break, a role Reyna has played all season with Borussia Monchengladbach in another injury-saddled campaign. On top of that, Reyna has played more minutes — 88 in five games — since the start of April than Tillman, who is clocking in at 71 minutes in six matches.
It has refreshed the battle for a spot in the USMNT’s midfield in the final weeks before the World Cup, a midfield where no fewer than nine players will compete for a variety of roles that only a few are guaranteed to fall short of. There is perhaps room for both Tillman and Reyna on the roster, while someone like Real Salt Lake’s Diego Luna might also have a say in the matter; only one, though, will be the USMNT’s de facto starter and soak up the majority of the minutes during a high-stakes World Cup.
Tillman and the case for consistency
Pochettino has experimented thoroughly with his team since assuming the helm in Oct. 2024. Tillman, one of the early benefactors of his open-door policy, notched three goals and three assists in eight games last summer, including the USMNT’s pre-Gold Cup friendlies against Turkiye and Switzerland. His strong start with Leverkusen only seemed to validate Pochettino’s trust, as well as the idea that Tillman was ready for a larger stage after a successful spell with PSV.
“I would say my goal was to [be] playing on a high level consistently, every single game, do the best I can and always give 100 percent,” Tillman said earlier this season. “If I I do that, then I think – if I’m honest, I’m a good player so if I give my 100 percent, I think I can help any team in this world so it’s more about being consistent on the pitch, off the pitch and just trying to give my best in every every single minute and this is what I’m still trying to do. I know I still have a lot to learn. I can still improve a lot but as I said, it’s more about being consistent over and over again.”
There was a tactical advantage to joining Leverkusen, too. Coach Kasper Hjulmand, who succeeded Erik ten Hag after he was fired just two games into his tenure, has utilized a back three formation at times this season, unintentionally creating continuity for Tillman at the club and national team level. Pochettino introduced a similar formation last fall, including during their five-game unbeaten run to close out 2025.
“To be honest, I never played three at the back in my life before, so this was new, and I think for me, my position is different to what I’ve experienced so far, but it’s more or less the same,” Tillman said. “It’s in between the lines, it’s central, and we always want to play a dominant game. We want to have possession as much as possible. We want to score goals. We want to play an attractive, offensive football, so I think this suits me very well … I really like the system.”
Tillman has eight goals across all competitions this season, behind only Patrik Schick and Alex Grimaldo during an up-and-down campaign for him and his club. The 23-year-old has dealt with a batch of short-term injuries and now has been resigned to a spot on the bench, all while Leverkusen are on the outside looking in at a berth in next season’s edition of the UEFA Champions League. They host the solidly midtable Hamburg on the final day of the season on Saturday, needing a win – plus a Stuttgart loss to Eintracht Frankfurt and a Hoffenheim loss to Borussia Monchengladbach – to get there, which would put a positive spin on a year defined by rebuilding.
Recent patterns suggest Tillman may not start again on Saturday, but the last year’s worth of work means he is more likely to make the World Cup team than not, and is perhaps still favored to be a starter when the tournament gets underway. The generous read of the post-Gold Cup period is that Tillman was at least ambitious enough to take on a series of new challenges, even if he has yet to fully master them. He said he still carries the lessons of a formative two-year spell at PSV, where he improved his finishing ability and his prowess on free kicks, as well as the off-field commitments needed to excel at the highest levels. Tillman has both his own physio and his own chef, adding new professional layers to his routine at a pivotal point in his career.
“He always had his goal,” Tillman’s older brother Timmy, who plays for MLS side LAFC, said. “He always has his high ambitions, and he does everything he needs to do for that, to reach these goals, and he also doesn’t get distracted in any ways. I think he has a clear view, a clear mindset when it comes to that, and that’s what I really like about him and what I’m really proud of him doing.”
Can Reyna realize his potential?
