ATLANTA – The U.S. men’s national team of today may not be the U.S. men’s national team of a year ago, head coach Mauricio Pochettino’s months of experimentation ensuring the team undeniably has a new tactical look ahead of a World Cup on home soil. As the team’s back line collapsed on Saturday against Belgium as they turned a 1-0 lead into a 5-2 defeat, though, it was hard not to ask a question that had been asked time and time again.
Can the USMNT rise to the occasion if they are missing even one or two key players?
Coming into this month’s friendlies against Belgium and Portugal, Pochettino hoped so, to the point that it was an expressed objective of his final camp before naming his World Cup roster. The last few months offered some signals that they could – Pochettino introduced a wide array of players into the fold, many of whom are on the fringes of the player pool, and exited 2025 on a five game unbeaten run. Before the teams hit the pitch on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, it felt like they stood a chance. Mainstays like Christian Pulisic were back in the mix, while Antonee Robinson’s long-awaited return from a knee injury was a boon to a more dynamic version of the national team. There was just one problem – the USMNT may have had their standouts but they had also upped the ante by booking Belgium, an important test but one they ultimately failed.
“For many moments of the game, I think we played with the rhythm and the speed that the game required,” Pochettino said post-match, more as a matter-of-fact than with noticeably harsh undertones. “The problem was to keep that intensity … That is the challenge and I think it’s a good reality check for us.”
There were flickers of promise – they went toe-to-toe with Belgium in the first half, Robinson and fellow wingback Tim Weah flying down the flanks to create meaningful attacking opportunities. Robinson eventually did so clinically with an inswinging corner that Weston McKennie turned into the back of the net. Belgium had their own flickers, too, first with a goal from Zeno Debast just before the break.
The USMNT’s flame flickered out, though, as Belgium went from 2-1 up to 3-1 up in a matter of minutes and all before the hour mark. Even as injuries have forced players to come and go from the roster in the last year and change, never had the USMNT missed its presumed World Cup starters like they had today. Johnny Cardoso was quietly solid as a defensive midfielder before a planned halftime substitution, holding the spot down while Tyler Adams misses the international break with a short-term quadricep issue. Behind him, though, the absences were more glaring. With injuries to Chris Richards and Miles Robinson, Pochettino had to go down the depth chart – Tim Ream is a regular but he played next to frequent call-up Mark McKenzie while Tanner Tessman pitched in. Tessman’s stock has gone up in recent months with respectable shifts in midfield and has played at center back for Lyon but against Belgium, he did not have his finest outing.
“Tanner, it’s true that I think he can do better,” Pochettino said. “I saw him play better games than today but it’s not only to see that he needs to improve. I think all the players need to improve. The circumstances can always affect, no? When you change the habits and when you change the places, the expectation is always [that] you need time. One of the good things is that we are going to have two, three weeks before the World Cup and I think we can put [them] all on the same level but in this type of situation, when he was playing a lot and then didn’t play or played in different positions and come here and play sometimes to get the rhythm you have is difficult.”
Matt Turner, the USMNT’s longtime starter in goal until last June, was thrown back into the mix after Matt Freese grabbed the role with two hands. Turner may still have a place on the World Cup roster but he, too, did not impress – like the defenders in front of him, he was slow to react and has now conceded nine goals in his last two games for the national team. Pochettino was practical in reviewing Turner’s performance, but refused to actually assess it.
“I think it’s good to see him perform after a long period,” the coach said. “We all know that he has experience in the national team and in the previous World Cup and that is a point that we need to use — use being in the starting 11 or not. I think Matt Freese was playing a lot in the last year with us. I think we thought that was necessary to provide opportunity to another ‘keeper, checking because for the World Cup, circumstances can happen … It’s better that happened here.”
Turner, though, is just one of a handful of players who failed their auditions and seem resigned to bench spots at this summer’s tournament. There is one issue, though – the USMNT’s road to the World Cup has been defined by players who have missed time through injuries, so much so that it is hard to envision a fully fit version of the team hitting the pitch in three months’ time. Pochettino has been prudent to give everyone a chance but it is hard to shake the feeling that the USMNT are one team when they have all their first-choice players and a very different team without it.
The game itself offered a microcosm of that theory when Robinson came off Max Arfsten after Belgium went up 3-1, the Columbus Crew defender unable to replicate the skill of his more experienced teammate on either side of the ball. Within a few minutes of entering the match, Dodi Lukebakio outdid him on the wing to give the visitors a 4-1 lead. The energy had been sucked out of the building, filled by a pro-U.S. crowd, and out of the home team in the process.
The U.S. team also looks like a lesser version of themselves without Richards, the argument that he may just be the group’s most important player only bolstered by Saturday’s defensive showing. Tessman’s outing was unimpressive but so was Ream’s, Father Time having already caught up to the 38-year-old some time ago, no matter how frequently he plays or how likely he is to start at the World Cup.
Pochettino was insistent that there were positives to take away and lessons to be learned, and there were. Weah also made the point that sometimes, there is nothing one can do when an attacker of Jeremy Doku is opposite you on a pitch.
“In situations where you have guys like Doku who can expose you in different ways, trying to get more guys out there to where he doesn’t have the freedom to get close to our box and dribble and accelerate,” Weah said. “Those are little things you can adjust in training. I think this is the first time we’ve played such a prolific winger like that.”
There is a harsh truth in that observation, too. There are certainly adjustments to be made, adjustments that would add to the improvements Pochettino has undoubtedly made to the national team in his year and change in the job. The USMNT are a better team than they once were but it is hard to quit the feeling that their ceiling is only so high – it may take Herculean efforts to beat teams like Belgium, which does not mean a deep run in this World Cup or any is inherently impossible. It is unlikely, though, no matter how hard they try.
“We just need to be more clinical in the final third on both sides and we needed to lay our bodies on the line a little bit more defensively,” Turner said. “Of course, I wish I was able to make one or two more saves and absolutely, we all have to look into the mirror and be self-aware and evaluate ourselves and we can’t hide from it. At the end of the day when you’re on the pitch, there’s nowhere to hide.”