While Tillman’s skillset is a fairly new consideration for a generation of national team players who first broke on the scene in 2019, Reyna has been a known quantity stuck in a familiar but unideal pattern. The 23-year-old has the type of natural talent that always keeps him in the mix, to the point that his nine goals in 36 international appearances showcase an ability to perform even when other things are not going his way. Those other things, though, have been harder and harder to ignore as he transitions from prodigy to experienced professional — injuries have hindered his ability to play frequently, but he was often out of favor when he was fit.
He averaged just 18 games a season for Borussia Dortmund in six seasons before leaving for Gladbach this summer, and he will only get up to 20 this campaign if he plays against Hoffenheim on Saturday. Reyna, though, is in the midst of his most consistent run of playing time since December, and coupled that with his first goal of the campaign in last week’s 3-1 loss at Augsburg.
“For me, obviously, I came here to play more, was a bit unfortunate with two injuries that weren’t great timing,” Reyna said on Tuesday. “The last couple of weeks, it’s been very good for myself to get more minutes and to have some good performances. The season’s coming to an end now, so hopefully we can just finish off with one more good game this weekend for the team and individually also, and then hope to go to the World Cup and continue with the form that I feel like I’m building on, and then will be ready for whatever happens.”
The World Cup bookended each response, top of mind despite his best efforts “not to let it sort of take over my day and stress me out too much.” Four years after a World Cup where he played a minimal role on the field but was a focal point in a feud between his parents and then-USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter, Reyna’s ask is a simple one: to be a part of this summer’s group, no matter the role.
“[I’m] just really trying to do whatever it can, whatever I can to help the team achieve something great, whether it’s starting and playing 90 minutes or just supporting from the bench and not playing at all,” he said. “I think we all have this mindset, and I think this is one of our strengths, and that can collectively bring us to have success.”
The argument in Reyna’s favor is also one that applies to the team as a whole, one that is likely to boast several members from the team that competed in Qatar in 2022. Berhalter’s squad was one of the youngest at the last World Cup and may be shaking off the inexperience at just the right time, even if Reyna and a handful of his teammates are still fairly young.
“I think just individually and collectively, we were all very, very young and maybe a little bit inexperienced at the time and then in the end, it sort of just happened that we came up against a Holland team that was a little bit more experienced, a little bit better, a little bit more savvy with the game,” he said as he recalled the USMNT’s 3-1 defeat in the round of 16. “It was almost too much for us. It’s a World Cup, obviously. It’s an amazing experience. I learned so much from that. Of course, we’d want to play more in this upcoming tournament but at the same time, you learn that you’re just trying to do whatever you can to help the team and this is your whole country that’s fighting for something great in our home country, too, so it’s a dream come true just to be there. It’s just about the collective. It’s about the team doing whatever we can to produce something special for our country.”
Reyna was a regular inclusion for Berhalter when fit but things have been less clear since Pochettino took over, at one point spending eight months out of the team last year. Pochettino called him up in November and March, though, suggesting Reyna may still have a shot even if it is unclear how sizable his chances are.
“I have a very good relationship with Mauricio,” he said. “It’s just every coach works a little differently and it doesn’t really matter if he’s communicating when we’re here away from the camp, but when we’re in camp, he’s very invested, very communicative, very open and honest with what he wants to see from the team and from players individually, so I have a great relationship with him.”
He is noticeably uncertain about what his plans will be this summer; the tension between natural talent and match fitness likely to force Pochettino into a major judgment call one way or another. There are no questions about where he wants to be, though, doing what he can to strike the balance as a quintessential World Cup hopeful.
“If I say no, I’m not backing myself and if I say yes, it’s the arrogant answer where I feel like I should be there,” he said about whether or not he has done enough to crack the roster. “Keep it pretty simple – I love the staff. I love the players. I love the national team. Obviously, whatever happens happens. Really hoping and wanting to be there to make an impact and achieve something great with the team but the decision is out of my hands and obviously just really hoping and waiting for the call-up would be an honor.”
